What actually is Pipeweed?

what actually is pipeweed it's central to hobbit culture but was it just tobacco or something else hi everyone this is robert welcome to in deep geek on this channel we cover the best in fantasy and science fiction books and tv shows the lord of the rings a song of ice and fire the witcher and so on if you like the sound of that there's a subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen pipeweed is important in the lord of the rings in fact tolkien even devoted an entire chapter of his prologue to the subject one chapter was about hobbits generally one about the finding of the ring one about the shire and one about pipeweed he clearly wanted readers to understand what it was before the story started he sets out the history of the leaf as he calls it or rather mary does in his herblore of the shire for ages folk in the shire smoked various herbs some fowler some sweeter but all accounts agree that tobold hornblower of longbottom in the south fathing first grew the true pipeweed in his gardens in the days of eisengrim ii about the year 1070 of shire reckoning that's 350 years or so before the events of the lord of the rings the best home grown still comes from that district especially the varieties now known as long bottom leaf old toby and southern star how old toby came by the plant is not recorded for to his dying day he would not tell he knew much about herbs but he was no traveller so the practice of smoking herbs of various types was long established among the hobbits by the time pipeweed first appeared sadly we have no more detail on exactly what those herbs were but pipeweed itself seems to have been brought in from brie that's the only place old toby ever visited apparently and the bree hobbits claim to be the first to have smoked it mary speculates though that pipeweed isn't native to bree or the shire it flourishes in warm sheltered places like longbottom in the shire but even more so to the south where it is warmer brie is situated just by the greenway the old great north-south road that linked the northern and southern kingdoms of arnold and gondor pipeweed grows wild and abundant and bigger in gondor although it isn't smoked there it's called sweet galenas and is basically just considered a nice smelling flower it's only when you head north to where it has to be proactively cultivated that it's used for smoking mary's final speculation is that perhaps it doesn't originally come from continental middle earth at all perhaps it was brought over from numenor by the men of the west hence its more common name in gondor westman's weed so that's the history of the herb or wheat it probably initially came from numenor then came across to gondor and flourished in the climate there before making its way up the great north-south road to the crossroads of brie and the prancing pony inn which still remains the home and center of the art of smoking pipeweed old toby took it west into the shire and started cultivating it as a new leaf to be smoked better than the other various herbs and leaves the hobbits had apparently been smoking before the hobbits developed it into what they considered to be an art form and those who passed through the shire or bree more often started taking to the habit too dwarves on their way to and from the blue mountains say or rangers or wizards like gandalf pipeweed's role in the story of the lord of the rings can sometimes pass you by if you're not looking for it but tolkien said that he included the prologue chapter about it because of its part to play in the story he clearly thought it important and its role is largely focused on sarah mann's relationship to the leaf sarah mann started off disliking it we get a snippet of a conversation he has with gandalf once in the book of unfinished tales where gandalf is smoking away and it clearly irritates sarah man gandalf says that it gives patience to listen to error without anger importantly he says that it is from the shire from here on sarah mann slowly catches on to gandalf's interest in the shire and try smoking pipeweed himself it's a bit petty but having scoffed at gandalf for smoking sarah man didn't want anyone to know that he did it now too so he turned into a secret smoker sending agents to the shire to bulk buy him barrels of pipeweed from the south farthing this becomes important because suddenly the people he is buying from become rather rich exporters of the leaf these were the brace girdles and the sackville baggins as gandalf became more and more focused on the shire and placed stronger defenses around it in the shape of the rangers saruman used his coin to strengthen his own position there after the sacking of isengard mary and pippin find some barrels of shire pipeweed there which is a clue to what has been going on although none of them really understand it at the time so when sarah mann fled isengard and took over the shire as sharky setting up the whole scouring of the shire at the end of the book it wasn't just a random choice of place to go or revenge on the hobbits he had laid the groundwork for it over a period of years pipeweed was the shire's only real export of any kind and saraman had cornered the market so what actually is pipeweed it seems to have had an inordinate impact on the world for such a humble substance was it just tobacco or was it perhaps something slightly more psychoactive well in terms of its effects on people it certainly seems relaxing and if not exactly addictive then certainly habit forming the hobbits and gandalf often talk about when they might next get some and when mary and pippin unexpectedly find the stash at isengard their delight is palpable but i'm afraid that the notion that pipeweed might be weed or something more doesn't seem to be backed up by the facts tolkien explicitly states in the prologue to the lord of the rings that it is probably a strain of nicotiana in other words a tobacco plant and when you think about it that does make perfect sense when tolkien was writing his stories in the 1930s and 40s other more psychotic smokable herbal plants weren't very common in the uk even in the university circles tolkien mixed in in fact cannabis for example was almost unheard of in the uk at that point tolkien himself was very fond of his pipe and smoking but all the evidence suggests that he only ever smoked tobacco leaf no the connection between pipe weed and weed is almost certainly a result of the 1960s and 70s counter-cultural following that the lord of the rings attracted more modern tolkien fans are probably also influenced by peter jackson's films which do little to dispel this connection sarah mann tells gandalf that his love of the halfling's leaf has slowed his mind mary and pippin seem very relaxed after smoking their long bottom leaf and in the hobbit films radagast's eyes seem to roll into the back of his head as he takes a toke on gandalf's pipe but all these seem to be just playful modern interpretations of tolkien's work not what he had originally intended he loved smoking tobacco in his pipe and made to the heroes of his story do and feel the same but having said that why not tolkien fans often defend fiercely what is or isn't canon but tolkien himself went to great pains to say that his stories were all about applicability he deliberately wrote his stories for his readers to take on for themselves not just be told what they mean like a cheap allegory i don't think tolkien would have objected to people taking whatever meaning they wish from the hobbit's love of pipeweed in fact i think he would have been delighted if they did pipeweed is a symbol of the hobbit's love of the good things in life just like their enjoyment of a pint down the green dragon inn or a good second breakfast when tolkien was writing about pipeweed he was almost certainly thinking about tobacco because for him that was one of his great enjoyments if when reading the lord of the rings or watching the movies you want to see it as something else that is good in life as long as it does no harm and brings people together to celebrate life and love i think tolkien would have been okay with that if you'd like to see more lord of the rings videos please click on the link on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or get access to some content i produce exclusively from my patrons please click on the link on the right of your screen that's all for this time thanks for watching and i'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 760,644

Rating: 4.9290614 out of 5

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, lotr, the lord of the rings, middle earth, shire, pipeweed, what is pipeweed, pipe weed, is pipeweed, longbottom leaf, old toby lord of the rings, longbottom leaf lord of the rings, old toby, south farthing

Id: hdOdRaDjYTg

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021