Tolkien Week
is typically celebrated with events
centred on the books from the
Middle-Earth cycle: The
Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord
of the Rings trilogy,
Unfinished Tales, and The
History of Middle-earth.
Libraries, schools, bookstores and book
clubs host readings and discussions,
keep volumes on display; scholarly
seminars (on every facet of the lives
and works of JRR Tolkien and his
son/editor Christopher) are hosted at
universities and other institutions.
Fans of the Peter Jackson movie
adaptations, on the other hand, hold
marathon screenings of all the films
from the Hobbit and
LoTR set. The most
dedicated fans engage in cosplay and
prepare meals that resemble the ones
from Middle-earth.
This last is
not as whimsical a notion as it seems.
Several websites owe their existence to
cataloguing Tolkien’s references to
Middle-earth’s cuisine. The best among
them contain entire recipes —
categorised under ‘drinks and
appetisers’, ‘breads’, ‘cookies and
cakes’, ‘desserts and pies’, ‘mains’,
‘vegetables’, ‘soups and salads’,
‘preserves and miscellaneous’. So if you
want to recreate Beorn’s honey nut cake,
or Goldberry’s pie, or Frodo’s scones,
or some good old Shire Pudding — you
have step-wise instructions on how to do
so (including handy conversions to
microwave wattage for these Modern-earth
times).
Of course,
even with recipes and instructions,
putting together a day’s menu that might
please the hungriest of hobbits might be
a bit tough, considering they eat six
(or seven, if you go by the movies)
meals a day. There’s breakfast, second
breakfast, elevenses, luncheon,
afternoon tea, dinner and/or
supper.
Then there’s
the fact that hobbits would rather err
on the side of plenty when it comes to
setting their tables for guests. When
Bilbo (unwillingly) ends up hosting a
“throng” of dwarves and Gandalf to an
impromptu tea party at Bag’s End, at the
very beginning of The Hobbit,
no fewer than 16 items are served:
There’s cake (regular), tea, beer, seed
cake, ale, porter, coffee, buttered
scones, red wine, raspberry jam and
apple tarts, mince pies and cheese, pork
pie and salad, eggs, cold chicken,
pickles, and biscuits.
Despite
Bilbo’s fears of his larder being quite
depleted, there’s enough left for the
party of 14 to breakfast heartily in the
morning before they set off on their
journey. As for the late-to-awaken Bilbo
himself, unfortunately he has to leave
his second breakfast half-finished to
make it in time for his meeting with the
dwarves. After all, he has a dragon to
deal with.
For
food stories, recipes and meal
plans visit the Slurrp website
or download the
app.
