Signal Boost: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

[beatrice_otter]

 

legionseagle posted: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

 

There are – if one stretches a point to include spits and hisses – nine female speaking roles in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings; one Ring-bearer, elvish (Galadriel), one princess, ditto (Arwen), one River's daughter, species unclear but evidently soggy (Goldberry), one shield-maiden of Rohan (Eowyn), one right pain in the backside (Ioreth), one gigantic spider (Shelob) and three hobbits – Rosie Cotton, Mrs Maggot and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins.

Of the nine, only four could be said to have been given anything resembling a personality by the author. Given how few her appearances on the page are, Lobelia shines through as a genuine three-dimensional personality and one deserving of considerably more fandom love than she ever gets.

Ah, people will no doubt say to this, what does Lobelia Sackville-Baggins ever do to deserve love? Did she not try, graspingly, to seize Bag End from Bilbo's still-living hands while he'd been off doing battle with Smaug, purloin his spoons, attempt to make off with various random objets d'art inside her umbrella immediately after the Party and play a leading role in the destruction of the Shire by Sharkey and his thugs?

To which the answers are: did she cocoa, almost certainly not, yes but with strong extenuating circumstances and Hell! No.

 

I was recently reminded of this, and it was written almost a decade ago, but it is still one of my absolute favorite pieces of fannish meta ever created.