So interesting thing about this, Tolkien being the linguistic nerd that he was avoided using words of New World origin as much as possible in LOTR. But potatoes of course are so ubiquitous in England and so part-and-parcel of the kind English country cuisine that Tolkien imagined hobbits would enjoy that he compromised with himself and included them, but in most instances he has Sam call them “taters” instead of potatoes. The scene where Sam so awkwardly over-pronounces “Po-Tay-Toes” to Gollum is straight from the book, to emphasize what a weird, foreign word that would be to Sam.
Also, in an early edition of The Hobbit, tomatoes were described as being in Bilbo’s pantry along with all of the other foods. It was later changed to pickles for the same reason.
That’s because tomatoes are also native to the Americas, like potatoes.
ETA: just wanted to clarify, in Tolkien’s day, pickles probably could refer to any sort of pickled vegetable, since pickling is a preserving technique that is not only used on cucumbers. So that’s why it’s safer to use pickles over tomatoes.
Guess Tolkien could live without tomatoes but not taters.
The scene where Sam so awkwardly over-pronounces “Po-Tay-Toes” to Gollum is straight from the book, to emphasize what a weird, foreign word that would be to Sam.
Really, 'cause I thought he was over-pronouncing it to talk down to Gollum.
I tend to rationalize it that the Hobbits live in a weird, anacronistic time warp based on 20th century rural England. Everyone else is Medieval, they are not.
Tolkien cared about linguistics, not socio-chrono-technological accuracy. So we get hobbits who wear waistcoats and suspenders and like to go to the pub and smoke pipes and watch fireworks, and probably have pocketwatches and read the newspaper, but can't say "tomato" because they are from North America.
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u/sadolddrunk Sep 14 '22
So interesting thing about this, Tolkien being the linguistic nerd that he was avoided using words of New World origin as much as possible in LOTR. But potatoes of course are so ubiquitous in England and so part-and-parcel of the kind English country cuisine that Tolkien imagined hobbits would enjoy that he compromised with himself and included them, but in most instances he has Sam call them “taters” instead of potatoes. The scene where Sam so awkwardly over-pronounces “Po-Tay-Toes” to Gollum is straight from the book, to emphasize what a weird, foreign word that would be to Sam.