According to the Prologue to The Lord of the Rings, the sea is a symbol of death to hobbits (FR Pr. 07). We tend to imagine mythical explanations for this perspective. From the Odyssey to Beowulf, the sea has often had associations with death. It's understandable. The sea is vast. It never rests. And it is not your friend. Water always wins. Even in Tolkien's legendarium, west across the sea is the direction the Elves sail off in never to return, and west across the sea lay the great island of Númenor that disappeared beneath the waves long ago. Hearing such stories even remotely, those who knew nothing of the sea, like the hobbits who came to Eriador from beyond the Misty Mountains, couldn't be blamed for thinking the sea was a place to avoid. It might even explain why some of the Stoors turned around and went back over the mountains.
I am here to set the record straight, because the real reason is much simpler than that. The evidence speaks plainly.
- "Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report on it."
- Frodo's parents both fell into the Brandywine River and drowned.
- Even the rumor of this struck terror into the evening crowd at The Ivy Bush.
- After Bilbo's disappearance from the Shire, some insisted that he must have "run off.... and undoubtedly fallen into a pool or a river, and come to a tragic, but hardly an untimely, end."
- Pippin's great great uncle Hildefons "went off on a journey and never returned,"
- Sam leaps into the Anduin to try to catch Frodo before he can paddle away. and he sinks immediately. Frodo has to save him from drowning.
Clearly, Hobbits are negatively buoyant.
They sink like a stone.
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Dear internet: this is a joke, ok?
Joe Hoffman, this one's for you.