Iodo wrote:there are some things on there that I didn't expect, like coffee, for some reason I have always thought of that as something that wouldn't be in middle earth and I'm a bit disappointed to see that chocolate isn't on there, hot chocolate is one of my favorite things to brew mid trek
I'm as surprised as you. It's from the first chapter of
The Hobbit:
Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes; so the hobbit was kept very busy for a while.
Coffee originates in Etheopia, and it's pretty well established that Harad is not so remote as to make commerce impossible. Cocoa is a South American plant. That said, coffee (like tea, for that matter) is a relatively recent import to Europe, and a bit anachronistic...but then, much in the Shire is. If you want to call your hot cocoa "Southron Sweet coffee" or similar, I won't tell.
Straelbora wrote:Can we infer the presence of cotton from Rosie Cotton's last name? Are there any other names that do this, among Hobbits or Men?
I've sen it mentioned several times on here that the professor specifically said in a letter that cotton never made its way to Middle-earth.
That makes Rosie's surname a bit startling, I'll grant you, but here's what Behindthename.com has to say about the surname Cotton:
English: habitational name from any of numerous places named from Old English cotum (dative plural of cot) ‘at the cottages or huts’ (or sometimes possibly from a Middle English plural, coten).
Meanwhile, the plant's name is dreived, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary,
from Old French coton (12c.), ultimately (via Provenal, Italian, or Old Spanish) from Arabic qutn, a word perhaps of Egyptian origin.
I'm a bit annoyed that they don't define any of those words, but the upshot is that "Cotton" as a name has a completely different lineage than the plant.