Introducing Tungo Boffin!
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:23 pm
If we ever get an Other Free Peoples subforum, feel free to move this. Until then...
When approaching a new interpretation, I like to look for what I call ‘wildcards’, or what might more accurately be termed ‘blank spaces’ within an existing framework. As with my Woodman impression (a group which exists on the periphery but still within a fleshed-out context), I turned my attention to the Shire and thought about any gaps that I might be able to fit into.
I knew when starting this project that I was going to have to come up with a persona with some Stoorish blood (to allow for my beard, though it is not at all ‘downy’), and an Eastfarthing or Buckland upbringing (because I am really a river person!).
Luckily for me, Tolkien worked out family trees for several of the Shire’s most prominent families, and that of the Boffin and Brandybuck clans (with some extrapolation) seemed to fit the bill.
While they seem to be primarily of Harfoot stock*, the Boffins’ home base, The Yale, is located in the Eastfarthing, while their male names are nice and hobbit-nonsense-y (unlike the ridiculous ‘heroic’ Fallohide-y names of the Tooks and Bolgers!). And conveniently for me, the Boffin family tree includes a prominent ‘VARIOUS DESCENDANTS’! Hello, wildcard!
*The HoME Volume 12 section dealing with Appendix F (languages) contains an entry (which did not make it into the published appendix) which suggests that the original name Bophîn was “of Harfoot originâ€; and the Prologue states this type of hobbit is said to be the most typical and numerous (ergo: common)!
So, I had my entry point—my hobbit persona would be one of Rollo Boffin’s ‘Various Descendants’. Now, what would this fellow be called? In that same section of Volume 12, I came across a reference to an authentic hobbitish word ‘tung’, ostensibly a word of Stoorish origin meaning ‘big’. Recognizing the penchant for Boffin males to be given short, nonsense names, and Tolkien’s Anglicization via the –o ending for male names, I decided on Tungo Boffin (authentic hobbit-Westron Tunga Bophîn/Bophan). The name is a bit of a pun, coming from a word that originally meant ‘big’, as I’m average size for a Man, but I’d still be pretty big for a hobbit! Ha-ha!
On the Nature side, Tungo comes from generally ‘common’ Harfoot stock on the paternal side (with a splash of Marish Stoor/Fallohide from grandma Puddifoot), and solid Stoor/Fallohide Brandybuck stock (accounting for my beard, complexion, and height) on the maternal side--Tungo's mother is descended from one of the unnamed daughters of Marmadoc Brandybuck and Adaldrida Bolger.
On the Nurture side, Tungo’s father (an Eastfarthing Boffin) died (I’m not sure how) when Tungo was young, so he and his mum and brother moved back to live with her kin in Buckland, ergo he was raised to be unafraid of boats, and can swim!
When approaching a new interpretation, I like to look for what I call ‘wildcards’, or what might more accurately be termed ‘blank spaces’ within an existing framework. As with my Woodman impression (a group which exists on the periphery but still within a fleshed-out context), I turned my attention to the Shire and thought about any gaps that I might be able to fit into.
I knew when starting this project that I was going to have to come up with a persona with some Stoorish blood (to allow for my beard, though it is not at all ‘downy’), and an Eastfarthing or Buckland upbringing (because I am really a river person!).
Luckily for me, Tolkien worked out family trees for several of the Shire’s most prominent families, and that of the Boffin and Brandybuck clans (with some extrapolation) seemed to fit the bill.
While they seem to be primarily of Harfoot stock*, the Boffins’ home base, The Yale, is located in the Eastfarthing, while their male names are nice and hobbit-nonsense-y (unlike the ridiculous ‘heroic’ Fallohide-y names of the Tooks and Bolgers!). And conveniently for me, the Boffin family tree includes a prominent ‘VARIOUS DESCENDANTS’! Hello, wildcard!
*The HoME Volume 12 section dealing with Appendix F (languages) contains an entry (which did not make it into the published appendix) which suggests that the original name Bophîn was “of Harfoot originâ€; and the Prologue states this type of hobbit is said to be the most typical and numerous (ergo: common)!
So, I had my entry point—my hobbit persona would be one of Rollo Boffin’s ‘Various Descendants’. Now, what would this fellow be called? In that same section of Volume 12, I came across a reference to an authentic hobbitish word ‘tung’, ostensibly a word of Stoorish origin meaning ‘big’. Recognizing the penchant for Boffin males to be given short, nonsense names, and Tolkien’s Anglicization via the –o ending for male names, I decided on Tungo Boffin (authentic hobbit-Westron Tunga Bophîn/Bophan). The name is a bit of a pun, coming from a word that originally meant ‘big’, as I’m average size for a Man, but I’d still be pretty big for a hobbit! Ha-ha!
On the Nature side, Tungo comes from generally ‘common’ Harfoot stock on the paternal side (with a splash of Marish Stoor/Fallohide from grandma Puddifoot), and solid Stoor/Fallohide Brandybuck stock (accounting for my beard, complexion, and height) on the maternal side--Tungo's mother is descended from one of the unnamed daughters of Marmadoc Brandybuck and Adaldrida Bolger.
On the Nurture side, Tungo’s father (an Eastfarthing Boffin) died (I’m not sure how) when Tungo was young, so he and his mum and brother moved back to live with her kin in Buckland, ergo he was raised to be unafraid of boats, and can swim!
