XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: pvstownsend.zyx.abc@ntlworld.com   
      
   Chris Hoelscher set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time   
   continuum:   
      
   > actually - the second question is from Many Meetings - when Galdalf says "   
   > There is a power, too, of another kind in the Shire"  - what has he   
   > referring to? the seemingly inherent resistance to evil in the Hobbits   
   > themselves? or some physical object? not the ring, it is not in the Shire   
   > ??   
      
   An unexpected and unknown species, who have not been directly enslaved by a   
   set of Rings. [1] They were unknown in the wider world, and most   
   importantly, there were none among the Enemy.   
      
      
      
   [1] I have withdrawn my earlier suggestion that the "missing" set of Five   
   Rings - not mentioned in the traditional enumeration of the Rings [2] -   
   were for the hobbits, a species unknown in the Second Age. Rather they were   
   for the Ents, with the effect of making them very tree-ish.   
      
   [2] The only surviving cultural reference to the Five is in a silly   
   cumulative song sung at Yuletide.   
   --   
   ξ: ) Proud to be curly   
      
   Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)