Out of the blue, as I walked to the bus stop this morning, it stuck me how funny that moment is in The Fellowship of the Ring movie when the hobbits are drinking beer at the Prancing Pony. From memory, it goes something like this: Merry joins the other hobbits at their table with a pint of beer. Pippin asks, “What’s that?”, to which Merry replies, “This, my friend, is a pint.” Pippin says, “It comes in pints? I’m getting one” and heads to the bar with Sam calling after him: “You’ve had a whole half already!”
While the idea that Hobbits only drink half of what Men drink, and have therefore never come across a pint of beer is a delightful little detail, it is Sam’s notion of a “whole half pint” that makes the joke truly funny. Sam’s character – and that of Hobbits in general – is summarized by that phrase, which suggests that the species has a severely restricted and incurious perception of the world – they are content with the idea that half is whole.
Orienteering 