[Sca-cooks] Food in Tolkien(OOP) but event related....

[Jessica Tiffin]

At 10:47 AM 2/22/04 -0600, Andrea wrote:
>I am working from English recipes mostly given Tolkien was South African with
>English background (and lived there afterward), but it's a proving a
>challenge (I don't do fantasy things- I came into the SCA for historical 
>reasons).

Not South African in background, really - Tolkien was about three years old 
when he left South Africa.  His formative cultural experiences are English 
as anything, and the food he tends to describe is very hearty, simple, 
country English in flavour.  He uses New World ingredients, so I think 
hobbit cuisine at least is probably meant to represent farm cooking from 
something around the 18th century.  Gondor, on the other hand, seems to be 
more high medieval.

In addition to what's already been said, here's a random 
selection.  (Luckily I've read LotR very recently, as I'm working on a 
paper on the films.)
The Prancing Pony feeds the hobbits hot soup, bread and cheese, cold meat, 
blackberry tart and ale.
Farmer Maggot feeds them "a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon."
Tom Bombadil gives them bread and cheese, herbs, cream, berries and honeycomb.
Sam offers to make Gollum fish and chips.
Denethor, in Minas Tirith, starves Pippin with only wine and cakes for 
breakfast.  The soldiers, under the seige, eat bread, cheese and apples.
Lembas, the way-bread of the elves, is described as "thin cakes, made of a 
meal that was baked a light brown on the outside, and inside was the colour 
of cream."
The Beornings are described as making honey-cakes.
Sam cooks rabbit stew for Frodo, and is annoyed that he can only find herbs 
to add to it, no onions or potatoes.
And, as inspiration, Bilbo's party feast is "rich, abundant, varied and 
prolongued."

have fun!
JdH

Jehanne de Huguenin (Jessica Tiffin) * Drachenwald Kingdom Chronicler
Shire of Adamastor, Cape Town, South Africa
melisant at iafrica.com ***  http://users.iafrica.com/m/me/melisant
We are modern people with egalitarian instincts deliberately creating a 
society that combines feel-good communalism with hierarchical, exclusionary 
elitism. It should not be surprising that it leads to the occasional 
cognitive dissonance. (Tangwystl verch Morgan Glasvryn, Silverwing's Laws 90).