How halfling society works

Another quote from the article which stood out for me:

The giving and receiving of gifts was a very big thing in ancient Gaelic cultures - as a king or other high-ranking member of society, you were expected to regularly give out lavish gifts to show your prestige and prosperity, and a stingy king was not going to be well-respected.

(Irish legend is full of people being shamed or forced into giving up some of their most precious belongings by folks who gave them a gift they couldn't afford to match or who unwisely offered someone a gift of their choice.)
 

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The giving and receiving of gifts was a very big thing in ancient Gaelic cultures - as a king or other high-ranking member of society, you were expected to regularly give out lavish gifts to show your prestige and prosperity, and a stingy king was not going to be well-respected.

(Irish legend is full of people being shamed or forced into giving up some of their most precious belongings by folks who gave them a gift they couldn't afford to match or who unwisely offered someone a gift of their choice.)
Indeed - I imagine there are other societies where gift-giving from higher status to lower is important as well - you can trace it to the modern day even to some extent if you look at how organised crime figures are often quite generous to the local population.
 

The giving and receiving of gifts was a very big thing in ancient Gaelic cultures - as a king or other high-ranking member of society, you were expected to regularly give out lavish gifts to show your prestige and prosperity, and a stingy king was not going to be well-respected.
I seem to recall this is one of the ways Hrothgar is hyped up in Beowulf -- he's a good gift-giver.
 


I seem to recall this is one of the ways Hrothgar is hyped up in Beowulf -- he's a good gift-giver.
"Ring-giver" is the term mostly used in Old English, if I remember rightly. Golden rings and armbands being a great way to keep your wealth secure on your person.

But don't forget the feasting: that's why Hrothgar built Heorot, as a place to feast his people. The fact that Grendel interfered with this was what harmed Hrothgar's reputation as a great leader.
 


And the award for "too much time on their hands" goes to...

Hobbit society is late 19th central upper middle class rural England where Tolkien grew up. Trying to make more sense of it than that is like trying to figure out how hyperspace travel in Star Wars works.
 

Indeed - I imagine there are other societies where gift-giving from higher status to lower is important as well - you can trace it to the modern day even to some extent if you look at how organised crime figures are often quite generous to the local population.
Yeah largesse is pretty fundamental to maintaining social relations and status across all cultures, even moreso in subsistence agrarian societies where the generosity of the lord could be the difference between survival and starvation (and being given an extra shilling is great at any time).

One of the interesting things about the rise of the Squirearchy is that it was a phenomena that arose after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 where by Henry VIII seized the assets of some 600+ monastic communities and sold off their estates. Many of the buyers were Lawyers, Merchants and Government Officials seeking to both invest in property and gain prestige as land owners, however in order to claim that prestige they were not permitted to be 'in the trade' as farmers (which was beneath a gentlemen) and thus were required to both go into rent-gouging and rely on urban investments.
The gentry was thus a major cultural phenomena binding the rural and urban parts of England as well as the noble and commoner classes. They were also fundamental to the rise of capitalism as an idle 'investor' class socially barred from working for a living except as lawyers/government, military officers or clergy and as investors we eventually see the rise of chartered companies and company colonialism .
 
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And the award for "too much time on their hands" goes to...

Hobbit society is late 19th central upper middle class rural England where Tolkien grew up. Trying to make more sense of it than that is like trying to figure out how hyperspace travel in Star Wars works.
I'm sorry, have we got some kind of non-nerd come to try and bully us nerds for being nerds, in nerd territory? Shove him in the locker guys! Chase him with your sharpest compasses and most annoyingly shaped protractors!

One of the interesting things about the rise of the Squirearchy is that it was a phenomena that arose after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 where by Henry VIII seized the assets of some 600+ monastic communities and sold of their estates. Many of the buyers were Lawyers, Merchants and Government Officials seeking to both invest in property and gain prestige, however in order to claim that prestige they were not permitted to be 'in the trade' as farmers (which was beneath a gentlemen) and thus were required to both go into rent-gouging and on urban investments. The gentry was thus a major cultural phenomena binding the rural and urban parts of England as well as the noble and commoner classes. They were also fundamental to the rise of capitalism as an idle 'investor' class socially barred from working for a living except as lawyers/government, military officers or clergy and as investors we eventually see the rise of chartered companies and company colonialism .
I wasn't really aware of the link to the dissolution of the monasteries, but that makes an awful lot of sense!
 


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