Okay, so just what is pipe weed in Lord of the Rings?

[Downtown Hound]

Poll question: Okay, so just what is pipe weed in Lord of the Rings?

"Your love of the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed your mind."-Sarumon to Gandalf.

[eleonora]

1. aaaah the porno movies that would go up in smoke...

:evilgrin:

[LiberalVoice]

2. I'm thinking more potent...

I mean you can't disregard the ships theory...and it might be cuz i'm stoned.

[MrMonk]

3. It's stronger

You just think you can blow cool ships,
and everybody else just thinks they can see them.

[LiberalVoice]

4. lmao

thats funny

[Downtown Hound]

5. Heh, heh, sounds like goooood shit!

[AllyCat]

6. Been awhile since I read the books

but I thought it was more like tobacco, but had a slight intoxicating effect.

[fleabert]

7. the book gives some insight...

in the prologue of the first book there is a chapter about it, no mention of its effects, but does say it is also called Nicotiana. That makes me think that Tolkien, by likening the name to nicotine and saying that the hobbits consider smoking it an 'art', meant for it to fall somewhere between pot and tobacco in the resulting effects. The picture of Tolkien on the back of my books shows him smoking a pipe (another name in the book is 'pipe-weed', and the smell is described as ranging from foul to sweet). Perhaps a pipe smoker wanted to include his habit in the books?

does this make me look like a dork? that i not only found the info, but knew where to look? Oh well, I loved the books better than the movies.

[BBradley]

8. Nicotiana is the genus of all tobacco plants. IRL.

It's tobacco people. You guys are stuck in high school. Stoners.

[fleabert]

13. I never knew that. Never looked it up, and I am hooked on it!

I *ahem* have not been stoned in 12 years. Never agreed with me.

[LiberalVoice]

25. Then why during Return of the King...

Did they start cracking the hell up and eating tons of food after they smoked?

[Downtown Hound]

9. You dork!

:P

Nah, just kidding. Actually that was always my take on it as well. It's not quite pot but it does give you a good buzz. Even Gimli is smoking it in Return of the
King, and he just doesn't look very stoned to me, but he does seem kind of giddy.

"Certainty of death? Small chance of success? What are we waiting for?"-puff, puff.

[billyskank]

23. If he had been stoned....

"Certainty of death? Small chance of success? Fuck that! Who wants to send out for pizza?"

[Dukkha]

10. watch the ROTK bonus DVD

They show an alternate take of Merry & Pippin's celebration at Isenguard. They were completely stoned laughing maniacally with that glazed look in their eyes. They said they went with a more toned down take of their little party.

[rucky]

11. Whatever it is, it stunts your growth. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

12. Heh, heh, you sure about that?

Gandalf looks like he's about seven feet tall.

[instantkarma]

14. It's tobacco.

From the chapter "Flotsam and Jetsam" in The Two Towers:

"He (Merry) produced a small leather bag full of tobacco...'We did some salvage-work this morning, Pippin and I. There are lots of things floating about. It was Pippin who found two small barrels, washed up out of some cellar or store-house, I suppose. When we opened them, we found they were filled with this: as fine a pipe-weed as you could wish for, and quite unspoilt.'"

I believe this is the only instance in the entire story where Tolkien used the word "tobacco." The Saruman quote you listed isn't in the book; it's fully a Jackson/Walsh/Boyens creation.

[Downtown Hound]

15. Interesting

Perhaps it's tobacco in the books but something more akin to weed in the movies.

[no name no slogan]

16. fsckin hippies

they gotta ruin everything, don't they? :P

[Downtown Hound]

19. I prefer to think of it more as "enhancement."

:evilgrin:

[DrWeird]

17. It's weed in the movies.

If you watch the extended addition Two Towers, while Frodo and Sam are scaling the cliffs of Emyn Muil in the beginning, Sam opens a little wooden box of "herbs." If you pause it and zoom in (my buddy's got an awesome DVD player), it's totally some glorious New Zealand bud with some big ass crystals all over it.

[mcscajun]

20. that wasn't herbs...

...that was "the finest salt in the Shire"

[KittyWampus]

18. It's A Less Hybridized Form of Human Tobacco.

[Bridget Burke]

21. And--weren't the hobbits awfully fond of mushrooms?

Or, as we used to call them, 'shrooms....

[catmandu57]

22. Saddly, I believe it's tobacco

At the end of the hobbit, Bilbo laughs and hands Balin the tobacco jar, though I have had several pipes that were sold as "hobbit bowls".

[Downtown Hound]

24. The general consensus seems to be

that it's tobacco in the books, but something a little more in the movies. Me, I'm thinking that it's something like the "legal herb" you can buy in head shops. Not very powerful but it does give you a little buzz.