Gandalf, the Churchwarden Clencher

[dctune]

I've always had this sense that the major Southfarthing offerings were Straight VAs. But I couldn't argue for that.
(Except maybe that Tolkien smoked Capstan Blue.)

I’ve heard this about Tolkien. I want to, but I just cannot bring myself to order it. I have a tin of Sherlock Holmes that I’m slowly working my way through. It’s a straight VA blend, and I’ve really gotta be craving it to load up a straight VA.

 

[SBC]

I’ve heard this about Tolkien. I want to, but I just cannot bring myself to order it. I have a tin of Sherlock Holmes that I’m slowly working my way through. It’s a straight VA blend, and I’ve really gotta be craving it to load up a straight VA.

Alright, just for fun, now that I'm thinking about it, I'll try to come up with a few more arguments that the Southfarthing produced Straight Brightleaf:

• Tolkien smoked a Straight VA (somebody here recently posted an image of his receipt for a transaction the year before he died. It was for 1 lb. of Capstan Blue). Tolkien more than once said that he saw himself as a Hobbit in his preferred lifestyle, clothing style, and food tastes. So the default assumption is that he imagined Hobbits smoking brightleaf.
  
  
• Tolkien emphasizes repeatedly that Hobbits are "simple folk." Their food is plain and hearty, and they stereotypically eschew the exotic. In pipe culture, this would correspond to simple VAs, I think, as distinct from Latakia, Orientals, etc.
  
  
• In "Concerning Pipe Weed" (quoted in my signature), no mention is made of the kind of processes which produce Latakia and DFK, nor of any other specializing process. An argument from silence is worth only so much, granted, but we might have expected him to mention these things considering his tendency to geek out on details.
  
• To those who read Tolkien in terms of his own, occidental conservatism, and who are not overly concerned about political correctness, it seems that The Shire -- considering its ways and its westward location -- channels something like England, and that everything East of that is (to a Hobbit's mind) rather more exotic. Those Eastern lands would correspond to the places where most other varieties of leaf are produced.

Now I'll grant that most of these considerations work equally well for burley. I can see that.

But there are still reasons to lean towards brightleaf vs. burley on this question; namely, (a) the first reason listed above, that Tolkien's own preferences leave us with a brightleaf default, and (b) if The Shire in some sense channels England, then we must not forget England's relationship to the Virginia colony and the resulting predominance of Virginia tobaccos coming into English ports.

...Ok I'll berth this ship now...

 

[The Clay King]

All that pipe weed and I still can't blow smoke rings...
I should be smoking Virginia leaf when I go to see the Redcoat re-enactments...

 

[anotherbob]

I didn't know who Tolkien was until I was in my mid twenties. Tried to like LOTR but couldn't bring myself to.

There is a good amount of pop culture stuff that people really latch onto that just seems like the window for really getting into it is being around the young adult age group. You don't run into huge fans of these things who didn't first experience them somewhere around the onset of puberty.

 

[Chasing Embers]

There is a good amount of pop culture stuff that people really latch onto that just seems like the window for really getting into it is being around the young adult age group. You don't run into huge fans of these things who didn't first experience them somewhere around the onset of puberty.

Could be but I've never cared for magic/fantasy stories. Science fiction and horror I've loved from birth I think.

 

[anotherbob]

Could be but I've never cared for magic/fantasy stories. Science fiction and horror I've loved from birth I think.

I've had a thing for both but honestly find Sci fi and horror to be a broader category that touches on more and has a greater flexibility. A sci fi or horror story is much more likely to touch on serious issues or ideas. It's not like rule just a tendency but there does seem to be more freedom of expression in those genres.

 

[plugugly]

Embers! Bravo on the no teeth pics. That was a LOL scroll - down!

 

[anotherbob]

I’ve heard this about Tolkien. I want to, but I just cannot bring myself to order it. I have a tin of Sherlock Holmes that I’m slowly working my way through. It’s a straight VA blend, and I’ve really gotta be craving it to load up a straight VA.

I tried Sail yellow cause some famous publisher smoked it and am happy I tried that one

 

[smokeymo]

Alright, just for fun, now that I'm thinking about it, I'll try to come up with a few more arguments that the Southfarthing produced Straight Brightleaf:

• Tolkien smoked a Straight VA (somebody here recently posted an image of his receipt for a transaction the year before he died. It was for 1 lb. of Capstan Blue). Tolkien more than once said that he saw himself as a Hobbit in his preferred lifestyle, clothing style, and food tastes. So the default assumption is that he imagined Hobbits smoking brightleaf.
  
  
• Tolkien emphasizes repeatedly that Hobbits are "simple folk." Their food is plain and hearty, and they stereotypically eschew the exotic. In pipe culture, this would correspond to simple VAs, I think, as distinct from Latakia, Orientals, etc.
  
  
• In "Concerning Pipe Weed" (quoted in my signature), no mention is made of the kind of processes which produce Latakia and DFK, nor of any other specializing process. An argument from silence is worth only so much, granted, but we might have expected him to mention these things considering his tendency to geek out on details.
• To those who read Tolkien in terms of his own, occidental conservatism, and who are not overly concerned about political correctness, it seems that The Shire -- considering its ways and its westward location -- channels something like England, and that everything East of that is (to a Hobbit's mind) rather more exotic. Those Eastern lands would correspond to the places where most other varieties of leaf are produced.

Now I'll grant that most of these considerations work equally well for burley. I can see that.

But there are still reasons to lean towards brightleaf vs. burley on this question; namely, (a) the first reason listed above, that Tolkien's own preferences leave us with a brightleaf default, and (b) if The Shire in some sense channels England, then we must not forget England's relationship to the Virginia colony and the resulting predominance of Virginia tobaccos coming into English ports.

...Ok I'll berth this ship now...

I'd imagine they cased their tobaccos in some manner. I've read somewhere that Hobbits enjoy multitudes of flavors and that's why their pantries are so large. I've always imagined Longbottom Leaf as a Burley, Old Toby as an aged Virginia, and Southern Star as a cased aromatic blend.

 

[SBC]

I'd imagine they cased their tobaccos in some manner. I've read somewhere that Hobbits enjoy multitudes of flavors and that's why their pantries are so large. I've always imagined Longbottom Leaf as a Burley, Old Toby as an aged Virginia, and Southern Star as a cased aromatic blend.

Lately I've been enjoying Wessex Original Fragrant VA, which is cased in "West County Cider." And it's occurred to me that, if a Hobbit were going to case his pipe weed with something, I could imagine it being cider.

 

[smokeymo]

Lately I've been enjoying Wessex Original Fragrant VA, which is cased in "West County Cider." And it's occurred to me that, if a Hobbit were going to case his pipe weed with something, I could imagine it being cider.

I can't remember if I'd heard cider mentioned in the lore of the Hobbits. But I like your idea of them casing it with a beverage. I know Tolkien mentions they are fond of wine. I was recently at Racine and Laramie in San Diego and they have a wine aromatic house blend that was quite pleasant. I could see something like that. Or honey, since they are quiet fond of gardening. There's an idea for a blend: a burley/virginia cased with honeyed wine. Southern Star is born.

 

[SBC]

I can't remember if I'd heard cider mentioned in the lore of the Hobbits. But I like your idea of them casing it with a beverage. I know Tolkien mentions they are fond of wine. I was recently at Racine and Laramie in San Diego and they have a wine aromatic house blend that was quite pleasant. I could see something like that. Or honey, since they are quiet fond of gardening. There's an idea for a blend: a burley/virginia cased with honeyed wine. Southern Star is born.

No, I don't believe that cider is mentioned; but, knowing that Tolkien based The Shire and its residents largely on the salt-of-the-earth farmers of rural England, and knowing the role that "scrumpy" (their term for cider) has historically played in that culture, cider seems a supremely Hobbitish thing.

And yes, wine is mentioned, certainly. I don't think I've had a wine cased tobacco, but your report of one intrigues me.

And yes, honey is a fantastic suggestion! Again, based on what we do know of Hobbits and their roots in agrarian peoples of Tolkien's acquaintance, there's little doubt that Hobbits keep bees.

(Wine made of honey and apples is called "cyser" -- a cyser topped tobacco would combine all three suggestions!)

 

[smokeymo]

No, I don't believe that cider is mentioned; but, knowing that Tolkien based The Shire and its residents largely on the salt-of-the-earth farmers of rural England, and knowing the role that "scrumpy" (their term for cider) has historically played in that culture, cider seems a supremely Hobbitish thing.

And yes, wine is mentioned, certainly. I don't think I've had a wine cased tobacco, but your report of one intrigues me.

And yes, honey is a fantastic suggestion! Again, based on what we do know of Hobbits and their roots in agrarian peoples of Tolkien's acquaintance, there's little doubt that Hobbits keep bees.

(Wine made of honey and apples is called "cyser" -- a cyser topped tobacco would combine all three suggestions!)

I'd try a cyser tobacco.

 

[Effortlessdepths]

I love my churchwardens. I don’t always smoke them, for a variety of reasons. But if pressed, I enjoy smoking a churchwarden more than any other style of pipe.

Perhaps it’s the fact that when I do smoke one, for me, it necessitates at least one free hand. Which in turn means I am not engaged in any other distracting activities & am simply enjoying a nice, relaxing bowl. I’m also a shameless Lord of the Rings fan. Even before the wonderful (ahem…Bombadil’s absence notwithstanding) films were released, my childhood was filled with stories of the Shire. And of course, churchwardens figure abundantly in Middle Earth.

Which brings me to the title of this thread of this thread.

I’m not exactly a clencher. I give it the old college try nearly every other day. Fumblingly, I might add. I admire those of you who can, like Bing, stuff a pipe between your teeth & puff away whilst doing other things. I end up drooling all over myself like a toddler with a lollipop, or bouncing ash out & making a mess of things. It’s frustrating. But I keep trying.

You can forget about it with my churchwardens. For one thing, I don’t want to chew up my bits. For another, just read the above.

As Gandalf makes his first appearance in the film, he is, naturally, smoking a rugged, long-stemmed pipe. And he is clenching. And not just clenching. The wizard is doing so while driving a horse-drawn cart. Across bumpy terrain. Sans shocks or struts.

Sir Ian McKellan must be a world class clencher.

Any of you clench your chirchwardens? How?????

I will never, ever forgive Peter Jackson for leaving Bombadil out of the movies.

 

[Winterreise]

Gandalf in the books smoke a clay pipe tho ?

 

[romaso]

Had that on my dorm wall in college...

Do you know if that illustration was done by Tolkien?

 

[The Clay King]

Gandalf in the books smoke a clay pipe tho ?

@Winterreise Taking a pipe weed leaf out of my book hahaha ?
Gandalf, Gimli and the hobbits look the type I would like to have a beer ? and a clay pipe with!!!
I've ordered some Stokkebye nougat to smoke in the clay pipe.

 

[karam]

@SBC what incredible posts!

Regarding Christopher Tolkien, I can't help but think he's just a bit miffed to have not done a JK Rowling, making billions in the process. I really liked the films, and have devoured the books - including the peripheral books - tens of times. I really disliked the Hobbit films though, felt like pure money grabbing. I think we still owe him a lot, we wouldn't have had a ton of the depth and backstories if he hadn't worked on his dad's unfinished writings. Regarding JRR Tolkien himself, part of the books that spoke to me was the underlying theme of restoring nature, both in the scouring of the Shire chapters as well as the Ents' attack of Isengard. The films couldn't capture that, but they also gave life to the books, and even in my opinion improved a few events where JRRT's writing was pretty incomprehensible.

 

[judcole]

Do you know if that illustration was done by Tolkien?

No, that was done by Barbara Remington, an artist who did the art for the first Ballantine edition of The Hobbit and LotR.

 

[HopHand]

I love my churchwardens. I don’t always smoke them, for a variety of reasons. But if pressed, I enjoy smoking a churchwarden more than any other style of pipe.

Perhaps it’s the fact that when I do smoke one, for me, it necessitates at least one free hand. Which in turn means I am not engaged in any other distracting activities & am simply enjoying a nice, relaxing bowl. I’m also a shameless Lord of the Rings fan. Even before the wonderful (ahem…Bombadil’s absence notwithstanding) films were released, my childhood was filled with stories of the Shire. And of course, churchwardens figure abundantly in Middle Earth.

Which brings me to the title of this thread of this thread.

I’m not exactly a clencher. I give it the old college try nearly every other day. Fumblingly, I might add. I admire those of you who can, like Bing, stuff a pipe between your teeth & puff away whilst doing other things. I end up drooling all over myself like a toddler with a lollipop, or bouncing ash out & making a mess of things. It’s frustrating. But I keep trying.

You can forget about it with my churchwardens. For one thing, I don’t want to chew up my bits. For another, just read the above.

As Gandalf makes his first appearance in the film, he is, naturally, smoking a rugged, long-stemmed pipe. And he is clenching. And not just clenching. The wizard is doing so while driving a horse-drawn cart. Across bumpy terrain. Sans shocks or struts.

Sir Ian McKellan must be a world class clencher.

Any of you clench your chirchwardens? How?????

Sure do just need a lightweight Warden with at least a modest bend.
My best full Churchwarden for clinching is my Savinelli Tandem 920 but I prefer the Smaller Demi Wardens something 7.5-9inchs long and under an ounce. Gives the Warden feel while smoking but allows clinching and activities with ease.