Aack.

[elderberrywine]

OK, this is why I hate setting fics at Brandy Hall. Does anybody know of a good diagram/family tree/map type thingie that connects the main hobbit families and shows how they interrelate? 'Cause I just never got the second cousin/cousin-once-removed/great-grand-nephew type of thing, having grown up on the Left Coast, and am mortally afraid of totally bunging up the family titles. Which leaves me being very vague and with a rather limited cast of characters. Maybe I need to just stick with F/S at Bag-End. (Always a viable option!)

Comments

[teasel.livejournal.com]

I've always flipped frantically back and forth between the various family trees in the appendix, hoping, often in vain, to be able to spot all the common individuals among the Tooks and the Brandybucks.

You can also try going here:

http://www.kalendersysteme.de/english/genealogy/familytrees/Hobbits-ged/WebSite/hobbits.html

You'll need Java, and the family names are in German. But it's kind of cool. You can start with Frodo and work your way back.

[conniemarie.livejournal.com]

Just a word of sympathy --I can't figure it out either! I honestly get completely flummoxed! I have to really STRAIN just to really keep clearly in mind exactly how Frodo and Merry are related --and that ain't that difficult. *eyes crossing*

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

The family trees in the Appendices (in C, I think) are all the definitive information given, that I know of. Beyond that, you can Make It Up with impunity. Also, recall that the Appendix C charts aren't intended to be complete, so you can add the odd cousin or sister at will.

The only point is that new additions shouldn't be Bilbo's cousins (in the sense Frodo is his cousin) and also older than Frodo -- one reason Bilbo chose Frodo as his heir was that Frodo was the oldest cousin available.

Unless you're basing a story point on precise genealogical relationships, they can all call each other cousin, or if younger-to-older, aunt or uncle as a courtesy. People don't have to go around saying, "Dear second-cousin-once-removed-by-marriage Penelope, please pass the sugar." My family has that crossed-generation confusion and we mostly just use names.

Snarled Hobbit Family Trees

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

My major problem is the connection between those family trees. Past Merry and Pippin's parents, and how they connect to Frodo, is where I start getting very confused.

So I just do the southern honorific thing, and call them all Cousins, and if they're older, Auntie or Uncle. I'm just afraid of being exposed as a total fraud, and having my brass buttons ripped off (flashback to Branded!) for messing this up.

Re: Snarled Hobbit Family Trees

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Wooo, I remember Branded. That was the B.C. era -- Before Color. (Maybe not for the show, but for my family's TV set.)

The key generation for the book relationships is about third down in the Took chart, where there are something like ten siblings, so there's a biiig horizontal line. Three on the right are Belladonna, Donnamira and Mirabella Took. Belladonna was Bilbo's mother (I think -- possibly grandmother). Mirabella was Frodo's grandmother. (I may have the names mixed, but two of those three sisters are the ones I mean).

Pippin, of course, is prominently named at the bottom of the chart, kind of at the left-middle, and you can trace up to where he's descended from one of the brothers of that same generation, and Merry connects there as well.

That's a place to start. Frodo had a Brandybuck mother and a Baggins father, so he's also a multiple cousin to Merry and to Bilbo more than just the Took connection, but that's all you need for most purposes.

Re: Snarled Hobbit Family Trees

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. That's exactly what I needed.