How Could the Hobbits Have Known about the Thinking Fox in the Shire?

Q: How Could the Hobbits Have Known about the Thinking Fox in the Shire?

ANSWER: I received the following question from a reader in February 2021:

In my most recent re-read of LOTR, I noticed something odd. In the chapter “Three’s Company”, while the three hobbits are sleeping under the tree, a fox wanders by and wonders why there are hobbits there. I’ve read some who’ve been curious about the fox’s sentience, but that’s not all that strange to me. What stuck out as odd to me was that the fox was in the story at all. Knowing that the story is based on Frodo’s (and the other hobbits’) memories of what happened, if they were asleep, then they would have no idea if a fox or any other animal passed by.

I’ve seen people ask this question throughout the years. Attempting to answer it sort of spoils the fun, in my opinion.

However, I think the question itself confuses the fiction of the Red Book of Westmarch with the narrative voice of The Lord of the Rings. It’s similar to the passage where the narrator compares the passing of one of Gandalf’s fireworks:

There were rockets like a flight of scintillating birds singing with sweet voices. There were green trees with trunks of dark smoke: their leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a moment, and their shining branches dropped glowing flowers down upon the astonished hobbits, disappearing with a sweet scent just before they touched their upturned faces. There were fountains of butterflies that flew glittering into the trees; there were pillars of coloured fires that rose and turned into eagles, or sailing ships, or a phalanx of flying swans; there was a red thunderstorm and a shower of yellow rain; there was a forest of silver spears that sprang suddenly into the air with a yell like an embattled army, and came down again into the Water with a hiss like a hundred hot snakes. And there was also one last surprise, in honour of Bilbo, and it startled the hobbits exceedingly, as Gandalf intended. The lights went out. A great smoke went up. It shaped itself like a mountain seen in the distance, and began to glow at the summit. It spouted green and scarlet flames. Out flew a red-golden dragon – not life-size, but terribly life-like: fire came from his jaws, his eyes glared down; there was a roar, and he whizzed three times over the heads of the crowd. They all ducked, and many fell flat on their faces. The dragon passed like an express train, turned a somersault, and burst over Bywater with a deafening explosion.

There were no express trains in the Shire (or anywhere in Middle-earth) at the time of the War of the Ring. There are now express trains in Middle-earth (which is simply a name for our world, the “habitations of men”).

The early chapters of The Lord of the Rings were written in a narrative style similar to that of The Hobbit. The unnamed Narrator is a part of the story, enhancing it with modern references like the express train. The thinking fox is a Narrator’s embellishment:

Just over the top of the hill they came on the patch of fir-wood. Leaving the road they went into the deep resin-scented darkness of the trees, and gathered dead sticks and cones to make a fire. Soon they had a merry crackle of flame at the foot of a large fir-tree and they sat round it for a while, until they began to nod. Then, each in an angle of the great tree’s roots, they curled up in their cloaks and blankets, and were soon fast asleep. They set no watch; even Frodo feared no danger yet, for they were still in the heart of the Shire. A few creatures came and looked at them when the fire had died away. A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.

‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.

While we could assume that the fox is mentioned in the Red Book, we don’t need to. Tolkien himself presented The Lord of the Rings as his own narrative which was based upon, or inspired by his translation of the original Red Book of Westmarch. There isn’t much text in the book that is directly attributed to the Red Book.

You’ll find some examples in the Appendices, where Tolkien inserts quoted text as if he’s lifted it directly from the Red Book:

‘Eriador was of old the name of all the lands between the Misty Mountains and the Blue; in the South it was bounded by the Greyflood and the Glanduin that flows into it above Tharbad.

‘At its greatest Arnor included all Eriador, except the regions beyond the Lune, and the lands east of Greyflood and Loudwater, in which lay Rivendell and Hollin. Beyond the Lune was Elvish country, green and quiet, where no Men went; but Dwarves dwelt, and still dwell, in the east side of the Blue Mountains, especially in those parts south of the Gulf of Lune, where they have mines that are still in use. For this reason they were accustomed to pass east along the Great Road, as they had done for long years before we came to the Shire. At the Grey Havens dwelt Círdan the Shipwright, and some say he dwells there still, until the Last Ship sets sail into the West. In the days of the Kings most of the High Elves that still lingered in Middle-earth dwelt with Círdan or in the seaward lands of Lindon. If any now remain they are few.’

Who wrote this text? Was it Bilbo? Frodo? Meriadoc? Some other Hobbit? We don’t know.

In fact, Tolkien wrote that many hands added to the Red Book of Westmarch (including Findegil the Gondorian). So if we assume that the anecdote about the thinking fox was included in the original book, we don’t have to assume that it was written by Frodo or any of his friends. It could have been added years later by someone else. And it still would have been no more than narrative embellishment. But I think it more likely Tolkien merely wanted the fox to be a product of his own narrative voice and not some fictional narrative voice in the Red Book.

See Also

What Did Beorn Mean by ‘Travelling Circus’?

Is There Gambling In Middle-earth?

What Is Possible within the Confines of Tolkien’s World?

Could Frodo Ever Have Had Elvish Ancestors in Early Story Development?

Why Is Dain Mentioned on Thror’s Map?

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