this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Lord of the memes
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The books, Tolkien's letters, and a section of the appendices at the end of RoTK all explicitly say it's tobacco.
Speaking of Hobbits, Tolkien wrote:
Tolkien was a big smoker. You rarely see pics of him without a pipe in his mouth.
Plus, given the Hobbit was released in 1937 in England, it's likely that Tolkien didn't even know what Cannabis was. He'd certainly be unaware of its future popularity/cultural relevance.
Cannabis had at least some level of presence in Europe for centuries. Robert Hooke, a contemporary of and fierce rival to Isaac Newton experimented with it in 1689. Still though, I have no idea to what extent. You may well be right that Tolkien never heard of it.