There follow some quotations from The Hobbit (one of my favourite books). My lawyers assure readers that any relationship to people known to members of this forum is entirely coincidental.
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it)
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:“Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. … “What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?”
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:“Gandalf, Gandalf! … Not the man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer’s Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!”
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:“What on earth did I ask him to tea for!” he said to himself, as he went to the pantry. He had only just had breakfast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright.
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:“Thank you!” said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he—as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful—he might have to go without.
“Come along in, and have some tea!” he managed to say after taking a deep breath.
“A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir,” said Balin with the white beard. “But I don't mind some cake — seed-cake, if you have any.”
“Lots!” Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and to the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.
Is an “after-supper morsel” a sweet version of a savoury? Does one have it after dessert but before cheese, or after both? If one has two dinners, where does it then fit? Should the concept be re-introduced to the world?
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote:“I hope there is something left for the late-comers to eat and drink! What’s that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think, for me.” “And for me,” said Thorin. “And raspberry jam and apple-tart,” said Bifur. “And mince-pies and cheese,” said Bofur. “And pork-pie and salad,” said Bombur. “And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don't mind,” called the other dwarves through the door.
I’m surprised to find an underground craftsman, particularly one described as “immensely fat and heavy”, desirous of salad with hyphenated pork-pie.
