Bilbo said "the finest weed". Lol...I mean, what else was he referring to?
shareIn the book it's always referred to as "pipeweed" or "leaf", and is usually assumed to be tobacco.
But that's never confirmed, so feel free to draw your own conclusions.
He was, and could only be, referring to tobacco, which was also called “sotweed” in the early days of the American colonies, whence it came. Tobacco is a leaf. All the opioids to which the posters on this topic so sadly and ignorantly gravitate, are derived from the Poppy, which is a flower. The Poppy is not a leaf. There is at least one place in The Lord of the Rings where Bilbo refers to what they smoke as being “the finest leaf in the Shire.” I’m sure you are, to a boy, crestfallen that their pipes did not contain something that you think is more BADASS than an opioid. Did you know that tobacco is every bit as physically addictive as any opioid? Now you do.
By the way, there’s nothing LOL about physical addiction. Nothing at all.
But this is Middle Earth. There is no "could only be."
shareFrom what I can discern, they're referring to a particular strain of tobacco leaf grown in the Shire.
Tolkien was a pipe smoker, so I think his characters are tobacco smokers, too.
Maybe Tolkien smoked weed.
shareHe may have, but his characters smoked sotweed, tobacco. That is manifest to anyone who has actually read The Lord of the Rings. JRRT wrote the book (yes, that’s right! singular! oh, you didn’t know that? what else is new?) for his grandchildren. It is not a celebration of intoxicants. It is, however a work of genius. As such, it is wasted on the majority of those who post on the internet.
shareCalm down there. I'm perfectly aware of him being an author. And even though marijuana may not have any association with that particular scene...it's still a funny concept to entertain. I mean, after all, Bilbo did say "the finest weed". Regardless, it doesn't make me like the Lord of the Rings films any less.
shareWhen the story was written, "weed" wasn't a slang for pot.
shareThe movies imply it's weed. Saruman tells Gandalf, "Your love of the hanflings' leaf has clearly slowed your mind."