residentmiddlechild reblogged
I know people like to say that the reason Pippin was overly familiar with Denethor was just because of a difference in dialect, but personally I like to think that when Pippin heard ‘Steward of Gondor’ he went, “oh, like the Thain of the Shire” and proceeded to talk to him the way he’d talk to the Thain—which is to say, politely, but like an equal
actually I’m pretty sure the hobbits do this everywhere they go, because the only authority figure a hobbit is ever overly obsequious with is Smaug, and that’s mostly as a ruse.
which leads me to my next point: Bilbo thinks that Elrond Peredhil, Scion of Lúthien the Fair, Ward of Maedhros and Maglor Fëanorian, Lord of Imladris, and one of the Wise, is equivalent in rank to the Mayor of the Shire