Shorty swing my way

[lunabee34]

I have been pondering interspecies relationships, specifically of the human/hobbit variety. I've been wondering how such a relationship might be regarded in Middle Earth and also how a writer might depict the relationship in fic.

First, let's say Aragorn falls in love with Frodo or Merry and Eowyn get married. How would their relationships be viewed (and would there be gender differences)? The hobbits are patronized and underestimated by almost every character in movieverse and book canon. Even the characters who admire their courage and respect their strength attribute those qualities to the hobbits' purity and child-like love and loyalty. Could Gondor accept Frodo, the Halfling Consort to the Heir of Isildur? Could the Riders of Rohan follow Meriadoc Brandybuck, King Consort to Queen Eowyn?

In terms of writing about a hobbit/human relationship, how do you handle the extreme size differential? Hobbits are not children, and while their bodies are smaller, they are proportionate. They might be the height of children, but they don't have the bodies of children. How do you write a hobbit/human sex scene, though, without fetishizing that size differential in an icky way or straying too close to kiddie porn territory? Is there a way to write an explicit hobbit/human sex scene that doesn't create those uncomfortable associations? Some obvious things like word choice come to mind (clearly, "Sam wrapped his tiny, tiny legs around Galadriel's waist, and she held him like a wee babe as they made sweet, sweet love" would not be the way to go), but how do you write an explicit sex scene that ignores such a great size differential?

I went through crack_van and found four human/hobbit recs:

Not In Vain by Lucy Hale
Boromir/Merry/Pippin, Merry/Pippin (Gorgeous canon-compliant character study of Boromir and of Merry. I was weeping by the end of this.)

The Last Night in the World by mollyringwraith
Eowyn/Merry (I love the parallels drawn between Eowyn and Merry here and the comfort they find as they ride toward Mordor.)

In the Wings of the Shadow by aprilkat
Frodo/Faramir (Frodo and Faramir carry so much guilt and loss between them. I love the OFC in this story.

one of which I haven't yet had time to read (The Roots of the Ivy by Aranel Took
Eowyn/Merry).

From what I can tell so far from this small sample, it looks like authors have chosen to mostly elide the sex, focusing on kissing with fades to black.

Anybody have any thoughts on this topic or any human/hobbit recs?

Comments

[lunabee34]

I lament the loss of the public library, especially since they often provide the only access many in the community have to internet and other resources.

Expect to see a post sometime this week. I am woefully behind on grading. Woefully.