What do gandalf and bilbo smoke

If you are still unconvinced, let us look at the facts. It seems rather clear that JRR Tolkien never intended pipe-weed to be seen as anything more than simple tobacco. However, in the Unfinished Tales, Gandalf gives an interesting account regarding pipe-weed:. You might find that smoke blown out cleared your mind of shadows within.

Anyway it gives patience, to listen to error without anger. But it is not one of my toys. It is an art of the Little People away in the West merry and worthy folk, though not of much account, perhaps, in your high policies. So what is pipe-weed? When England began its prohibition of narcotics in at the Convention of Narcotic Control , consumable cannabis was a product of such insignificance, it was hardly even spoken of until much later.

But other countries in the League of Nations — Egypt and Turkey — insisted hashish be prohibited. England followed in suit despite doubts of its enforcement.

Although hemp was a common agricultural product, tobacco was the leaf of choice for those looking to pack a bowl and relax. Tolkien, too, was fond of it. Rossem has since sent me pipes and tobacco! Merry of Peter Jackson 's films smoking his pipe-weed. The Wizard Gandalf learned to smoke pipe-weed from the Hobbits and was known to blow elaborate smoke-rings.

Saruman initially criticized him for this, but eventually secretly took up smoking himself. After the destruction of Isengard , pipe-weed was found among its stores, but the hobbits Merry and Pippin failed to realized until later the implications of the discovery of Saruman's commerce with the Shire.

To some, it sounds like a tobacco product, while others point to its floral description, hinting that pipe-weed might be more like our own weed, but the true definition may have been muddied by the movies. Like any good fiction writer, Tolkien could have simply been making up his own plant altogether.

However, considering his heyday took place during the mid-century era, tobacco is the more likely subject. But it's the prologue of The Fellowship book itself that seals the canon argument. Tolkien writes of his beloved Hobbits:. A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this particular custom or 'art' as the Hobbits preferred to call it.

Canna-fans need not despair.