3. Mathoms

"So, though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving.  The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom.  Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort" (FotR 14-15).

What a great word, "mathom," to describe the types of generally useless things we all have in abundance.  What mathoms are there in your life?  How interesting, too, that the first and only specific example is weaponry, and how wonderful it would be to have no immediate use for weapons.  More interesting, still, is the fact that the Hobbits are "unwilling to throw [them] away," as if possessed of some ancestral memory or sneaking suspicion of the world at large and its dangers.  (More interesting still: isn't the Ring something of a mathom to Frodo in the idle years between Bilbo's departure and his own?)

Are any of your mathoms like this--things that you are unwilling to part with for some fear of being without it in a time of need, or for hope of its future usefulness, or some inkling of its unrecognized importance?


"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.