I like Reverend's idea that the Stone Giants were a sort of literary licence on
Bilbo's part. Perhaps the Shire, modelled as it is on southern England, doesn't
tend to get violent thunderstorms, and Bilbo's imagination ran riot during this
one.
But while checking "Letters" for any reference to the Stone Giants, I came
across an intriguing little footnote from a letter of 1939 to Allen and Unwin,
when JRRT is explaining the current state of LOTR (obviously he still had a
long way to go!):
"Still there are more hobbits, far more of them and about them, in the new
story. Gollum reappears, and Gandalf is to the fore: 'dwarves' come in; and
though there is no dragon (so far) there is going to be a Giant; and the new
and (very alarming) Ringwraiths are a feature." (Letter 35).
I wonder what became of the Giant. Did it turn into the Balrog? Shelob? The
Stone Troll of
Moria?
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It was luxuries like air conditioning that brought down the Roman Empire. With air conditioning their windows were shut, they couldn’t hear the barbarians coming.
- Lake Wobegon Days
