Tungo: FOOD & Water

Thankfully, the vast majority of foods mentioned by Tolkien occur in association with the Shire or its nearby environs, giving me a great variety to choose from. My trail foods I carry in drawstring bags of pillow ticking (red for meats; blue for grains and dried veg; that orangeybluey color for fruits and nuts). I also have a big piece of linen that I beeswaxed, which I use to wrap up fresh cheese or meat; it also makes a good lid for containers like so:. To keep my pack organized, all of my various loose drawstring bags (and other eating gear) are kept in a leather roll-top food-bag (RotK 201).



=Food=

Dried fruits—Shire options: Strawberries (RotK 331), apples (FotR 75), raisins (from grapes known and cultivated in Shire—cf. Old Winyards ), prunes (aka dried plums (RotK 331)

Grains/corn/flour—barley (ibid) spelt (early wheat), &c. —not maize!

Nuts—chestnuts (RotK 322), hazelnuts (English walnuts (European, but undocumented).

Dried (jerked) meats (deer, beef, ham—‘salted pork’ (TTT 181). o	Fresh meats—bacon (TH 43; TTT 181), rabbit (TTT 292)...

Vegetables: carrots (TTT 294), onions (TTT 295), celery (not documented, but it's a simple European vegetable of the sort elsewhere found in the Shire; celeriac would be more appropriate)

Wheel of cheese (FotR 141)—in waxed linen wrapped up with nettle cord

Salt (FotR 315) (where does it come from?) in a goat* horn

My eating gear is simple:

Hand-carved wooden spoon ($0)--a metal spoon would mar the lining of my...

Tin-lined brass ‘trade kettle’: After leaving Bag-End, we are told Sam, Frodo and Pippin “filled their bottles and the small camping kettle at a little fall” (FotR 81); while after Weathertop, Pippin and Merry “heated as much water as they could in their small kettles”(FotR 222). This means that either Merry brought his own small kettle when he joined the other Travelers, or this second kettle was acquired as part of the hobbits’ resupply before departing Bree (FotR 203). I am inclined towards the latter suggestion, and so I say the ‘trade kettle’ which I carry is ‘of Bree-make’. This is lent credence due to the association of the Arthedain/Cardolan sphere of Eriador (centered around Bree-land) with a historical tradition of redsmithing following the fall of Arnor (FotR 147) ). The kettle is somewhat unnecessary as none of the above food really requires cooking, but it is useful for boiling water, or making stews and tea from dried things.



Things I would like to have some time:

Tea (TH 7) (in a horn container?) if I could figure out how to brew without a metal tea egg - cheesecloth/linen pouch?

Crystallized Honey (FotR 75) (in a horn container)

Some sort of handmade bread would be nice!

=WATER=

The travelers start their journey carrying “water-bottles” (FotR 81) and Sam carries his through Mordor. No mention is made of what sort these were, though Frodo’s was “slashed” (RotK 201) by the orcs at Cirith Ungol—which suggests leather—but until I acquire or create a hard flacket or soft ‘bota’ waterskin, I use an enameled metal canteen.



The canteen itself is Second World War surplus from the UK, which can often be found on ebay for less than $30 (including shipping!). The canteen’s design has definite historical pedigree: it is all but identical to a tin canteen from Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania; the pattern can be seen in Sketchbook ’76 on page 47. It holds just over a liter, but unlike my gourd canteen, I don’t have to worry (too much) about this canteen freezing and rupturing, or being stepped on, or acquiring an ‘off’ taste. Additionally, I can put it directly in a campfire to heat water, which hypothetically could remove my need to carry a kettle. To help carry the canteen, I stitched together an outer cover of goatskin and a liner made from an old wool sweater. My intention with the liner is to use it as a ‘hot water bottle’—I can boil water in my canteen before I go to bed, cover it in the wool, and keep my toes or hands toasty in my bed. In high summer, I can also soak it in water for ‘evaporative cooling’ of my canteen.

The whole assembly hangs under my right shoulder on a inkle-woven strap of nettle, which grew “rampant” in the Buckland-adjacent Old Forest’s bonfire glade (FotR 126)! Although my canteen is made of enameled iron and not tin (of which historical canteens were typically made), tin (TTT 188), iron (RotK 393), and glass (UT 348) (the source of enamel) were all known at the end of the Third age, and so I am inclined to think my canteen is probably ‘of dwarvish make’.



I also have a large canteen gourd ($0), which is sealed with pine resin (‘brewer’s pitch’) and holds two liters comfortably, with a maximum capacity of three liters. It hangs from my left shoulder in a net of buckskin, attached to a thick strap of nettle. The stopper is cherry wood on a milkweed cord. I also made up a cane container of water-purifying tablets to go with the gourd (because our culture’s relentless and myopic pursuit of Saruman-ism has resulted in all water being unsafe to drink without processing)!


 * concerning goats: Goats do not appear in Tolkien, but are used figuratively, referenced in names (ex. Harry Goatleaf in Bree), and the authentic hobbitish word, gamba, meaning “he-goat”, later translated “buck” as in “Brandybuck” (authentically Brandagamba) (Appendix F, 466).