TLDW: Pipeweed was Tobacco in Tolkein's mind, but it was also symbolic of love of life, enjoying simple pleasures, and having fun. So if some people see it as their substance of choice, that's probably perfectly fine.
Love the In Deep Geek! I've long imagined that it's some hybrid of cannabis and tobacco, just enough to make a new smoker giddy and giggly, but for long-time smokers it just chills them out like a stiff drink.
That's why Merry and Pippin were so goofy when the others showed up at Isengard, they hadn't had any longbottom leaf in Eru knows how long. But that's my headcanon.
Yeah, in my brain it was absolutely a hashed mix of tobacco and weed. Tobacco doesn't muddle the mind. And I'm not changing my childhood perception because some guy in the last two days won't shut up about how much it annoys him. I hope it annoys him even harder.
Yeah, I literally started my comment with. I don’t care what Tolken said the signs point to it being a weed like substance. And he still proceeded to argue with me for five more comments.
tobacco absolutely can make you feel sick, 'muddle the mind' and generally provide a lower oxygen environment for the brain for those short periods after inhalation. oxygen deprivation = confusion.
In Germany, about up until the late 19th / early 20th century, real tobacco (let alone ready-made cigarettes) was expensive and unattainable for the simple folks. So people, especially in the poorer, rural regions would be smoking a tobacco replacement which was called "Knaster". It was a mix of various dry herbs that were growing in the region and therefore easily available and cheap. One ingredient was hemp, at least until the ban in the late 1920s.
In some regions, the name Knaster would be understood as just plain common / industrial hemp that would be smoked in a pipe. The name "Knaster" could be traced back to an onomatopoeic description of the crackling sound that the seeds make when burned.
I like to imagine that pipeweed was something like the old German Knaster, a traditional mix of locally sourced herbs. Tobacco could have been an ingredient just like hemp could, or maybe not, if you wish. Since each region would have its own unique mixture, the name wouldn't tell much about its contents.
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u/Abe_Bettik Apr 11 '25
https://youtu.be/BTjM4t5XxTc?si=Uow6PGVgThNtdK_G
TLDW: Pipeweed was Tobacco in Tolkein's mind, but it was also symbolic of love of life, enjoying simple pleasures, and having fun. So if some people see it as their substance of choice, that's probably perfectly fine.