CHAPTER 23: LULLABIES
As Frodo watched, enraptured, Rosie suddenly stiffened and her face tightened. She let out her breath in a sharp sigh.
‘Rosie?’ said Frodo, and Sam looked up quickly at the question and concern in his voice.
‘It’s just an after-pang,’ said Rosie, with a grimace. ‘Ma warned me, but I weren’t expecting it to be like that, like a birthing pain.’
Breast feeding releases the hormone oxytocin, which makes the uterus contract down, helping to prevent post-partum haemorrhage.
‘Sam sang “In Western Lands.”
The Return of the King, The Tower of Cirith Ungol:
“In western lands beneath the Sun
the flowers may rise in Spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing
Or there maybe ’tis cloudless night
and swaying branches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.”
It was strange to think he had once held this giant as a baby. He had given him his nickname: Peregrin had seemed far too grand a name for the little red-faced babe that had stared back from Frodo’s arms. Frodo had been reminded of a pippin apple, and Pippin he had become.
The reference is to a type of apple called a Cox’s orange pippin, which has a lot of red in its skin. I originally proposed Frodo’s being the one to call his young cousin a pippin in my first story The Beginning. One day I’ll get it tidied up and posted. Here is the passage (Sam tells his friends about Bilbo’s 100th birthday party, and Frodo’s adoption):
“Sam stopped to take a breath.
‘Then they all wanted to hug Mr. Frodo, and he was given the baby to hold an’ the baby looked just like a little shrivelled apple, so Mr. Frodo, he laughed and said: “ I don’t know about Peregrin. He looks just like a pippin to me!” and then the baby was sick all down his best waistcoat, and Mr. Merry jumped up and down shouting “Pippin, Pippin, cousin Pippin!” ”
‘The conspirator, conspired against,’ he said, and Sam couldn’t help laughing.
The Fellowship of the Ring, A Conspiracy Unmasked: “‘Then we formed our conspiracy; and as we were serious, too, and meant business, we have not been too scrupulous. You are not an easy nut to crack, and Gandalf is worse. But if you want to be introduced to our chief investigator, I can produce him... Step forward, Sam!’”