Small Peculiar

It was my friend and webmaster Ignatz who first pointed out that Strider aka Aragorn son of Arathorn is “very Seven Samurai.” Immediately it became obvious to me that he ought to be Toshiro Mifune — not the goofy Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai, but the nameless yojimbo from the film of that name and its sequel, Sanjuro. And hobbit in Japanese becomes hobbito — I looked it up.