What About Second Breakfast?
Second Breakfast event is fun for the whole family.
Abby Phelps, hosted Second Breakfast dressed as hobbit. She said she was very happy with turnout to the event.
Column
By Cole Goodwin
The Dalles-Wasco County Library hosted a hobbit-approved breakfast event on Saturday, March 11th, in celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel, The Hobbit. The event, titled "Second Breakfast", was a part of the library's two-month long celebration of the book, and brought together families, friends, and individuals from the community to enjoy a morning of fun and food.
Thirty-three attendees were treated to a hearty breakfast menu, featuring hobbit-favorite dishes such as bacon and onion quiche, veggie quiche, bacon, sausages, pastries, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, and of course…. PO-TA-TOES O'Brien!
An internet meme depicting hobbit Samwise Gamgee saying PO-TAY-TOES!
The event celebrated both the enduring appeal of The Hobbit, which still manages to spark the imaginations of readers 86 years after its publication, and the joy of community coming together over good food.
For those unfamiliar with hobbit culture, second breakfast is one of the six or seven daily meals enjoyed by the hobbits of Middle Earth (depending on whether you go by the books or the movies). In Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, Pippin is both flabbergasted and horrified that Aragorn does not know about second breakfast.
A hobbit's daily meal plan could look something like this:
breakfast at 7 a.m.,
followed by second breakfast at around 9 or 10 a.m.,
elevenses at 11 a.m.,
luncheon at 1 p.m.,
afternoon tea at 3 p.m.,
dinner at 6 p.m.,
and supper at 9 p.m.
But did you know that second breakfast is not just a hobbit tradition? It is also a traditional meal enjoyed in Germany, Bavaria, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Hungary. Second breakfast is usually a light meal or snack that takes place around 10 a.m. and can consist of coffee, pastries, sausages, pretzels, sandwiches, or puddings. In rural areas, it is also often common for early-rising farmers to eat a light first breakfast and have a heartier meal following their first round of chores.
Overall, the "Second Breakfast" event was a fun and tasty way for the community to come together and celebrate both the joy of good food and the enduring legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novel.
Although it did leave this journalist and self-identified hobbit wondering…what about second, “Second Breakfast?” can we make that happen? Because breakfast at the library is definitely a new favorite thing of mine now.
A meme depciting of hobbits Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck and Perigrin “Pippen” Took standing side by side captioned: We’ve had one “Second Breakfast,” yes. What about second “Second Breakfast”?
After breakfast, several families enjoyed a theater production of “Sword in the Stone” performed by Traveling Lantern Theater Company which took place in the Children’s wing of the library.
