It’s like Old Nan says. “Stories are like old friends. You have to visit them from time to time.” I’ve always loved that line from A Game of Thrones, and have taken it to heart over the years. As a result, I have been through Westeros, Middle-earth, and the Wizarding World many, many times.

Were it not for multiple readings of The Hobbit, I don’t know I would have realized the meeting between Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Gray was no random encounter. The wizard had been acquainted with Bilbo’s mother, Belladonna Took, a hobbit who purportedly had adventures before settling down to become Mrs. Bungo Baggins.

Gandalf had also had known Bilbo as a child, and observed the young hobbit had inherited his mother’s Tookish sense of adventure, even if by the time the wizard returned to the Shire some years later, Bilbo had started to manifest the practical sensibilities of a Baggins.

So when Gandalf was looking for someone to share in an adventure, he knew exactly where to look. Because he had been keeping tabs on Bilbo for quite some time.

I can’t help but draw a parallel to Reidoth’s friendship with Qelline Alderleaf. While there’s nothing stated in Lost Mine of Phandelver about Qelline being the adventurous type, her son Carp certainly is.

Qelline’s son, Carp, is a spirited and precocious halfling lad of ten years. He is enchanted by the idea of being an adventurer and says that he was playing in the woods near Tresendar Manor when he found a secret tunnel in a thicket. A couple of “big ugly bandits” came out of the tunnel when he was there, and met with a pair of Redbrands. They didn’t see him, but it was close. Carp thinks that the bandits have a secret lair under the old manor house.

Carp is the only person in town to discover the tunnel entrance into the cavern below Tresendar Manor.

He’s the only person aware of the presence of bugbears in Phandalin, even if he didn’t understand they were bugbears.

If he hadn’t almost gotten caught by the Redbrands poking around the entrance to the tunnel, he most certainly would’ve had a Stand By Me moment and stumbled across a corpse (Thel Denrar).

This is Carp’s only adventure that we know of. Imagine what else he’s gotten in to.

Being a farmer, sure. Qelline’s friendship with Reidoth could make sense, since each of them is knee-deep in nature every day.

But if you think of the druid as a Gandalf-like character who has a hand in putting important events into motion and inspiring great deeds, then it would make sense that Reidoth keeps tabs on youths of exceptional quality with an adventurous spirit from the moment those traits begin to manifest in their young lives. For one day in the future, Faerûn may need them.

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