"As children's fantasy literature goes this is a fun read full of
creaturely songs, dark tales and whimsical riddles. It is truly
a tale for the ages...." - R
"It seems every 20 years or so I must re-read JRR Tolkien. In preparation for Peter Jackson's newest Tolkien film coming out in December 2012 I begin my third reading with great pleasure and delight. Let me share my journey with you in a revisioning of "All Things Hobbity" with care, of course, not to spoil the adventure!" - R
*
"Let's start by choosing a book with pictures and maps.
Without maps you will get lost of course..." - R
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| A Bookstore Display |
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| A Sighting of Oxford's Resident Hobbit |
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| The Author J.R.R. Tolkien |
"Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit....' and thus began J.R.R. Tolkien's very first line on a blank page when grading papers at Oxford and the legedarium to come. Of Arda and Middle-Earth filled with tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world of faeries and elves, craven dwarves (using the ancient spelling for an ancient race), goblins, and greedy dragons, well before the dawn of man.
"Where Ea sang worlds into existence and the Ainur entered Arda following the creation events in the Ainulindalë. Where time was measured in Valian Years and by hero's accounts now lost in the deep delves of doom and enchantment.
"Yes, dear ol' Bilbo began it all. And it isss (as Gollum would say) by his Hobbit tale we are delivered the rich fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien. Writer of children's poems by night and Oxford professor by day. Telling his children of phenomenal bravery amid the lost lores beyond the Shire. Who carefully listened to their studied father questioning him in like studious fashion whether blue-shrouded dwarfs wore silver or gold bracelets and diamond rings with hood or cloak. Hail!" - R
"Now if you wish to know how the game of golf was begun, or what drawves love most in this world, or even how Bilbo became a bugler (tho' he didn't know it himself at the time of his appointment - or how good he would be at it) then chapter 1 is the best place to begin!" - J
*
The sign on the door read, "Bugler wants a good job, plenty of excitement,
and reasonable reward." - J
*
“There’s a lot more in him than you guess. And a great deal more than
he has any idea of himself,” spoke Gandalf to his inquisitors. - J
"And do not think that this little book of adventures is something magical
like the whimsical Harry Potter. No, its holds much better English prose
than you will find in your typical Hogwart's classic." - R
"From Book I, The Hobbit, spawned the lore of Middle-Earth's impossibly complex and rich traditions beginning with this line... 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'
"And thus began JRR Tolkien's very first line on a blank page when grading papers at Oxford and of the legedarium to come. Of Arda and Middle-Earth filled with tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world of faeries and elves, craven dwarves and goblins, and greedy dragons, before the dawn of man." - R
"Won't you come in says the spider to the fly...."
*
"What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up,up it goes, And yet never grows?"
*
"There was then a hissing and cursing almost at Bilbo's heels at first, then it stopped.
All at once there came a blood-curdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair....
"Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever!" - J
"Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with foreboding trees. The kind that whispered when all was quiet and you daren't go in and everything seemed gloomy. On some hills were old castles with an evil look that held the nights comfortless and chill. Where the echoes were uncanny and the silence disliked being broken except by the wail of the wind and crack of stone." - J
*
"The land about them grew bleak and barren, though once green and fair. There was little grass, and before long there was neither bush nor tree, and only broken and blackened stumps to speak of ancient forests long vanished. They had left Esgaroth and were come to the lands of Desolation, and they were come at the waning of the year." - J
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| Lake City of Esgaroth |
"... Bilbo was trembling with fear as he crept noiselessly down, down, down into the gloom of darkness taking more than a hobbit's care to make no sound in the lingering echoes. Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages....
"...The heat from the steam and foul smell increased as he crept steadily along. He loosened his elf-dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and pressed on against his welling fears. There were dark things that dwelt down here, that had dwelt there for many ages, and he dare not make any careless sound...." - J
"The Land that was... of Middle-Earth in the time of orcs and men." - R
"... Bilbo had come far and through many adventures to see it, and now he did not like the look of it in the least. All was dead around and about and no living thing had lived there for many years. But there was no turning back from this adventure as he pressed on with the dwarves in their doomed hopes for revenge and gilded honor." - J (in an excerpt from the Lonely Mountain)
"Never allow a Wizard to talk you into anything like adventures.
Only the worst sort of things can happen from them. Things like
troubles and cares and woes. But wizards are clever sorts of beings.
Cleverer than you." - R
"Dwarves can be quite unpleasant company if you allow them in.
Always hungry, never satisfied, grumpy as they are gloomy." - R
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| The steeps of Lonely Mountain |
Thus ends the story of Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton of the Shire, which he later entitled "There and Back Again." An adventure that had begun quite unexpectedly and returned him from the world again as quite another person. Few of the Shire believed his tales. And many doubted that he was who he claimed to be. In fact, many shook their heads and said, "Poor Old Baggins!" To which Bilbo cared not one whit and took to writing poetry and having the honour of hosting those dwarves, elves, wizards and other such folk as ever passed his way. He had become the stuff of legends and songs remembered by those who truly knew the courage and resourcefulness of a hobbit. The End." - J/R
*
S P O I L E R
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Film Production Tidbits for Parts I, II, III
November 2012
"The Hobbit will be a trilogy centered around innocence and growing up respective to the elements within the story itself (though many suppose it refers to Britain's perception of itself related to Germany's arising in WW1, this would be untrue. And let's not pretend that Britain was ever that innocent in her relations with other nations whom suffered underneath her English rule.)" - R
*
"The Film Series will be as follows: Part (I) An Unexpected Journey-2012, (II) The Desolation of Smaug-2013, (III) There and Back Again-2014. As of November 2012, Part I is done; Part II is in post-production; and, Part III will soon begin." -R
*
"I'm much in agreement that the 3rd part of the Trilogy MUST be related to Bilbo and not to the other events such as the battle of the five armies (per the book nor its appendices). The same goes with the first part whose title excludes "Riddles in the Dark" as straying from its center. It must be Bilbo always." - R
*
"MGM, New-Line, and Warner Bros. do not have rights to The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and sadly, cannot reference any of the lore within those literary pieces. Which leaves at least a century's worth of filming for later on I would imagine. Those that can't wait may read Tolkien's books now. They are everywhere present and plentyful. For books are ever the better compliment to any film with few exceptions." - R
