The Hobbit

The Hobbit

By J.R.R. Tolkien

In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit…

 

A well thumbed copy!

J.R.R. Tolkien is indisputably the author of the twentieth century. The books written by him have achieved the rare and enviable distinction of being best sellers, classics of literature and fan favorites! One could hardly have predicted that a poor, orphaned boy who grew up in foster homes, would reach this pinnacle. But, with perseverance, hard work and not a little luck, he was able to get along. He received a more than decent education and became an outstanding philologist and an academic, serving in important posts like the Professor of Anglo-Saxon and the Professor of English Literature at various colleges in Oxford University.

Tolkien was extremely interested in language – not in the form as communication, but as whole and worthy of study in itself. He started inventing his own from an early age, with grammar, script and vocabulary. He welded and melded this love with his interest in epic sagas and myths especially from the Northern part of Europe. Major influences on him included the Norse epics and poetic literature, Icelandic myths and Anglo-Saxon traditions and heritage. The result was the creation of the Middle-Earth ‘Legendarium’ – a series of interconnected legends, myths and heroic stories in an invented or legendary world. One can say that most authors write stories and fit worlds and languages to fit them, while Tolkien added worlds and stories to fit out his constructed languages!

Coming back to ‘The Hobbit’, it was originally written as a bed time story for Tolkien’s children and its light tone and ambience clearly indicates so. However, it is extremely readable for all ages and does not feel faded even after multiple re-reads. The story is that of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, a member of a diminutive race distantly related to humans, who sets off on an adventure to burgle a dragon. He is accompanied by a company of dwarves and has numerous adventures, from encounters with trolls to meeting elves, from fighting goblins and wolves to flying off with eagles. And of course, he finds the Ring. 

Reading Tolkien is like boating on a meandering and peaceful river. As the words flow around, one can watch the banks go by, listen to the murmur and chatter of the water and feel the sun on one’s face. One can get on or off anytime and it is the same nevertheless.  The description of the world of Middle-Earth is immersive and tugs the reader into it. One can think if very few writers who could stand to comparison. 

Highlights:

            Too many to count but I’ll try and list some of my favorite moments. 

1.     The Dwarves song in Bilbo’s house

2.     The fight of the rock giants in the Misty Mountains

3.     The fight with the wolves and the flight with the eagles

4.     Beorn’s house

5.     Bilbo’s first encounter with the dragon Smaug, his descent into the tunnel for the first time and Samug the Golden!

Readability

            

            Overall – 10/10

            High fantasy – 10/10