{"id":129,"date":"2016-11-14T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/11\/14\/the-hobbit-by-j-r-r-tolkien-uk-first-published-1937\/"},"modified":"2019-12-31T08:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T21:15:41","slug":"the-hobbit-by-j-r-r-tolkien-uk-first-published-1937","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/the-hobbit-by-j-r-r-tolkien-uk-first-published-1937\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, UK, first published 1937"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is a wonderful story about Bilbo Baggins and his adventures. Although a story for children \u2013 the preface tells us that Tolkien related the story for his children \u2013 it has an appeal that goes far beyond the limitations of age. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>With a primal theme of good conquering evil and the added nuances of the oral tale, it holds the reader’s attention from the beginning to the very end. It is both well written and intelligently written (which probably accounts for its universal popularity), and words like Warg and Beorn are not just words pulled out of a hat but all of them have a definite <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>and interesting <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>etymology.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

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I first read <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>The Hobbit <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>more than forty years ago, and it was, therefore, exciting to reread it. Although I could remember the gist of the story, I had forgotten specific details. I remember loving it when I first read it, and I definitely loved it on this my second reading.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Bilbo Baggins is a simple, ordinary, down-to-earth character (I suppose anyone living under the ground would have to be down-to-earth). He is the hero of the tale, but at al<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>l <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>times the reader is very aware of his ordinariness. In his interactions with dwarves, goblins, trolls, elves, eagles, a bear, a dragon and even a wizard, Bilbo always remains Bilbo, torn between the practicality of the home-staying Bagginses and the adventure-loving <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>Tooks. Images of his armchair and his kettle are never very far from his mind.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Photo from the film in.ign.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Whether Tolkien meant this story to be <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>some kind of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>statement on our society, or whether it simply evolved as h<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>e related it to his children is difficult to say.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>However, it goes without saying that much of Tolkien’s wisdom would have found itself into the story, either consciously or subconsciously. A great read and a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>must <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>for anyone considering embarking on <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>The Lord of the Rings <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>by the same author.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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The book has been made into a total of three (3!) films.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n
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Photo of J.R.R.Tolkien from <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/a>the-hobbitmovie.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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  This is a wonderful story about Bilbo Baggins and his adventures. Although a story for children \u2013 the preface tells us that Tolkien related the story for his children \u2013 it has an appeal that goes far beyond the limitations of age. With a primal theme of good conquering evil and the added nuances … <\/p>\n

+ Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}