Book Tuesdays: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

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Book blog day boo yah. As you should know Tuesdays is book blog day were we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is on The Hobbit by Professor J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Hobbit or There and back again, is a fantasy book more aimed at children was written by Professor and English Author J. R. R. Tolkien . The book was published on 21^st September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, It received a nomination for the Carnegie Medal and was awarded a prise from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. To this day the book remains popular and is rightly recognised as a children's literature classic.

The story is based around the main Character Bilbo Baggins and it follows him on a journey to recover a share of Dragon stolen treasure with the band of dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield he was tricked into hosting by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey. On the journey Bilbo meets Orcs, Wargs, Trolls Elves, Eagles and Humans as well as Beorn a shape shifter and the creature Gollom. The death of Smaug and the win of the penultimate battle of the five armies has changed Bilbo forever....for better or worse no one really knows. The ring he finds on his journey definitely adds to the craziness along the way. Bilbo returns to the shire with only part of his own share of the treasure but still a very wealthy hobbit.

A lot of the influences for the hobbit came from Norse Mythology and Northern European literature, Myths and Languages, Several other authors such as the 19^th century polymath William Morris, Jules Vern (author of Journey to the Centre of the Universe) Samuel Rutherford Crockett (The Black Douglas) and George MacDonald (The Princess and the Goblin), Even the Brothers Grimm were said to have been some influence. Allen and Unwin LTD of London were sent the manuscript and printed 1,500 copies which sold rather quickly. Several reprints happened but during WW2 paper was being heavily rationed so the book wasn't available during that time. Subsequent copies from the 1950s onwards were translated into other languages and right now (at the time of blog release) the books been translated into 40 languages.

I read the hobbit when I was nine/ten years old and it was my fist proper glance into well known fantasy fiction. Think about it a pre-teen reading one of the literary bigs and not having their mind blown is far more surprising than having their mind blown. Part form that I really loved reading the hobbit, the adventure Bilbo has crossing middle earth fighting goblins, spiders and Wargs spending time with dwarves humans and elves as well as taking on a dragon seems to be all a dream. The fact Bilbo changes almost drastically over the course of the book gives it another dimension. Also having the book present it from Bilbo's point of view allows the author to present the rest of middle-earth beyond the boarders of the shire and give it an extra bit of oomph.

Professor John, Ronald, Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3^rd 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange free state (Now Free State Province) South Africa to English banker Arthur Tolkien and his wife Mabel. Tolkien had one sibling one brother by the name of Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien (born February 17^th 1894). when he was three years old Tolkien, his mother and brother went back to England for a lengthy visit but due to his father passing away he remained in the UK living with his mother, brother and his grandparents in Birmingham. By 1896 they'd moved to Sarehole where Tolkien liked to roam along with nearby towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester and Alvechurch.

Tolkien was a very good student and could read by the age of four and started writing not long afterwards. Both Tolkien and his brother were taught at home by their mother where she taught Tolkien a lot about botany whilst a young Tolkien loved to draw landscapes and trees his favourite lessons however were languages and his mother taught him the basics of Latin very early. Mabel Tolkien, was received into the Roman catholic church in 1900 despite the protests of her baptist family who promptly denied her all financial assistance. In 1904 when Tolkien was twelve Mabel died of acute diabetes. She was 34 years old when she died, the oldest someone could be without treatment and Insulin wouldn't be discovered until twenty years later.

Before Mabel's death she assigned Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan as her sons guardian and he raised them under the Roman Catholic faith in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. During this time Tolkien attended King Edwards school then St Phillips school. In 1903 he won a foundation scholarship and returned to King Edwards. Whilst a student Tolkien was a cadet in the officers training corps, they aided in lining the route for King George V's coronation, Tolkien was posted just outside the gates of Buckingham palace.

In his early Teens Tolkien had his first encounter with constructed language -Animalic thanks to his cousins Mary and Marjorie Incledon. Mary Tolkien and others soon lost interest and invented a more complex language called Nevboosh. Tolkien who was studying Latin and Anglo-Saxon at this time then went on by himself to create another language Naffarin. In 1911 Tolkien and his friends Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Hache Smith and Christopher Wiseman formed the semi-secret society of the T.C.B.S. (the initials for Tea Club and Barbarian Society). This alluded to their fondness for drinking tea in Barrows stores near the school and occasionally in the school library. They kept in contact after school and after a “council” in December 1914 Tolkien gained a strong dedication to poetry.

At the age of 16, Tolkien met his future wife Edith Mary Bratt who was three years his senior. They spent some time drinking tea and throwing sugar lumps into passer bys hats. Father Francis however didn't appreciate the romance tat had developed between them and forbade Tolkien's interaction with Edith until he was twenty one. Bar one early letter Tolkien agreed to his guardians order then on the evening of his twenty first birthday wrote Edith a letter and asked her to marry him. Edith who'd been engaged to another man broke it off and married Tolkien in 1916 after a three year engagement at St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic church in Warrick. Thanks to WW1 in which Tolkien managed to stall his conscription thanks having to complete his degree. They moved took up lodgings near the training camp in Staffordshire.

By June 1916 Tolkien was sent off to France, he ended up as a signals officer to the 11^th battalion, Lancashire fusiliers of the 74^th Brigade, 25^th Division. Over the course of the rest of the war, Tolkien both experienced the hardships of war along the Somme and suffered bouts of health problems and was removed from combat several times. Several of Tolkien's friends including Rob Gilson from the T.C.B.S. had joined the army and all but one ended up dead. Tolkien spent the remainder of the war alternation between hospitals and garrison duties, being deemed medically unfit for general service.

During this time Tolkien started writing the book of lost tales beginning with the fall of gondolin. This was his attempt at creating a mythology for England but he would never fully complete it. During 1917/1918 when Tolkien was doing home service at various camps, Edith bore him his son John. Edith had become the source of the character Luthien thanks to a walk the pair took which ended up in a glade of hemlock in which Edith decided to dance. The scene also inspired the meeting of Beren and Luthien. The tolkines ended up having four children, John Francis Reuel Tolkien (1917-2003), Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien (1920-1984), Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (1924) and Priscilla Mary Anne Tolkien (1929)

From 1920 onwards Tolkien had a variety of jobs starting with the Oxford English Dictionary. He then took a job as a reader in English language at the University of Leeds. He produced A middle English vocabulary and a definitive edition of Sir Gwain and the Green Knight with E. V. Gordon, Tolkien also translated Sir Gwain, Pearl and Sir Orfeo. In 1925 he returned to Oxford and became the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon with a fellowship at Pembroke college. Tolkien wrote both eh hobbit and the first two lord of the rings instalments whilst living at 20 Northmoor road (a blue plaque was placed there in 2002).

Tolkien was earmarked as a codebreaker for the second world war, taking all the courses required for doing so. However he was told his services weren't required in October 1939. in 1945 he became the Merton professor of English language and literature where he remained until 1959. from 1959 until his death in 1973 Tolkien received a steady increase in public attention and fame due to his books and in 1961, his friend C. S. Lewis ended up nominating him for a Nobel price of Literature.

Edith died on November 29th1971 at the age of 82 and Tolkien had the name Luthien engraved on her tombstone for the character she inspired. Tolkien returned to Oxford for the last two years of his life having lived in Bournemouth for a few years where Edith had relished being a society hostess. Tolkien's grandson Simon Tolkien would go onto say “My grandmother died two years before my grandfather and he came back to live in Oxford. Merton College gave him rooms just off the High Street. I went there frequently and he'd take me to lunch in the Eastgate Hotel. Those lunches were rather wonderful for a 12-year-old boy spending time with his grandfather, but sometimes he seemed sad. There was one visit when he told me how much he missed my grandmother. It must have been very strange for him being alone after they had been married for more than 50 years ”. In 1972 Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours and received the Order's Insignia at Buckingham Palace, Not long afterwards Oxford awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.

Tolkien died on September 2^nd 1973 at the age of 81 due to a bleeding ulcer and a chest infection. He was placed with his wife in the Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford and on their stone under his own name was engraved Beren.

I have both love and respect Professor Tolkien. He built the world of Middle-earth at large right down to the history of the gods, Languages and the looks of different races via the elvin languages Sindarin and Quenya. He'd gone through world war one loosing most if not all of his friends and had spent a decent amount of time in the company of fellow author C.S. Lewis. And you could not say that his love for his wife wasn't anything but true. Professor Tolkien is proof that great books can come from anywhere and having a powerful information can have you write some of the greatest fiction around that its considered the parent of a genre.

In Decembers of 2012, 2013 and 2014 the three movies of The Hobbit came out, The Hobbit: an unexpected journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: Battle of the Five armies forming The Hobbit Trilogy. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor and Newline Cinema each released part of the trilogy with Director Peter Jackson at the helm (he directed The Lord of the Rings trilogy too). The movies follow the book but have been expanded to include extra material from the Lord of the Rings appendices as well as having recurring characters from the Lord of the Rings Movies such as Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen), Frodo Baggins (Elijah wood), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Lord Elrond (Hugo Weaving), lady Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Gollom/Smegol (Andy Sirkis) and Saruman (Sir Christopher Lee 1922-2015).

In my opinion whilst the movies were very good having pretty much been handled by the team who shot and produced The Lord of the Rings. It felt sort of stretched, I'm pretty sure they could have gotten away with having two movies maybe even just the one if they cut some of the extra material away. The Hobbit in my eyes was essentially its own story and having the extra material padding it up to three movies-whilst useful and giving us a glimpse of the world at large just clumped it a bit. Other than that it was a good set of movies and I'm grateful that the team behind the Lord of the Rings was behind these ones, kept a good thread of continuity going.

Websites used for information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hobbit_film_trilogy

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/

http://www.councilofelrond.com/

And there you have it a book for all the ages, definitely under the banner of AWESOME!!!. So we'll be leaving this here for today please leave a comment, share with others if you want or not Friday is random blog day and remember keep it sensible in the comments all abuse will be tracked and reported to the appropriate people.

THIS IS THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY WACKY, STAY WONDEROUS AND I'LL SEE YOU SOON...