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 21st 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 19th 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 3rd 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 17th 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 11th battalion, Lancashire fusiliers of the 74th
Brigade, 25th 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 2nd 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:
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...
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