I first saw the Lord of the Rings in their movie form. So later I wondered how the book would be like, and I was given the first book of the series, the Hobbit written by J.R.R Tolkien. Before we delve into the fantasy world of this author, let’s take a look at the history of this wonderful book.
The Hobbit was published in 1937 and was written by J.R.R Tolkien and was the prequel of the following trilogy, ‘The Lord of the Rings’. All are now made as movies. J.R.R Tolkien was known to be friends with C.S Lewis, another famous Fantasy writer of the 20th century. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series. Both of these writer’s stories can be called fantasy fiction or a type of mythology.
Writing this book must not have been very easy for Tolkien. The Hobbit book is set in the author’s made up world, Middle- Earth. This must have involved lots of map making explaining where the landmarks in this book are situated. Imagine, he invented a whole new language just for this book called Elvish. He made runes (symbols) for letters in the language and lots of vocabulary. After he wrote The Hobbit, he made use of his creations again and created a wonderful new masterpiece that was very well connected to his part one – The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
There are dwarves, elves and some creatures that we know from Enid Blyton. Tolkien has created many imaginary creatures in this book, such as the Hobbits and Orcs. Their appearance is very peculiar as is their habits. They are short midgets, shorter than dwarves and have pointed ears like that of an elf. They have curly hair and the most peculiar feature of all is that they do not need shoes! Their feet are very thick and hairy, as thick as leather, which is why they don’t need shoes. They live in Hobbit holes, with circular front doors and a tunnel like entrance to every room. But it isn’t like a dark tunnel, with bats and all. It has all the necessities for life in the tunnel, including chairs and tables, food, windows for fresh air etc.
This story is about this hobbit from a well-known hobbit family, called Bilbo Baggins. He, like the other hobbits loves his comfortable hobbit hole and doesn’t like adventure. However, there are one set of Hobbits called The Tooks, who are more adventure loving then the Bagginses.
So this story takes the young hobbit Bilbo on a journey along with a band of Dwarves. They, along with Thorin Oakenshield - the king under the mountain, and the great wizard Gandalf the Grey are on a mission to retrieve Thorin’s and his ancestor’s treasure hoard from the dangerous dragon, Smaug the magnificent. This dragon banished all the dwarves and took their treasure. The dwarves with the help of Bilbo, must kill the dragon and take back what was theirs.
Didn’t I mention that Bilbo hated adventures? Well, this one really changed him. In the beginning, he really missed his warm and comfy hobbit hole, and as he went on he realized that maybe adventures aren’t so bad, and in the end he was feeling very happy! This book made me realize, not all events in life or adventures we face are as bad or scary as they looks at first glance.
This was just the start, and after that, Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings which involves Bilbo’s young cousin, Frodo Baggins in an even more epic adventure! I will be reviewing the Lord of the Rings too. So until then, next time!
Hi
good reading