And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation?
Posted on 03/31/2003 4:42:50 AM PST by JameRetief
A Tolkien Virgin: The Hobbit - Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party
by Mark-Edmond
The Journey Continues
| And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation? |
My first reaction to even the first paragraph of the Hobbit was, "Is this really the same author as the Silmarillion!?" Everyone told me it's a children's book, but I wasn't quite prepared for such a drastic change.
Here are some things that jumped out at me: Tolkien (or the narrator, whoever he is) addresses the reader. It's as if someone is actually telling the story out loud. For example, "And what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation," as well as the statement that hobbits are, "shy of the Big People, as they call us." The language is so modern (20th century) and familiar-a style common for children's books, of course. I was a little thrown off by all the things that are in the story that are relatively recent items. Food and drink, for example, include coffee, pickles, tea, cakes, poached eggs, etc. The one thing that most surprised me was the explanation of the invention of the game of Golf! Who would've thought that the game was so old! These things don't detract from the story for me, at this point, I just needed to change my perspective since they were unexpected.
Just about the only thing that struck me as particularly similar to the Silmarillion is that the names (especially the dwarfish ones) all sound alike, or appear in groups of two or three that sound alike.
So, anyway, my initial feelings about my introduction to the Hobbit are that it has a much more "fantasy" feel. Naturally, I think I have a good idea of what the story is going to be about: an adventure to retrieve something from a dragon's treasure hoard (if you'll allow me to shave it down that far). The Hobbit is already a much more convincing argument that Tolkien is the "father of the modern fantasy genre" than the Silmarillion, since my idea of the modern fantasy genre was fostered by Light Raiders, Dungeons & Dragons, Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, etc.
I suspect my chapter notes will be extremely short for the Hobbit, but I'll definitely keep you all posted on how I'm enjoying, what I think about it, etc. as I go. Let me say that, so far, it's a refreshing break from what one of the Messageboard poster's referred to as "the systematic dismantling of the Elves."
Author: Mark-Edmond
Published on: April 07, 2000
The next Tolkien Virgin article continues with The Hobbit - Chapters 2, 3, & 4
|
The Daily Tolkien articles |
The Tolkien Virgin articles |
| ARTICLES 01-10 | ARTICLES 01-10 |
| ARTICLES 11-20 | ARTICLES 11-20 |
| ARTICLES 21-30 | 21) Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad |
| ARTICLES 31-40 | 22) Of Turin Turambar |
| ARTICLES 41-50 | 23) Of the Ruin of Doriath |
| ARTICLES 51-60 | 24) Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin |
| 61) Gil-galad was an Elven-king... | 25) Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath |
| 62) The Folk of Angmar | 26) Summary Of The Silmarillion, Akallabeth and Epilogue |
| 63) Is Your Canon On The Loose? | 27) The Hobbit - Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party |
Your Tolkien Virgin Ping! Read along with a Tolkien Virgin as he discovers and comments on the history of Middle Earth as he reads it for the first time. These articles started with The Silmarillion, is now journeying through The Hobbit, and will finish with the epic Lord Of The Rings. At the pace of 2 articles per week (Mondays and Fridays) the articles will wrap up about the same time that the final movie of the Lord Of The Rings story is released.
If anyone would like for me to ping them directly when I post the Tolkien Virgin articles or my Daily Tolkien articles let me know. I hope that you enjoy them!
I'd never recommend to anyone reading The Silmarilion until after reading LOTR. The Hobbit could be read at any time. The Silmarillion is a compilation of much earlier and fragmented works of Tolkien, with lots of editorial decisions made to make the book readable, if not completely coherent with Tolkien's two published books.
And the first few chapters of The Hobbit read like a kiddie book, because that's how it started. I was advised to continue reading, and would see the transformation into a more serious story later on.
Not bad for a book, and an entire mythology, that started with "In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit", scribbled on a piece of paper while proctoring university exams.
 Ring Ping!! |
I am going to follow along this time too.... I never got through my reading of LoTR this last time... when the Green Dragon thread waned, so did I, and I do want to get through it this summer again.
Our discussion thread for FoTR was here: Lord of the Rings Discussion Group (The Green Dragon Inn) II. the Green Dragon threads for FoTR (and TTT through chapter 5 when I quit) are both on my profile if you don't save them now.
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