The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (1937)
by
J R R Tolkein
Book Read: 17-21 October 2015
Note Written: 09 November 2015
The quest to complete the series of 'Lord of the Rings' and 'A Song of Ice and Fire' continues. The Hobbit comes across as more of an adventure fable for children as compared to the strength and mood set by The Silmarillion, which I read before this, from Tolkein's World of Imagination. The Hobbit or There and Back Again takes us through the little 'adventure' that Bilbo Baggins has out of Hobbiton once. Since I had seen the movies already, I knew what was happening. I feel that they unnecessarily stretched the tiny, lovely novel into a long-stretched and often boring trilogy, just because the series could be a cash cow. That was no fair treatment to the novel I felt. Tolkein's World in The Hobbit is light, witty, exciting and engrossing in each page. How wealth blinds the eyes of men is shown through the nature of Thorin Oakenshield, even though he is gallant, and good in nature. One of my favourite parts of the book is the exchange between Bilbo and Gollum, also the conversation between Bilbo and the deadly Smaug. I had immense fun reading the novel. The song of the dwarves refuses togo from my mind these days.
"Far over the misty mountains cold,
To dungeons deep, and caverns old,
We must away, 'here break of day,
To find our long forgotten gold."
The illustrations and maps of the edition was lovely and a great help in understanding the setting. The only doubt I had in mind while reading was that why did Tolkein, someone who created many worlds for us and hundreds of names in the process, stick to the Gregorian calendar for months? Is there an explanation? I'll look it up.
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