Welcome, readers, to our circle! This moon, we’re going to read and discuss The Hobbit (1937), a fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien (author of the famous Lord of The Rings trilogy).
The Story
The book tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a rather lazy hobbit who spends all his days in idleness. His furthest trips are those to his pantry or his cellar, and the most valuable things for him are smoking and sleeping.
One day, the grey wizard Gandalf and a dozen of dwarves arrive on his doorstep to summon him on a mission he doesn’t want to take part in.
Reluctantly, Bilbo finally agrees with taking part of the mission—a plot to steal the treasures of the great dragon Smaug the Magnificent, who dwells in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain.
Let the reading begin!
I won’t post anything too deep so soon. Instead, I’m going to give all of you three days to find yourself a copy of the book and read the first chapters. Feel free to start discussions, ask questions, make relations between this book and The Lord of The Rings, or Bewulf… Anything, really.
According to the international copyright law, copying quotations is considered fair use as long as you make it as short as possible and use it to make a point that requires it. Try to refer to parts of the text, instead of quoting, but feel free to do so according to the guidelines above.
This is my favorite of Tolkien’s books because I really love the style of narration. I love the way he writes in this book; in his others he seemed too bogged down by all the background stuff (the long descriptions of lineages and scenery etc.) but this book seems more free-spirited.
It’s the first novel I ever read, I first read it when I was five or six years old, and first heard it when my dad read it to me a few years earlier.
It also has a truly wonderful opening line. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
Beat that, Rowling.
A few bits of trivia I’ve picked up over the years:
Tolkien had scribbled the opening line of the book in a notebook or something, years and years before he started writing the book. He didn’t even know what a hobbit was at that point, I guess he just thought it sounded good.
It was not originally meant to be set in Middle-Earth, but he obviously changed his mind at some point and set it there.
It’s a great book, and it would be awesome to have you in the group
It’s also my favourite book of Tolkien’s. I think the other ones were a bit too… thinks of a word Epic. Seriously, he brings too much glory, and it gets too desriptive—to the point of sounding like a boring history class sometimes.
The Hobbit isn’t like that. Maybe because, when he wrote it, he hadn’t yet decided to make it be in the same world as the Silmarillion. Maybe because he didn’t have any compromises when he wrote it. I don’t know. Maybe because he let himself free when he wrote it—see how it flows? The Lord of the Rings doesn’t flow. It’s quite hard to read actually…
Haha, cool! Did you play Bilbo around?
According to Wikipedia, “Tolkien recollects in a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden (Letters, no. 163) that, in the late 1920s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, The Hobbit began when he was marking School Certificate papers, on the back of one of which he wrote the words “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit”. He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years he drew up Thror’s map, outlining the geography of the tale.”
Also true. Wikipedia again: “But the decision that the events of The Hobbit could belong to the same universe as The Silmarillion was made only after successful publication, when the publisher asked for a sequel. Accordingly, The Hobbit serves both as an introduction to Middle-Earth and as a link between earlier and later events described in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, respectively.”
Glad you are, Mitchell, it will be great to have you with us! I don’t know if I said that somewhere else, but I like your cultural knowlegde and preferences
Didn’t he just plan to make The Hobbit for children? I’ve read The Hobbit a long time ago and it looked very like a feary tale, if I remember well. LOTR is an story about death, ageing, war, ideals, politics, industrialization, environmental issues, etc. and Silmarilion is something more like the Eddas or the Nibelungen. Thus they are not really for young children.
Not really, the Hobbit, though a bit lighter than the LOTR, has some very adult meaning behind it. At least I think so. It’s a book one can enjoy reading in any age, because one can relate to it no matter the age.
I’ve just bought The Hobbit at the little bookshop next the corner. I really enjoyed the first chapter. It’s so funny. And did you notice how he managed very well the transition in atmosphere by using the two dwarfs songs and the change of light? It’s great.
I am not a fan of fantasy books, and dislike some of them, but this book has something about it, something I can’t quite put my finger on, that I really enjoy. It is a good read so far, I have finished Ch. 1. I praticularly liked this passage:
I think that passage is beautifully writen, and it stood out to me. So far, I am enjoying this book. It is not grabbing me in a way that some books have, but it is good.
I love the Hobbit. I thought the LOTR trilogy was the most boring, tedious stuff I’d ever read (Bruno is right - definitely the stuff of boring history classes), but the Hobbit is fantastic! It was my favourite bedtime story when I was really little - my mum used to read me a chapter every night. The dwarves are just classic in this story, especially.
Wow! It’s good to know everyone’s enjoying the book already!
Haha, I see Basilus will get addicted to it soon.
Do you think someone’s going to dream about it?
DayLight, this is really a nice passage in the book (and thanks to you, it was just copied to my notebook ).
Also, I was wondering…
SPOILER - Click to view
For those who finished reading the first chapter and don’t mind slight LOTR spoiler… Have you noticed how Gandalf is a completely different character in the two books. In the Hobbit, it’s like he starts as a symbol for adventure. Gandalf is adventure, Gandalf brings adventure, and there’s no much more about him… In The Lord of the Rings, though, he has a story. Her has a quest of his own, a personality of his own, regrets… But he is no longer the quick witted, good humoured old mage that we meet in the Hobbit… I just noticed that, as I re–read the first chapters of the Hobbit. Do you think the character just developed or do you agree with me—that Hobbit–Gandalf and LOTR–Gandalf are two completely different characters?
In the hobbit Gandalf returns to old friends , he is happy , and have a little business , not much to do.The Hobbits look at him as an adventurer (he is from the “outsidE” and he really is.
In LOTR his mind is different , he faces fear and death , midgard is duying.
The same man , 2 different times , and 2 different moods .
It wasnt from the hobbit until LOTR ower the night , you know
Ive gotten meself a copy from the library , its old and the translation somewhat annoys me (orc=Tusse )
They didnt have it in english , I will read it (I think) .
I will go on an easter holliday half the week i have free time , against my will (parents ) , and will reread and buy LOTR too then (I think)
I likes both the Hobbit and LOTR, I likes LOTR because of all the detail, I likes details and I like history, I even likes Silmarillion and so on.
I just remembered where my favortie charachter is mentioned in the hobbit^^.
From chapter 1, better do it to much than to little with the spoiler
SPOILER - Click to view
The Necromancer that Gandalf mentions is the same as Sauron in LOTR, I likes the good morning conversation between Bilbo and Gandalf. I also likes when all the dwarves comes. In the book it says that one of Bilbo’s Took ancestors took a fairy wife, so I like to think that Bilbo is related to the elves
Chapter 2
SPOILER - Click to view
I really like when Gandalf handle the trollsituation
Chapter 3
SPOILER - Click to view
I don’t really likes the elves in this chapter I think they are too playful and that doesn’t suit them but I like Elrond
response to Bruno’s spoiler
SPOILER - Click to view
I don’t agree with you Bruno, I see it as the same Gandalf, but in LOTR he has to “save the world” compared to the Hobbit which is a lighter adventure so I think that’s why he’s don’t is so involved in the hobbit bilbo’s adventure compared to LOTR, but it is probably also because Tolkien has evolved Gandalf when he wrote LOTR
Did you play Bilbo around?
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i just got the hobbit 
