The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien (April 2024)

[Susan]

Welcome to our April 24 Buddy read of The Hobbit or There and Back Again, first published in 1937.

Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life, with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home. Then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services—as a burglar—on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo's life is never to be the same again.

The Hobbit was an instant success when it was first published in 1937, and 75 years later Tolkien's epic tale of hobbits, elves, dwarves, goblins, magic and adventure has lost none of its appeal.

Everyone, whether having read, thinking of reading, re-reading or listening along, is very welcome.

[Susan]

I am planning to start this next week. I was trying to think when I first came across this and feel certain it was as a teenager, rather than as a child.

[Roman Clodia]

Our teacher read it to us at school, can't remember when but I must have been about 8 or 9. But it was so slow, getting through about half an hour a day that I took it out from the library and read it myself, racing through it.

[Roman Clodia]

I'm waiting for my library hold of the audio to come through, hopefully by next week.

[Rosina]

My paper copy of the Hobbit has either been stolen by Burglar Baggins, or gone on its own journey There (with luck, also And Back Again). I have the BBC dramatised version, and have just listened to that again, so I'm sort of ready.

[Susan]

Good to hear, both.

My kids used to hate having books read to them at school, mainly because they said the teachers never finished them. If they did like them, I had to buy a copy and read it.

They needed Jackanory...

[Jan C]

Never read it and never had any desire to. So I will be passing on this one.

[Barbara]

oh Jan, you and I must be the only ones of our generation who never read it! it was SO popular.

[Susan]

Well, it isn't mandatory to read it, so don't worry!

[Roman Clodia]

If I recall correctly, The Hobbit was far more of a children's book, without the politicised darkness of Lord of the Rings. I'm looking forward to the nostalgia and am planning to make this my audiobook for commuting and before falling asleep.

[Ben]

I'm also part of the Jan C and Barbara club. I tried several times to read The Hobbit ("Just start it, and before you know it you'll be unable to put down Tolkien until you finish LOTR") and I never could get beyond page 10.

[Roman Clodia]

Have you read LOTR, Ben?

[Ben]

No. I didn't get beyond page 10 there, either. And two of my children love it. Possibly there was a mutation somewhere....

[Roman Clodia]

Ben wrote: "No. I didn't get beyond page 10 there, either. And two of my children love it. Possibly there was a mutation somewhere...."

It took me a few goes to get over the cuteness of the start but then we bonded. As usual, no book is for everyone.

[Alwynne]

I read LOTR at school, remember being glued to it for weeks but never got around to trying anything else of his.

[Nigeyb]

Is it fair to say that The Hobbit and LOTR mainly appeal to kids and young adults?


I enjoyed them both back then but not sure I'd be too enamoured as an oldie

[Rosina]

I wonder if the 'youth of today' do read LotR in its entirity, and do they enjoy it? It was very very popular with young people in the late Sixties/Seventies, but it is awfully long-winded in some parts, and reading - rather than watching a drawn out trilogy of films on a smart phone - might not be as popular nowadays.

The Hobbit is a much shorter book (if not a shorter filmic trilogy), and ought to be as popular with children today as then. I didn't read it until after I'd finished LotR.

[Sonia]

Never read The Hobbit, but did read Lord of the Rings, it was the biggest book in the school library and we all got a bit competitive.

[Roman Clodia]

My nephew who's now 11 loved The Hobbit when I bought it for him at about 8-9 - my sister-in-law is German and hadn't grown up with Tolkien but recognised some of the Anglo-Saxon/Old English motifs.

[Roman Clodia]

Nigeyb wrote: "Is it fair to say that The Hobbit and LOTR mainly appeal to kids and young adults?


I enjoyed them both back then but not sure I'd be too enamoured as an oldie"

I think The Hobbit is a children's book and LOTR isn't. While Tolkien denied it was intentional, it can be read as a response to WW2 with the rise of dictators reaching for total power.

I agree with Rosina, it's long-winded in parts but also exciting and melancholy. I particularly love the mythic elements from the old sagas that Tolkien re-uses. He's also an early Green with an environmentalist element : the industrialisation of Sauron's orcs vs. the Ents and the importance of trees to the Shire.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "Is it fair to say that The Hobbit and LOTR mainly appeal to kids and young adults?


I enjoyed them both back then but not sure I'd be too enamoured as an oldie"

I think The Hobbit ..."

I agree LOTR for older readers, YA onwards? I've also bought
Tolkien for friends' teens, around 14 or so - not as in foisting it on them - but because they asked for copies. They grew up with fantasy, it's a hugely popular genre and has been for a while, which means they're used to complex worldbuilding, large casts of characters, quest-driven narratives. And compared to writers like Jane Austen who've been hugely popular in the last 10 or so years, Tolkien's style is relatively straightforward. Seems fairly popular on platforms like TikTok too.

I know there've been a number of concerns raised re: Tolkien and possibly racist depictions in LOTR:

https://theconversation.com/was-tolki...

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Racism

But that aspect didn't stand out for me when I read them - not sure whether it would now - like RC I was more interested in the folklore, the environmental aspects and the storytelling.

[Roman Clodia]

I started listening to The Hobbit last night and am racing through it! It's a bit of a cutesy slow start and definitely a children's book but I'm enjoying the nostalgia.

I also wonder how much JRRT knew about his plans for LOTR when writing this? I was surprised that the ring appears so early, as well as Elrond and Rivendell.

I've just met the eagles.

[Nigeyb]

Glad it's hitting all the right notes for you RC

[Susan]

I am also enjoying it although it is definitely a children's book. Published in 1937, it was such a success that the publisher's were quickly asking for a sequel. According to Wiki (admittedly not the source of knowledge I'd usually use) Tolkien offered drafts of The Silmarillion which was rejected and he then started work on LOTR. Apparently, he tweaked The Hobbit to change the whole Gollum/ring storyline but never heard back and only noticed changes in a new edition by chance. He quickly realised that LOTR would be a darker, more involved story, moving away from the quest, riddles, songs and general friendship story of The Hobbit.

I've read a few books about Tolkien and the Inklings over the years, but it's still astonishing to realise how long there was between the publication of The Hobbit.

[Roman Clodia]

Ah, that's interesting that he retro-fitted The Hobbit - makes sense of those scattered hints of a longer story.

One thing that struck me is that Gollum doesn't seem to know what a hobbit is, even though he's one too, though he's morphed away from his original state. That makes sense of why he and Bilbo share the same riddles, I guess.

I also thought Gandalf is a bit sterner and more powerful than I remembered from childhood, the origins of what he will become in LOTR are here for sure.

I do like your description of this as a friendship story!

[Susan]

Well, it's a quest I guess, but it's also about Bilbo finding his strengths. We know he had relatives who had adventures, so his behaviour is not so surprising, but yes, Gandalf is definitely very much in character.

[Rosina]

Possibly the word for hobbit used when Smeagol was a boy-hobbit wasn't the same as it is 'now', and he just didn't recognise it.

In reality, the language itself would have changed drastically between then and now, and it's unlikely that Bilbo and Gollum could have communicated at all, just as we'd find it difficult to swap riddles with someone who hadn't spoken English since the time of Chaucer.

[Susan]

Good point, Rosina and Tolkien is quite precise about language normally - although Bilbo manages to speak to the dragon, but I will give him poetic license there!

[Roman Clodia]

Urgh, I listened to the spiders last night - as someone scared of even the smallest ones, that was creepy!

I wondered if there's a folklore basis for monstrous spiders? We see them again in LOTR and also in Harry Potter. The only classical myth I can think of is Arachne (turned into a spider after boasting of beating Athena in a weaving contest) which doesn't seem relevant.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Urgh, I listened to the spiders last night - as someone scared of even the smallest ones, that was creepy!

I wondered if there's a folklore basis for monstrous spiders? We see them again in LOTR ..."

Tolkien claimed the choice was more personal:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Spiders

[Roman Clodia]

I finished listening to this last night - nice that the audio includes all the songs as songs.

I was struck by how the story is a bit shapeless - we think it's a quest to get the dragon's gold but then that happens and the story continues. Friends become enemies then friends again; there's a war; and, offstage, the 'necromancer' is beaten.

Rereading this now, it feels more like a prologue to the longer story than it did to me as a child.

[Susan]

It is obvious, looking back and knowing what we now do, that Tolkien rewrote a lot to fit in with LOTR's. I agree, it does feel more like a prologue and I suspect the initially read very differently.

[Rosina]

I am sorry that Bilbo and his friends didn't stop at The Prancing Pony on their journey!

The Hobbit is clearly written as a children's story, but one fault with it is the lack of 'character'. In LotR, the characters of the Fellowship are distinct individuals; Bilbo's companions are Gandalf, Thorin, a fat dwarf and a dozen or so others. Can anyone distinuguish Fili or Bofur? Perhaps there are just too many of them.

[Roman Clodia]

Yes, I felt the same about the dwarves being a group of names - and the constant jokes about the 'fat' one - Bombur? - feel jarring today and rather unpleasant.

Does anyone know if the original story without back-filling has ever been published?