The Hobbit: There & Back Again – 85 Years On!
Last week, I shared receiving a gift of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien from The Wall of Night series’ publisher, Harper Voyager, and discussed Tolkien’s literary and fantasy legacy.
Only to realize, in retrospect, that I had omitted a salient fact, which is that another reason for the gift is because 2022 is the 85th year since The Hobbit was first published, away back in 1937!
I don’t know about you, but that feels like a significant numbers of years in print to me, and another amazing achievement, alongside the other notable elements of Tolkien’s legacy featured last week.
All of which made me reflect upon my first encounter with The Hobbit and the consequences thereof.
Unlike The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is a children’s book, which means I was a late starter in the Tolkien reading stakes, because although I did read it first, I didn’t do so until I was fifteen!
By way of guilty confessions, I recall this late start being because so very many people assured me I would love The Lord of the Rings that I stubbornly refused to read it. (Words like contrary do rather spring to mind…)
However, I was quite ill with the ’flu during a school holiday that year, and exceedingly bored by the end of my convalescence, when my Mum brought me back The Hobbit from our local country library. Sufficiently bored that although she passed on the local schoolmaster’s assurance that I “would love it” (imagine the eyeroll, dear readers, as only a 15-year-old can execute the same) I gave in, albeit grudgingly, and read it.
The rest, as they say, is history. 😀
I was already a Fantasy fan, having devoured (metaphorically speaking) many volumes of Norse and Greek myths, the Arthurian cycle, and more general folklore and fairytales, as well as authors such as CS Lewis and Alan Garner, Ursula Le Guin, Joy Chant, and Rosemary Harris, among many others. So of course I was going to enjoy The Hobbit once I got over myself and read it.
I was fifteen, though, and The Hobbit is, as aforementioned, a children’s book. So although I appreciated the story, I wasn’t swept away by it. I read it quickly, though, so was still convalescing and still bored once it was done, so graciously agreed that my Mum could get me The Lord of the Rings next. (Since it was also in our country library at that time.)
As most of you will know, The Lord of the Rings begins in similar vein to The Hobbit with the Long Awaited Party—but very quickly transitions into a far darker and unquestionably adult work. Immediately that happened, dear readers, I was hooked and could not put it down (almost literally.) I loved The Lord of the Rings every bit as much as those who knew me thought I would, and maybe even more.
The Hobbit’s other significant achievement, besides getting me to read a book that’s become a lifelong companion and one of those old friends I will always return to and re-read, is that The Lord of The Rings ensured I became an adult reader of Fantasy fiction.
Although it probably would have happened anyway, there was always a possibility I might have pigeonholed the genre as childhood reading. Whereas once I finished The Lord of The Rings the die was cast: once recuperated, I began scanning every available bookshop and library shelf for moar of the same.
So I guess you may now have more of an inkling (no pun intended*) why I might want to celebrate The Hobbit with a giveaway. (Details as per last week’s post and with the essentials reiterated immediately below.
If you have a story of your own first encounter with The Hobbit or The Lord of The Rings (or any other of Tolkien’s works), I welcome you sharing them in the comments.
* The implicit pun is that JRR Tolkien, together with CS Lewis, belonged to a writing group called The Inklings.
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The Giveaway Essentials
- I’m giving away a copy each of The Hobbit & The Heir Of Night (Wall 1). (NB: Not necessarily the editions shown.)
- The opportunity to put your name in the hat will close midnight, Monday 15 August (NZ time) with the recipients posted on August 25.
- To enter, email me at contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with “Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact details in the body of the email.
Although many of you may already have both books, there’s always the possibility of gifting to a new reader – perhaps even another fifteen-year-old with a contrary disposition and a black belt in eyerolling. 😀