{"id":40446,"date":"2022-08-01T06:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=40446"},"modified":"2022-08-07T20:34:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T08:34:42","slug":"the-hobbit-there-back-again-85-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2022\/08\/01\/the-hobbit-there-back-again-85-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hobbit: There & Back Again \u2013 85 Years On!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I shared receiving a gift<\/a> of The Hobbit<\/em><\/strong> by JRR Tolkien from The Wall of Night<\/strong> series\u2019<\/a> publisher, Harper Voyager, and discussed Tolkien\u2019s literary and fantasy legacy.<\/p>\n

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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<\/sup> year since The Hobbit <\/em>was first published, away back in 1937!<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t 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\u2019s legacy featured last week.<\/p>\n

All of which made me reflect upon my first encounter with The Hobbit<\/em> and the consequences thereof.<\/p>\n

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Unlike The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, The Hobbit<\/em> is a children\u2019s book, which means I was a late starter in the Tolkien reading stakes, because although I did read it first, I didn\u2019t do so until I was fifteen!<\/p>\n

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 <\/em>that I stubbornly refused to read it. (Words like contrary<\/em> do rather spring to mind\u2026)<\/p>\n

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However, I was quite ill with the \u2019flu during a school holiday that year, and exceedingly bored by the end of my convalescence, when my Mum brought me back The Hobbit<\/em> from our local country library. Sufficiently bored that although she passed on the local schoolmaster\u2019s assurance that I \u201cwould love it\u201d<\/em> (imagine the eyeroll, dear readers, as only a 15-year-old can execute the same) I gave in, albeit grudgingly, and read it.<\/p>\n

The rest, as they say, is history. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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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<\/em> once I got over myself and read it.<\/p>\n

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I was fifteen, though, and The Hobbit <\/em>is, as aforementioned, a children\u2019s book. So although I appreciated the story, I wasn\u2019t 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<\/em> next. (Since it was also in our country library at that time.)<\/p>\n

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As most of you will know, The Lord of the Rings<\/em> begins in similar vein to The Hobbit<\/em> with the Long Awaited Party\u2014but 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 <\/em>every bit as much as those who knew me thought I would, and maybe even more.<\/p>\n

The Hobbit\u2019s<\/em> other significant achievement, besides getting me to read a book that\u2019s 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<\/em> ensured I became an adult reader of Fantasy fiction.<\/p>\n

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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<\/em> the die was cast: once recuperated, I began scanning every available bookshop and library shelf for moar<\/em> of the same.<\/p>\n

So I guess you may now have more of an inkling (no pun intended*) why I might want to celebrate The Hobbit<\/em> with a giveaway. (Details as per last week\u2019s post<\/a> and with the essentials reiterated immediately below.<\/p>\n

If you have a story of your own first encounter with The Hobbit<\/em> or The Lord of The Rings<\/em> (or any other of Tolkien\u2019s works), I welcome you sharing them in the comments.<\/p>\n

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And then there was the film…<\/p><\/div>\n

* The implicit pun is that JRR Tolkien, together with CS Lewis, belonged to a writing group \r\ncalled The Inklings.<\/pre>\n
—<\/p>\n
The Giveaway Essentials<\/strong><\/p>\n
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