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The hobbit Knut Auvor Grythe, 2A

The Hobbit
The Hobbit was originally produced as loud reading for Tolkien’s own children.
The Inklings, a group of conservative Oxford-professors funded by Tolkien himself and his
friend C. S. Lewis, convinced Tolkien to publish The Hobbit, after hearing Tolkien read parts
of it. Today Tolkien is reckoned to be the father of fantasy literature, and many claim that no
other fantasy writer really can compare to him. After all, Tolkien was a professor in language,
and therefore knew pretty well how to create an artificial word without making it sound silly.
The Hobbit is the prelude to “The Lord Of The Rings” (often called LOTR for short), which
is the most popular fantasy publication of all time.

Setting
The setting of the story is in another world, Middle-Earth. I am not actually sure exactly
where it is, but it seems to be in a “parallel dimension” or something with nature similar to
that of earth. The animals are somewhat different, though. Nearly all of the creatures from
ancient tales live there. There are elves and dwarves, dragons and trolls, goblins and hobbits.
The rest of the setting changes throughout the story. In the beginning it is in a hole in a large
hill, later they ride through woods and over tall mountains, travel on rivers and camp in caves,
until we once again return to the hill.

Important characters:

The hobbit
"I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have
become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were)
a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded
dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them,
except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly
and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along,
making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are
inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow);
wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like
the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces,
and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they
can get it)."

Some believe the hobbits are based on Tolkien himself, being a kind of self-portrait.
Hobbits usually live in a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside, similar to that of
England.
Hobbits are by nature peaceful, and avoid any kind of adventure. They prefer staying at home
eating biscuits and drinking tea, farming in their gardens, or blowing smoke-rings with their
pipes.
They usually avoid rivers and lakes, since boats, swimming and other watery activities are
way too adventurous for them.
Hobbits are also very fond of maps, and the usage of them in peaceful walks.

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The hobbit Knut Auvor Grythe, 2A

This is the traditional description of a hobbit. “Our” hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, fits this
description perfectly in the beginning of the book. However, after being headhunted by
Gandalf the wizard for a treasure hunt, he soon has a rather significant change of heart.
He becomes a daring burglar and swordfighter, who is hardly afraid of anything, not even
dragons. (Although he has the wits to lay low when they are around, he wisely does not
attempt to fight them.)
Some believe he is a bit adventurous for a hobbit even in the beginning because there is a tiny
bit of elf in his breed, but that is not correct. However, he is part of a hobbit-breed who looks
a bit like elves, and also is a bit “wilder” than the average hobbit.

Gandalf (“Elf of the wand”), the Grey Wizard


Gandalf is one of the five wizards who were sent to Middle-Earth to help there. The wizards
have the shape of humans and are messengers to help in the struggle against evil, sort of like
incarnated angels. The wizards were summoned with limited power, because their mission
was to organise the resistance and to inspire the peoples of Middle-Earth to help themselves,
not to do the job for them.
However, they do have some tricks like fireballs and flashes of light, which make them rather
useful at times, but they avoid using it much. Perhaps it drains them of strength.
Gandalf himself is just like the other wizards, and does his job well.

The dwarves
Dwarves are quickly recognized by their excessive usage of the phrase “At your service”.
They are taller than hobbits, smaller than humans, end extremely strong.
Dwarves move very quietly, though not as quiet as hobbits. Whenever they make the slightest
sound, Bilbo exclaims: “Drat this dwarfish racket!”
They have very long beards (actually, the women seem to have beards as well).
They wear hoods in different colours, but brothers sometimes use the same colour. Perhaps
this is some kind of code, like the Scottish tartans or something. I am really not sure. (It seems
to me that little is certain in fantasy literature.)
Dwarves are known to be very polite, but perhaps a bit greedy when faced upon treasure.
The dwarves mentioned in this tale are: Thorin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur,
Bofur and Bombur. Similar names indicate that they are closely related, for instance brothers
or cousins.
The individual dwarves have specialized skills. For instance, Kili and Fili are young and good
at scouting and playing on harps, and Oin and Gloin have torches and can light fires.
Thorin is their leader, being the grandson of he who once ruled the Lonely Mountain, which
was later taken over by Smaug the Magnificent.

Other characters worth mentioning:

Friends
Eagles, fellow dwarves (usually relatives), Beorn (the bear-man).

Enemies
Smaug the Magnificent (the dragon), goblins, giant spiders, trolls.

Part-time friends, part-time enemies


Elves, men (humans).

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The hobbit Knut Auvor Grythe, 2A

The plot
Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and thirteen dwarves travel back to where the dwarves used to live,
The Lonely Mountain, to steal back their humongous treasure which Smaug the dragon stole a
long time ago. On the way they experience many adventures.

Point of view
The story is written in third person omniscient. We usually follow Bilbo Baggins, but not all
the time. Although the book is omniscient, it is rather shallow: Thought is not an important
part of the book; travel, fighting and adventure are.

Theme
I believe the theme of the story is something like “seeking adventure”.
Bilbo Baggins, the most important character, does not really care about money or gold, but
still joins the dwarves in their quest for their treasure, because the adventure sounds
appealing. (Although he does not want to admit this to himself.)

Use of language
The language in The Hobbit is both simple and advanced. It is simple by being
straightforward, without fancy stuff like images and such. After all it is a book for children.
However, there are a lot of “new” words, which Tolkien (who actually invented new
languages in his spare time) has invented and used in the book. The words added in the book
are usually names of special objects or kinds of food, which does not exist in this world.
Like for instance the word mithril, the elves’ name of silver-steel.
The English used also looks fairly old-fashioned. I am not sure whether they wrote this way
when Tolkien lived, or if he used this language because it fits better to the “old-fashioned”
stories of dwarves, dragons and such.

My own opinion
The book is very convincing and well written, with very few logical errors.
There are some, though, like for instance these two:
Goblins can see in complete darkness without trouble. Still there is chaos when Gandalf
“turns off the light”. Why were there any lights in the first place, and why was it a problem
for the goblins when it disappeared?
And Bilbo, after stumbling around in complete darkness, falling asleep, and being moved
around by a giant spider, still knows the exact direction to his friends. There seems to be no
limit to his luck.
The part about the dragon was a huge disappointment for me. The cover of the book makes
you believe that the dragon plays an important role. After reading about two hundred pages of
travelling towards the dragon, they hardly see him before he flies off and gets killed by
someone else about twenty pages later. A bit annoying when you have read two hundred
pages waiting for some dragon action.
The book actually seems to be a compilation of many little stories, the dragon only being “one
in the crowd”. Quite logical, actually, considering that the book was actually written as loud
reading for Tolkien’s children. With the book written like that one can easily divide it into
parts, reading one section each evening.
One thing I noticed was a lot of drinking and smoking. I do not believe that would be
included if the book was written today.
Personally, I am really not that very fond of fantasy, so naturally this book is not my personal
favourite. If I did like fantasy I would probably think it is great, since it is a very well written
book.

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