Well, its over. (As Sam might have said).
I don't think I'll be joining in The Hobbit disscussion. Without opening up old wounds
, I have to repeat what I said about TH not being a part of the Legendarium - which is not to say it doesn't have a special place in my heart (in memory at least). I haven't read it for a while - last time was when I read The Annotated Hobbit two or three years back.
Its either a wonderful children's book when taken for itself, & I'm not sure its possible to analyse it in the way we have LotR. With LotR you can peel away layer after layer & find new depths of meaning & relevance. With TH I fear it would be more like 'breaking a thing to find out what it is made of...
Or, its an 'essay in the craft' which like the productions of the Elven Smiths of Eregion leading to the creation of the Three, led to the creation of LotR. The existence of LotR does away with the necessity of TH as a part of the Legendarium, because all the themes & issues it deals with are dealt with more profoundly & effectively in LotR. The Hobbits of LotR & their world exist because of TH. The Three exist because of those 'essays in the craft - but what happened to them is not known, because they aren't relevant to the big picture.
In short, if its a (great) children's book - which I think it is - we risk ending up pulling it to pieces & ending up like the people in the Beowulf essay allegory with a pile of old stones & no means to look out upon the Sea, & if we treat it as a part of the Legendarium we won't have much to say about its meaning & themes which we haven't said in our CbC discussion of LotR.
Or I could be completely wrong....
I look forward to reading the discussion.