Whatever happened to The Hobbit?

[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

To address the question of canon, I think that LOTR, Sil, and Hobbit are equally canon. They can exist separately, but are all part of the same story.

I read TH after LOTR, and I did enjoy it quite a bit...but I will admit that I didn't get into it as quickly as I did LOTR, possibly because at the time I was 14 or so, and looking for something a little heavier in a book. I have only read it two or three times. It isn't my favorite Tolkien work, but at the same time, it does have a lot of charm.

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

Specifically, should The Hobbit be the children's tale that Tolkien actually wrote for his own little ones, or should it be the adult prelude to the LotR? If so, why or why not?

Hmmm.

I think that the ideal thing would be a balance between the two ends of the childlike-dark scale. It certainly should not have the intensity of Return of the King, or even of The Two Towers. At the same time, though, I'd hate to see it turn out too Disney-ish, all magic and whimsy and happily ever after. Because that's not really the Middle-earth of my imagination. Something close in tone to FOTR would suit me pretty well: light and dark in the correct places, perhaps sad/scary/dark in parts, but not as a whole...and with a general tendency towards light, rather than dark.

I don't necessarily want TH to be the "adult prelude" you mention...but I think that it wouldn't necessarily be bad for it to grow up a little. I think there is the danger of completely missing out the adult/teen audience of LOTR, if TH is presented entirely as a children's story, just judging by the fact that many Tolkien fans don't particularly care for it already just because it doesn't match LOTR in tone.

It's true that TH is a children's story, but it does touch on darker parts of Middle-earth: there are the giant spiders, death, goblins/orcs, Gollum, the Ring (of course!), and perhaps the Necromancer and Dol Guldur, though I could be wrong on the last couple--it has been a while since I last read it.

I think we should perhaps keep in mind that when TH was written, LOTR was barely planned out at all, I believe...so these things don't hold as much weight in TH as they might have if it was written after LOTR. However, the movie is being made in a post-LOTR world, so I feel like it might be good to lend a little more weight particularly to the Ring and Gollum, if nothing else.

I think that as long as the director is sensitive to both the children's story-nature of TH, but also the audience, and more importantly, the ties to LOTR, he or she should be able to strike a good balance.