Tolkien and Tiny But Mature Children

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I should like to point out that Tolkien did not grow up during either of the world wars. He was born in 1892 and went to the First War on graduating from Oxford, by which time he was 22 years of age. He wrote The Hobbit during the mid-1930s, a period long after the end of the First World War and before the beginnings of the crisis that resulted in the second.

As regards children, I think that it's at best a chimeric idea that hobbits are in any way intended to represent them. Their child-like stature seems to derive from two things: there is the simple fact that Tolkien conceived of them as a diminutive people, apt to move silently and hide easily (the better to foster belief in his audience that they might still exist), and was constrained in his later writings by his earlier descriptions. This does, however, make available the convenient device of using them to represent small people, overwhelmed by a world of mythic heroes that to them is literally built on a huge scale, and yet at the same time possessing the power to influence that world for the better. Their lack of beards seems to me a side issue. Most Elves do not grow beards either, and a large proportion of the Men are also clean shaven, except the old and venerable. Certainly he seems to associate long beards with age and wisdom when he is not putting them on Dwarves, but when we are considering characters such as Círdan or Gandalf, age is obviously something more than simple adulthood. Frodo and Bilbo are both well into their fifties when they go adventuring, so I think it unlikely that there is any special intent to produce childlike heroes. As for the simple outlook and way of life of the Shire, I think that this is more a somewhat idealised portrait of late-Victorian rural life in England than a portrayal of childhood. We must certainly be careful not to judge the hobbits by their size: they are indeed the ubiquitous 'little people', but as Tolkien himself once wrote (in the guise of Elrond): "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."

What Bilbo really loses during the course of The Hobbit is his bourgeois pomposity and complacency. Although these are more adult qualities, they are scarcely desirable ones, and I'm sure that Tolkien intended to tell us that to lose one's sense of adventure, fun or wonder is neither required in order to become adult nor a sign of adulthood. There are enough quack psychologists telling people to 'get in touch with their inner child' for it to be a common enough concept, but that does not mean to turn one's back on adult responsibilities or concerns. Rather I think that Tolkien tells us that it is easier to face those responsibilities if we can remember to enjoy life as well. One need not be a child to grasp that simple idea.

[ 10:06 AM January 31, 2004: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]