The Annoying Hobbit

[davem]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

I grew up still at the Soviet system which provided a lot of corrections in books . I was 4 when I first became aware of the book . As a child I saw the pictures on the covers which indicated that it indeed is a children's book . I began to read but stoped doing that for whatwas written there was too complicated for a 4 year old so I started to look over the illustrations . After that day I was panically afraid of the book , I even had nightmares . Can you imagine what had they done ? All of the pictures were dim , dark , horrifying , full of monsters . Actually the pictures were mostly only of monsters as the person who drew them had seen them . Needless to saythat I never touched the book again

Having just looked through my copy of The Annotated Hobbit & seen the illustrations from various editions of TH from across the globe, I have to say I was struck by how 'dark' & disturbing some of the ones in the eastern European editions are, in contrast to some of the western European editions, many of which are quite cute & cartoon like. Can't help wondering what the reason for this difference is.

[narfforc]

Although Tolkien created a lot of The Silmarillion by the time The Hobbit was released, I try to treat it as one might look upon The Lesser Rings, a mere essay in the craft of writing, by the time he forged The One Book, he was a Master Wordsmith. His attempts to put the story (The Hobbit) into context with his later writings ie:- Of the finding of The Ring(LotR) and The Quest of Erebor(UT) I find quite fascinating. When first reading The Hobbit (If you read it first), you cannot fully understand the vastness of what you are reading, in fact Middle-Earth is not mentioned at all. Elements of greater things are touched on ie:- Elronds ancestry, Durin, The Necromancer and Gondolin. The problem is if you read The Hobbit after LotR, you may well find it less than what it is. If you look at some of the names I have mentioned, you will notice how ancient they are in Middle-Earth, my own view is that The Hobbit was Tolkiens first attempt to show us his Sub-Creation. I treat The Hobbit as neither a childrens nor an adult book, the way I see it, is this is how you may try to teach a younger person of greater things, a small glimpse at The Marvelous.

[Glirdan]

The Hobbit was the first book I read of the whole Tolkien collection, and I'd have to agree with Lal and Bëth, there's BIG spiders, and treasure, and a great, big, flying, fire breathing dragon!!!!! Who doesn't like dragons, seriously. Again I'll say, sadly I watched the first twomovies before I read the books. But when I saw them, I had to read them, and I got the three books and The Hobbit, so I obviously read the Hobbit first and I have no complaints about it because it explained a lot for me seeing as I watched the Fellowship and The Two Towers movies. Anyway, I really don't see how anyone could not like the Hobbit, but your all entitled to your own opinions.

Glirdy

[the phantom]

Just in case someone wanted to see the words right from Tolkien's pen (letter 131)-

The generally different tone and style of The Hobbit is due, in point of genesis, to it being taken by me as a matter from the great cycle susceptible of treatment as a 'fairy-story', for children.

[Halbarad]

I agree with Child of the 7th Age about the reading aloud, but as a listener, not a reader. My father read The Hobbit ot me and my sisters when I was about 9. He put on voices and everything. This created a key childhood memory and awakened a thirst for more of Middle Earth. As a result, I had already read LotR a couple of times by the age of 12.

My pet peeve about The Hobbit is the character of the elves, but it is forgiven because this is where the whole thing starts to come together. It gave birth to possibly the most famous and most loved world ever.