Bilbo in Limbo part 2, a short rest

Hello reader, it’s been a while, but I’m back.

 

In the first part of this post, I looked at chapter 2 of The Hobbit, “Roast Mutton”, and how it showed Bilbo’s uneasy and uncomfortable battle between Baggins and Took progressing. Granted this struggle is evident throughout the story, but I feel that these two chapters are particularly important. So last time we looked at how the Tookish streak in Bilbo was starting to become a bit bolder, and his Baggins-ness was starting, at least in part, to subside. This time I’ll be looking at Bilbo’s journey in chapter 3 “A short rest” and in particular the impact that Rivendell has on both him, and the story.

The chapter begins with the troupe heading through the wilderness to Rivendell. We see impassable ravines, deep gullies and all sorts of things that a self-respecting hobbit would deem altogether unwholesome and highly uncomfortable. This feeling of discomfort is compounded by Bilbo’s simple question he puts towards his fellows “Is the the Mountain?” Bilbo asks, the Baggins in him hoping that the journey is nearing its end. This notion is quickly shot down by Balin, telling the hobbit that the mountain before them is the beginning of the misty mountains, essentially a mere stepping stone to their final destination. Bilbo’s hope for the journey’s end is crushed, and we as the reader feel can start to feel his sense of dread. The little fellow has had his high in dealing with the trolls in the most Tookish way imaginable, but now the reality of what he is doing really starts to set in.

The Battle of the two trilogies or, Attack of the prequels.

Hello good reader!

I was first introduced to Star Wars relativly (or rather very) late in my childhood, through it’s spinoff series The Clone Wars, wich I loved, even as a 15 year old. I watched the original trilogy with my father, who was a fan. I absolutely loved those movies, and I couldn’t wait to see the prequels, and then I watched them…

Well, dissapointed is a good word to use to descirbe my feelings. Don’t get me wrong, I liked some of the characters, the beggining of the clone wars was one of my favourite movies scenes from childhood, and seeing Yoda fight the emperor was a dream come true. But alas, a menagerie of hollow characters, some convoluted plot lines, and having to hear Anakin bitch about anything and everything that didn’t go his way ruined the movies for me. I can only hope that next years The Force Awakens salvages the broken masterpiece that is Starwars.

As the final chapter in The Hobbit film trilogy was released last week, it made me lament what The Hobbit trilogy could(n’t) have been, and what it is. As much as I want to love The Hobbit films like I love The Lord of The Rings trilogy, I just can’t. The three movies suffer from the same ailment as the Star Wars prequel trilogy, albeit in a far less offensive manner. Now I do like The Hobbit films, I haven’t yet seen the final one, but I do like the first two, but in no way do they live up to the expectation that TLOTR set for them, and I was always worried this would be the case.

Making The Hobbit films as well as TLOTR, I think, was an impossible task, so all things considered Peter Jackson did a monumentally good job. Nevertheless trying to make a children’s fantasy story into an adult-steered epic like it’s succesors could not be done. Each of the films has jarring shifts from beheaded goblins and orcs and sprays of blood, to the kidsy humour of the notorious barrell riders scene. Cutting this scene out, however, would take away any semblence of this being a children’s story, therefore not remaining true to the story itself, and making it purely a child-friendly fantasy tale would in no way fit the TLOTR trilogy. The films could never have worked perfectly, unless, just maybe, The Hobbit was made first and allowed to mature into a different, slightly more fantastical version of TLOTR (a la a grownups how to train your dragon), but that is a longshot.

As it stands The Hobbit trilogy is still a decent lot of films. With it’s fantasy scenes (such as the Wargs battle with the dwarves on the cliff) that look like Zach Snyder and Guillermo Del Toro had a really beautiful baby and made Tim Burton the godfather, the humourous dwarves, and the tale of comraderie and acceptence that emerges from Bilbo’s journey with them, The Hobbit films still earn a place in my heart (or DVD shelf as it is). So let’s not look at them as the terrible prequels that ruin a fantasy epic, but rather as the scar of not-quit-ness on the almost flawless journey.

Until next time.

That is All.

 

Update on the Hobbit series

Hello good reader!

I hope you’ve enjoyed what I have written on the Hobbit so far, because it’s been a pleasure to write. Due to the business of Christmas I can’t afford to put a lot of time into doing the Hobbit series, so until the new year, it’ll be taking a backseat. I’ll still be doing similar posts on literature/poetry each week, They’ll just be on simpler things (or if not simpler, shorter). I really didn’t feel as though I was doing The Hobbit justice with my posts, so taking a break and getting everything in order for a new start will help me to make the content better.

To start this temporary phase on a good note, tomorrow I’ll be taking a quick look at one of Toklien’s most well known poems, which will be a joy.

Until next time.

That is All.

Bilbo in limbo part 1 or, a amataur’s analysis of Roast Mutton

Hello good reader!

Chapter two of The Hobbit starts as Bilbo wakes up in the morning to find the dwarves and Gandalf have left, which leaves him feeling both comforted and a little dissapointed. Just like in the first chapter, this split in Bilbo’s feelings is very emblematic of his mixed Took and Baggins heritage and nature.

Something that only occured to me as I was reading ‘Roast Mutton’ was how important Bilbo’s last name is to his character. Now I have read The Hobbit before, so I know how he gradually developes into an adventurous hobbit and being ‘Tookish’ becomes part of his reputation. But despite how Tookish he becomes, Bilbo is and forever will be a comfort loving Baggins, who counts smoking a pipe in the warm evening as one of the finest things in life. Which makes Tolkien’s choice to name him Baggins, instead of Took (or ascribe the comfort loving qualities to Baggins intead of Took) very intentional.

Bilbo’s journey throughout the chapter is fraught with situations that leave him longing for home and being generally unhappy about his coming on the adventure, but never whole-heartedly regretting it. This really shows when he goes to investigate the trolls. Tolkien’s choice of describing the fire and meat before the trolls tells me that they were the first thing Bilbo really took and interest in, as does the naming of the chapter ‘Roast Mutton’. When Bilbo sees the fire and mutton I believe his mind started to slip back into comfort mode, thinking of warmth, good smells and tasty food, and the metaphorical blanket is whipped out from under his feet and he’s straight back to the Took when he realises the presence of the trolls. I say straight back to the Took because of his reaction to seeing the trolls. It isn’t to run away and seek any semblance of comfort he can find, rather to try and pick the trolls pockets, and reaffirm his status as ‘burglar’. So Bilbo’s getting much more Tookish, but as we’ll see, he’s not there yet.

Until next time.

That is All.

P.S. For anyone who liked my post on the Bilbo and Gollum figure that I picked up, good news! I have a few more posts on some figures I’ve managed to find over the past little while thanks to some extra money and nosing through dusty stores.

Concerning Hobbits.

Hello good reader!

This is the first post in a series that I will be doing on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. I don’t claim any particularly great knowledge of the world of Middle-Earth, or of Tolkien’s own literary process, style and goals, and that is precisely why I am doing this series – To learn new things about this secondary world that I love, and share them with others who desire the same. Think of this as more of a winding journey where the end isn’t especially important, where I don’t know a great deal more than you do, and discovery is the goal.

Now there is a lot that one can gleam on a close and thoughtful reading on The Hobbit’s first chapter, and frankly, I don’t possess the confidence to write on some of the insights I believe I’ve had in my reading, so today I’ll be sticking with one theme, and I’ll be approaching it from a few different angles. The theme I will be focussing on is how Tolkien draws his readers, adult and child alike, into the world of The Hobbit, and how despite marvelous, fanciful and some downright unbelievable occurences, readers come to accept the world the young Bilbo inhabits.

Bilbo comes from two very different hobbit families, the predictable and ‘prosy’ Baggins family, and the unpredictable and not-altogether proper Took family. These two groups coexist peacefully, with the Baggins side dominating, until the events that begin The Hobbit. When Bilbo’s quiet and comfortable life is disturbed by the dwarves, he begins to see a world that is far removed from his own. He sees a world full of golden treasures, wonderful toys, goblins and magnificent dragons. Bilbo seems to begin to fall in love with this world, albeit hesitantly. His hesitance is given an identity by the Baggins side of him, the part that doesn’t want to go gallivanting off on adventures, conversely the curious side of him is represented wholly by the Tookishness he tries so hard to dim. The tension between these two sides of Bilbo make up a lot of the content of the first chapter and give the reader not only an insight into Bilbo’s mind, but also an archetype to follow whilst accepting the fanciful world that they are entering into.

Bilbo offers the reader someone they can relate to on their own journey into the world, and just as he slowly becomes more accepting on the adventure that has been dropped into his lap, we as readers are slowly weaned of our dependency on reality, or at least the things we perceive as real, in the world of The Hobbit. Poems and stories are part of what encourages Bilbo to partake in the adventure set before him, and interestingly enough, provides a sort of how-to on, uhh, how to enjoy the book.

Tolkien had said that it wasn’t necessarily important on where an authors inspiration came from in created a secondary world, but that it was rather more important that the world is accepted and enjoyed by its readers (I must admit I can’t remember where or when he said this, I think it was in one of his essays, but I don’t know which one, I think I read an excerpt from it in the beginning of my edition of The Lord of the Rings), rather than being over analysed and turned into something utterly boring. Just like Bilbo is encouraged to accept and enjoy the adventure he has been thrust into, readers are subtly encouraged to do the same. So The Hobbit really set out the framework not only for the rest of the mythology of Middle-Earth, but also how it should be interacted with.

So, that’s the first part of this series done. I’m hoping to read Tolkien’s sub-creative works as they were intended, not to be overrun with analysis, but to be understood and enjoyed as what they are.

Until next time.

That is All.