The Hobbit

Proceeding with my own quest in exploring fantasy literature for a feasible topic to work on, I joined Bilbo Baggins on his quest for the dwarves’ lost treasure. I had read the The Lord of the Rings trilogy partially. That means I have read about one half of the three volumes taken together and didn’t quite finish it. So, I already had an insight into Middle Earth.

Bilbo Baggins, an unlikely hero of this tale is reluctant to accompany the dwarves but the plot has to proceed with him rather than without him and so, begins the journey. Tolkien’s writing is lucid enough but, at times, I do feel he could have cut down on things. But then when you are creating a whole new world, I guess that’s bound to be difficult, almost impossible. So, I hung on to the book and closed it with a satisfied smile in the end.

The narrator talking to the reader all throughout the book is common in children’s literature, I guess. Lewis Carroll did it and so did C S Lewis. But that doesn’t lessen its appeal in any sense to adults. (whatever or whoever they may be.) Tolkien’s simple, lucid style which never deteriorates into moralizing teaches a lot of lessons while pretending not to teach at all.

The world he creates begins with Bag end where the Hobbit lives comfortably in a hole in the ground. Then we travel to the mighty Misty Mountains, then through Mirkwood and, finally, to the Lonely Mountains. The journey itself is filled with adventures and what follows in the end is merely an additional adventure. Nonetheless, it’s a journey that will stay imprinted in your mind for times to come. It began in 1937 and it still continues…