| $@%&! level: None “Bedroom” level: None Violence level: Medium-High (it's epic fantasy, after all) Back Cover: “And what is a hobbit? Hobbits are little people, smaller than dwarves. They love peace and quiet and good tilled earth. They dislike machines, but they are handy with tools. They are nimble but don't like to hurry. They have sharp ears and eyes. They are inclined to be fat. They wear bright colors but seldom wear shoes. They like to laugh and eat (six meals a day) and drink. They like parties and they like to give and receive presents. They inhabit a land they call The Shire, a place between the River Brandywine and the Far Downs. The Hobbit is a story of these delightful creatures—a story complete in itself yet full of portent. For this is the book that tells of Bilbo Baggins, the far-wandering hobbit who discovered (some say stole) the One Ring of Power and brought it back to The Shire. And so this is the absolutely necessary beginning to the great story of the War of the Rings which J.R.R. Tolkien completes in his epic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.” |
I'm not sure what I can say about The Hobbit. It's sort of like trying to give your opinion of the first airplane flight. This is more or less the beginning of the whole fantasy genre. Yes, I know it evolved from earlier things, and there were fantasy books before this, but it was Tolkien that really jump-started the whole thing (for which favor he has my eternal gratitude). So if you read this and think it's got cliches in it, you're wrong. This is what caused the cliches to be created in the first place.
In spite of what I just said, as a fantasy hero, Bilbo Baggins is pretty unusual. It's not because he's better at thinking his way out of problems than fighting, or because his bravery and determination are greater than his physical ability. There are a lot of fantasy heroes like that. The odd thing is that Bilbo doesn't actually defeat the dragon himself. He just figures out how the dragon can be defeated and says something about it, and the message happens to reach the ears of the right man at just the right time. Imagine playing Mario Bros and you get all the way to the end and figure out how to defeat Bowser, and then let someone else come in and take care of it. Great idea in real life—nothing better than teamwork and a lot of luck, after all—but very unusual for heroic fantasy.
Or perhaps the real message is that the dragon isn't the real enemy in the end. The story doesn't stop with the dragon dying, so that makes a certain amount of sense. Maybe the real enemy is war, especially war between people who should be allies against the evils of the world. And that Bilbo actually does play an important part in stopping.
I am a bit upset though, because I've read the book, so I know that my two favorites of the dwarves from the movies are the ones who end up dying. Dang it.