Or, There and Back Again Excerpts

  The Hobbit, written by J. R. R. Tolkien, was first published in 1937  It was intended to be a children’s book but has since grown into a classic example of Fantasy literature  The story details the adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and the thirteen dwarves he travels with  The company’s ultimate goal is to reclaim a lost Dwarf kingdom that has been taken over by a fearsome dragon named Smaug About the Book

  The book was published based on the initial review of the book written by the son of the publishing company’s president, a ten-year-old boy named Rayner Unwin  Based solely on the young man’s one page report, The Hobbit was published and has never been out of print since About the Book

 Rayner Unwin’s Report

  The Hobbit, and much of Tolkien’s other literature, is heavily influenced by Anglo-Saxon culture and literature  Themes from Beowulf can be found in Tolkien’s writing  Norse writings and stories also play a part in shaping the world of Tolkien’s fiction About the Book

  Outside of legends and mythology, we have an established notion of what Fantasy novels and stories contain  In other words, we all have some idea of the “ingredients” necessary to create a Fantasy  The Hobbit contains magical lands, wizards, various races, monsters, kings and kingdoms, and a multitude of languages and cultures  All of these things form the basis of what we understand to be Fantasy literature The Traditional Fantasy

  For the first time in this class, we will be examining literature that takes place in a purely imagined place known as Middle-Earth  Middle-Earth is home to many races and creatures such as Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs, Men, and,of course, Hobbits.  Each one of these races has its own rich history, language, and culture which Tolkien explains and crafts for his audience The World of Middle-Earth

  Tolkien’s world has so much depth that Oxford University in England actually offers a course in Tolkien’s elvish language  The histories and cultures of other inhabitants of Middle-Earth are detailed in many of Tolkien’s other works  The Hobbit’s sequel, The Lord of the Rings, features many of these The World of Middle-Earth

  The tone of The Hobbit is much lighter than any of the other works we’ve read so far  This is owed in large part to the fact that it is a children’s story  Throughout the novel Tolkien maintains a light, fun attitude in spite of the scary situations Bilbo manages to get himself into A Difference in Tone

  J. R. R. Tolkien ( )  Professor of Anglo-Saxon as well as English Language and Literature  Close friend of C. S. Lewis (Author of the Chronicles of Narnia)  Considered the father of “High Fantasy” About the Author