The Hobbit, or There and Back Again: 02/09/25

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937) was on a very short list of books I was obsessed with as a child. Although I'm not much a re-reader as an adult I was one as a child. That said, it's my first time reading it in thirty-two years.

The animated version of the book came out when I was four. When I turned five, I was given a copy of Tolkien's novel with illustrations from the novel. As this was 1978 and we didn't own a VCR and streaming services would be another 40 years in the future, if I wanted to re-see the movie, I had to read and re-read the book. And so I did, about a hundred times. Maybe more.

Between 1937 and 1977 there have been edits and revisions to the text. I suspect the version I had was ever so slightly abridged but I haven't gone back to compare texts. If it wasn't abridged, then I was very good a skimming the bits that weren't in the movie.

The Hobbit is either a standalone story of a 50 year old hobbit pulled from his comfortable life to become an adventuring burglar for a baker's dozen of dwarves who seek to reclaim the kingdom under the mountain. The only problems: they don't know how to get in and there's a massive red dragon who has taken up residence.

Or if your jam is the Lord of the Rings (which is either a 1000+ page epic involving a young hobbit named Frodo being a big damn hero, or a trilogy of long but manageable volumes), then The Hobbit is a weird prequel that introduces the Ring as an unfired Chekhov's gun.

Reading it now as a middle aged adult I was struck by how weird it was to now be older than Bilbo. I can completely understand his desire to stay home and have second breakfast and not be out in places unknown in danger with no guarantee of being able to return home.

As a child there was no other choice but to say yes and say it enthusiastically when Gandalf came calling and put the secret mark on his door. I also, because Gandalf and the dwarves all had long beards, saw Bilbo as a child (or maybe a teenager). I didn't see him as being only just younger than my grandparents!

The other thing I missed as a child was just how much of a shit post The Hobbit is. Tolkien goes on long tangents about this, that or the other thing. Gandalf's "wise" words to Bilbo or his explanations of things aren't as convincing as they are in the edited for the film version or in my memory of the book. Gandalf in the book doesn't have a fucking clue what he's doing.

I could go on with how trippy the book is. Maybe later I'll do a deep dive.

In case you're wondering, have I seen the live action version of the Hobbit? Yes and no. I've seen 5/9 of it, meaning I watched the first film in its entirety. The second one I got through 2/3s of it. I haven't bothered with the final one because the war part of the book is my least favorite part anyway.

Five stars

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