The Hobbit: Difference between revisions
this doesn't support this article at all |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 50: | Line 50: | ||
Continuing on, he arrives at an underground lake. The wretched creature [[Gollum]] paddles up, and the two enact a game of [[riddle]]s: if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out, but if he loses, Gollum will eat Bilbo. After several turns, Bilbo wonders aloud "What have I got in my pocket?", which Gollum both accepts as the next riddle and fails to correctly answer. Bilbo demands his reward, but Gollum refuses and paddles off to collect his most precious possession, a magic ring which turns its wearer invisible. His search unsuccessful, he realises the answer to Bilbo's riddle, and goes storming back. Bilbo in turn attempts to flee, and when Gollum gives chase, the ring slips onto the hobbit's finger. Quickly deducing the object's power, he follows Gollum to the exit, jumps over him, and escapes. Bypassing the Goblins, Bilbo returns to the surface and rejoins the dwarves and Gandalf. |
Continuing on, he arrives at an underground lake. The wretched creature [[Gollum]] paddles up, and the two enact a game of [[riddle]]s: if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out, but if he loses, Gollum will eat Bilbo. After several turns, Bilbo wonders aloud "What have I got in my pocket?", which Gollum both accepts as the next riddle and fails to correctly answer. Bilbo demands his reward, but Gollum refuses and paddles off to collect his most precious possession, a magic ring which turns its wearer invisible. His search unsuccessful, he realises the answer to Bilbo's riddle, and goes storming back. Bilbo in turn attempts to flee, and when Gollum gives chase, the ring slips onto the hobbit's finger. Quickly deducing the object's power, he follows Gollum to the exit, jumps over him, and escapes. Bypassing the Goblins, Bilbo returns to the surface and rejoins the dwarves and Gandalf. |
||
Later on in the book, Bilbo and the dwarves end up spending recovery-time at [[Esgaroth|Laketown]], the treasure-seekers proceed on to the Lonely Mountain. While they locate the secret entrance, they are unable to open it until, as foretold by the map, a [[thrush (bird)|thrush]] knocks at snails on a nearby stone and the last rays of the Sun of [[Durin's Day]] magically reveal the door's lockhole. Bilbo twice goes down to meet Smaug, who sleeps deep in the mountain on an enormous pile of treasure. The hobbit makes off with a large metal cup and learns that the dragon has a bare patch on his left chest. The enraged dragon deduces that the Company received help from the people of Laketown and sets out to destroy the community. However, the thrush is one of a race with whom the men of the lake could communicate, and it overhears Bilbo's report about Smaug's weak point. As the dragon ravages Laketown, the thrush conveys this information to one [[Bard the Bowman]], who dispatches the dragon with a dwarf-made arrow. |
Later on in the book, Bilbo and the dwarves end up spending recovery-time at [[Esgaroth|Laketown]], the treasure-seekers proceed on to the Lonely Mountain. While they locate the secret entrance, they are unable to open it until, as foretold by the map, a [[thrush (bird)|thrush]] knocks at snails on a nearby stone and the last rays of the Sun of [[Durin's Day]] magically reveal the door's lockhole. Bilbo twice goes down to meet Smaug, who sleeps deep in the mountain on an enormous pile of treasure. The hobbit makes off with a large metal cup and learns that the dragon has a bare patch on his left chest. The enraged dragon deduces that the Company received help from the people of Laketown and sets out to destroy the community. However, the thrush is one of a race with whom the men of the lake could communicate, and it overhears Bilbo's report about Smaug's weak point. As the dragon ravages Laketown, the thrush conveys this information to the one [[Bard the Bowman]], who dispatches the dragon with a dwarf-made arrow. |
||
When the dwarves discover that Smaug has died, they claim the treausure for themselves. But the people from Laketown and the wood elves feel that they earned a share of the treasure. Thorin refuses all negotiations and summons his kin from the north. The people of Laketown and the elves team up to fight a war against the many dwarves of middle earth. |
When the dwarves discover that Smaug has died, they claim the treausure for themselves. But the people from Laketown and the wood elves feel that they earned a share of the treasure. Thorin refuses all negotiations and summons his kin from the north. The people of Laketown and the elves team up to fight a war against the many dwarves of middle earth. |
||
Revision as of 23:19, 22 September 2007
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (July 2007) |
 Cover to the 1937 first edition | |
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel, Children's literature |
| Publisher | George Allen & Unwin (UK) & Houghton Mifflin Co. (USA) |
Publication date | 1937 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | The Silmarillion |
| Followed by | The Lord of the Rings |
Template:Middle-earth portal The Hobbit is a children's story[1][2][3] written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. It was first published on September 21, 1937. While it also stands in its own right, it is often seen as a prelude to Tolkien's monumental fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings (published in 1954 and 1955) and a small part in the history of Middle-earth in The Silmarillion.
Writing the book
In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects that in the late 1920s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, he began The Hobbit when he was marking School Certificate papers. He found one blank piece of paper. Suddenly inspired he wrote the words "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years he drew up Thrór's map, outlining the geography of the tale. It was eventually published when a family friend named Elaine Griffiths was shown a typescript of the story in the early 1930s. When she later went to work for George Allen & Unwin, she revealed the existence of the story to a staffmember named Susan Dagnall, who in turn asked Tolkien if she could look at the (still incomplete) manuscript. He complied and Ms. Dagnall, impressed by it, urged him to complete the book. Once this was done in late 1936, she then showed the book to Stanley Unwin, who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. Rayner wrote such an enthusiastic review of the book that it was published by Allen & Unwin.
Tolkien introduced or mentioned characters and places that figured prominently in his legendarium, specifically Elrond and Gondolin, along with elements from Germanic legend. But the decision that the events of The Hobbit could belong to the same universe as The Silmarillion was made only after publication, when the publisher asked for a sequel and Tolkien began work on what would become The Lord of the Rings.
The novel draws on Tolkien's knowledge of historical languages and early European texts — many names and words derived from Norse mythology, it makes use of Anglo-Saxon runes, and is filled with information on calendars and moon phases, detailed geographical descriptions that fit well with the accompanying maps — attention to detail that would also be seen in Tolkien's later work.
Plot summary
The Hobbit is about a young little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who was just minding his own business, when his occasional visitor Gandalf the Wizard drops in one night. One by one, a whole group of dwarves drop in, and before he knows it, Bilbo has joined their quest to reclaim their kingdom, taken from them by an evil dragon named Smaug. The only problem is that Gandalf has told the dwarves that Bilbo is an expert burglar, but he isn't what they are hoping for.
On this journey Biblo, Gandalf, and the dwarves get into alot of trouble with giant spiders, evil and fierce goblins. There is a scene in this book when Bilbo and the dwarves are ambused by Goblins and carried underground. Gandalf mangages to free them, but Bilbo becomes separated from the others. Wandering alone in the dark, he finds a ring and puts it in his pocket.
Continuing on, he arrives at an underground lake. The wretched creature Gollum paddles up, and the two enact a game of riddles: if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out, but if he loses, Gollum will eat Bilbo. After several turns, Bilbo wonders aloud "What have I got in my pocket?", which Gollum both accepts as the next riddle and fails to correctly answer. Bilbo demands his reward, but Gollum refuses and paddles off to collect his most precious possession, a magic ring which turns its wearer invisible. His search unsuccessful, he realises the answer to Bilbo's riddle, and goes storming back. Bilbo in turn attempts to flee, and when Gollum gives chase, the ring slips onto the hobbit's finger. Quickly deducing the object's power, he follows Gollum to the exit, jumps over him, and escapes. Bypassing the Goblins, Bilbo returns to the surface and rejoins the dwarves and Gandalf.
Later on in the book, Bilbo and the dwarves end up spending recovery-time at Laketown, the treasure-seekers proceed on to the Lonely Mountain. While they locate the secret entrance, they are unable to open it until, as foretold by the map, a thrush knocks at snails on a nearby stone and the last rays of the Sun of Durin's Day magically reveal the door's lockhole. Bilbo twice goes down to meet Smaug, who sleeps deep in the mountain on an enormous pile of treasure. The hobbit makes off with a large metal cup and learns that the dragon has a bare patch on his left chest. The enraged dragon deduces that the Company received help from the people of Laketown and sets out to destroy the community. However, the thrush is one of a race with whom the men of the lake could communicate, and it overhears Bilbo's report about Smaug's weak point. As the dragon ravages Laketown, the thrush conveys this information to the one Bard the Bowman, who dispatches the dragon with a dwarf-made arrow.
When the dwarves discover that Smaug has died, they claim the treausure for themselves. But the people from Laketown and the wood elves feel that they earned a share of the treasure. Thorin refuses all negotiations and summons his kin from the north. The people of Laketown and the elves team up to fight a war against the many dwarves of middle earth.
But suddenly Gandalf is on the battlefield, warning the various leaders that a new more dire threat approaches: a revenging army of Goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, humans and elves immediately put aside their differences, and a bitter battle ensues. Losses are heavy on all sides, but with the timely arrival of the Giant Eagles, the anti-Goblin forces win the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin is among the casualties, but he lives long enough to part from Bilbo as friends. The treasure is apportioned fairly, but, having no need or desire for it, Bilbo refuses most of his share of the riches. He nevertheless returns home with enough to make himself a wealthy hobbit and live happily ever after.
Joining The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings
In the first edition, Gollum willingly bets his magic ring on the outcome of the riddle game. During the writing of The Lord of the Rings Tolkien saw the need to revise this passage, in order to reflect his new concept of the One Ring and its powerful hold on Gollum. Tolkien tried many different passages in the chapter that would become chapter 2 of The Lord of the Rings, "The Shadow of the Past". Eventually Tolkien decided a rewrite of The Hobbit was in order, and he sent a sample chapter of this rewrite ("Riddles in the Dark") to his publishers. Initially he heard nothing further, but when he was sent galley proofs of a new edition he learned to his surprise the new chapter had been incorporated as the result of a misunderstanding.
In the introduction of The Lord of the Rings, as well as inside "The Shadow of the Past", the differences of the first edition are explained as a "lie" that Bilbo made up because of the One Ring's influence on him, and which he originally wrote down in his book. Inside The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo finally confesses the true story at the Council of Elrond, although Gandalf had deduced the truth earlier. As Tolkien presented himself as the translator of the supposedly historic Red Book of Westmarch, where Bilbo and Frodo's stories were recorded, he further explained the two differing stories in The Hobbit by stating he had originally used Bilbo's original story, but later retranslated the work with the "true story" recorded by Frodo.
This first edition also uses the word "gnome", which Tolkien in his earlier writing had used to refer to the second kindred of the High Elves – the Noldor (or "Deep Elves"). Tolkien thought that "gnome", being derived from the Greek gnosis (knowledge), was a good name for the Noldor he created to be the wisest of the other Elves. But with its English connotations of a small, secretive, and unattractive creature (see garden gnome) Tolkien removed it from later editions.
He made other minor changes in order to conform the narrative to events in The Lord of the Rings and in the ideas he was continually developing for the Quenta Silmarillion.
Publications of early drafts
In May and June 2007, HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin published in two parts The History of The Hobbit in the United Kindom. Much like The History of Middle-earth, The History of The Hobbit examines previously unpublished original drafts of The Hobbit with extensive commentary by John Rateliff.
In celebration and recognition of the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit, The History was published on September 21, 2007, exactly 70 years after the initial publication of Tolkien's work.
Adaptations
Over the years, The Hobbit has been adapted for other media multiple times.
TV
The Hobbit, an animated version of the story, produced by Rankin/Bass, debuted as a television movie in the United States in 1977.
The BBC children's television series Jackanory presented an adaptation of The Hobbit in 1979.[4] Unusually for the programme, the adaptation had multiple storytellers.
Film
Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh expressed interest in 1995 in adapting J. R. R. Tolkien's novels. Jackson's pitch was to film The Hobbit, and shoot The Lord of the Rings back-to-back afterward. They met with Saul Zaentz, who bought the film rights to The Lord of the Rings from MGM in the 1970s.[5] However, frustration arose when Jackson's producer, Harvey Weinstein learnt Zaentz had production rights to The Hobbit, but distribution rights still belonged to United Artists. U.A. was on the market, so Weinstein's attempts to buy those rights were unsuccessful. Weinstein asked Jackson to press on with adapting The Lord of the Rings.[6]
Eight years later, New Line Cinema had produced The Lord of the Rings film trilogy after Miramax Films left when they wanted to condense the two planned Rings films into one.[7] However, New Line has a limited time option on The Hobbit.[8] MGM holds the distribution rights to The Hobbit, and expressed interest in teaming up with New Line and Jackson to make the film in September 2006.[9] MGM also expressed interest in another prequel film, set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[10]
In March 2005, Jackson launched a lawsuit against New Line, claiming he had lost revenue from merchandising, video and computer games releases associated with The Fellowship of The Ring.[11] New Line co-founder Robert Shaye was annoyed with the lawsuit, and said in January 2007 that Jackson would never again direct a film for New Line, accusing Jackson of being greedy.[12] MGM was disappointed with New Line's decision.[8] Sam Raimi expressed interest in taking over the project.[13] In August 2007, after a string of flops, Shaye was trying to repair his working relationship with Jackson. Shaye said, "I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit."[14]
Spoken word
BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Hobbit radio drama, adapted by Michael Kilgarriff, in eight parts (4 hours) from September to November 1968, which starred Anthony Jackson as narrator, Paul Daneman as Bilbo and Heron Carvic as Gandalf.
Nicol Williamson's abridged reading of the book was released on four LP records in 1974 by Argo Records.
The American radio theatre company The Mind's Eye produced an audio adaptation of "The Hobbit" which was released on six one-hour audio cassettes in 1979.
Robert Inglis adapted and performed a one-man theatre play of The Hobbit. This performance led to him being asked to read/perform the unabridged audiobook for The Lord of the Rings for Recorded Books in 1990. In 1991 he read the unabridged version of The Hobbit.
Comics
A three part comic book adaptation with script by Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel was published by Eclipse Comics in 1989. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books in 2001.
Games
The Hobbit has been the subject of several board games, including "The Lonely Mountain" (1984), "The Battle of Five Armies" (1984), and "The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame" (1997) all published by Iron Crown Enterprises.
Games Workshop released a "Battle of Five Armies" (2005) tabletop wargame using 10mm figures, based on their Warmaster rules.
Several computer and video games, both official and unofficial, have been based on the story. One of the first was The Hobbit, an award winning (Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year 1983) computer game developed in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House for most computers available at the time, from the more popular computers such as the ZX Spectrum, and the Commodore 64, through to the Dragon 32 and Oric computers. By arrangement with publishers, a copy of the novel was included with each game sold.
Sierra Entertainment published a platform game titled The Hobbit in 2003 for Windows PCs, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube. A similar version was also published for the Game Boy Advance.
Some References
- ^ Houghton Mifflin Website
- ^ Auden, W.H (1954-10-31). "The Hero is a Hobbit". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature
- ^ "The Hobbit". Jackanory.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) Internet Movie Database: Jackanory, "The Hobbit" (1979) - ^ Brian Sibley (2006). Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey. London: Harpercollins. pp. 313–116. ISBN 0-00-717558-2.
- ^ Brian Sibley (2006). Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey. London: Harpercollins. pp. 323–25. ISBN 0-00-717558-2.
- ^ The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Special Extended Edition (Media notes). New Line Cinema. 2002.
{{cite AV media notes}}:|format=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|director=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|titlelink=ignored (|title-link=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Nicole LaPorte. "Inside Move: It's hard to be a 'Hobbit'". Variety. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
- ^ Stax (2006-09-11). "MGM Eyes Hobbit, T4". IGN. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Hobbit, Crown, Panther News". IGN. 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Director sues over Rings profits". BBC News. 2005-03-02. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Jackson ruled out of Hobbit film". BBC News. 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Adam Markovitz (2007-04-16). "'Hobbit' Forming?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Patrick Goldstein (2007-08-10). "THE BIG PICTURE: New Line's midlife crisis". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)