Rereading the Hobbit

[nancylebov]

I've reread the Hobbit, and enjoyed it more than when I read it as a kid, mostly due to reading more carefully.

I did a series about it on Facebook. I'm reposting my posts here to make them easier to find and get further discussion, but there are good comments at the Facebook links.

https://www.facebook.com/nancy.lebovitz/posts/10221497714854725

I'm

Comments

[whswhs]

I think I remember that Tolkien wrote an account of Gandalf talking about his recruitment of Bilbo-I believe it may have been published in the Silmarillion. There wasn't any mention of Gandalf even thinking about the One Ring. He was worrying about Smaug and how Sauron might make use of him as a weapon; Thorin's desire for revenge against Smaug fitted in with his concerns. And he proposed Bilbo, I think, partly because he was pissed off at Thorin's condescending attitude toward hobbits in general and Bilbo in particular. The One Ring was as big a surprise to him as to anyone else; indeed, as he told Frodo, he had only begun to suspect the identity of Bilbo's ring.

And in Doylist rather than Watsonian terms, Tolkien himself clearly had no idea that Bilbo's ring was the One Ring, not until a couple of drafts into The Lord of the Rings. The Necromancer was an offstage threat, but I don't think Tolkien had any idea who he was when he had the White Council drive him from Mirkwood.