The History of the Hobbit | 
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When it takes you a few months to read The History of the Hobbit, and in the meantime you buy a few more Tolkien books, and you think, 'How cool! Didn't realise l have such space on the shelf.'
Then you finish The History of the Hobbit and go to put it back on its shelf... and then you think, 'Ah!'
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Finished yesterday night and totally enjoyed it, especially the part regarding the first draft, where Ratecliff went into great details both with Tolkien's writing process and his possible sources of inspiration. I loved to see how the story changed as it was written.
The print is a birthday present from a friend who's not a Tolkien fan, but understands what it means 😍
Since I finished this, I‘ve dived back into watching The Hobbit... all three films in their extended forms...and I find myself both amazed at how many things Peter Jackson added in, there is a lot of Legolas in the Battle of the Five Armies, and as much as I enjoyed it., I have to agree with Tolkien‘s friend who said, it‘s great, but it‘s not the Hobbit, don‘t change it. 😉🤷♀️. Can I get it in both forms 😂
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pickI enjoyed this journey of seeing revisions and history behind the Hobbit. I find Tolkien incredibly interesting! Such a unique mind and imagination. 🤗
pickThis book was absolutely fascinating and enjoyable! It is amazing to see the layers of writing and revising that went into creating The Hobbit, along with a reconsideration of the story after the writing of Lord of the Rings. I loved Rateliff‘s discussion of possible sources of inspiration, and yet again I have added more books to my list to be read someday.
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Have a little catching up to do on the treadmill today for #HobbitHistory #YearofTolkien
I love the idea of a friend or fellow author having an early edition of a book with handwritten corrections. What a cool copy to look through!
I guess I wasn‘t quite as far behind as I thought since I caught up to the schedule during silent reading with my students today. I wasn‘t sure about enjoying the appendices, but even these are fascinating.
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pickAhead of schedule, but I had the time and just read through to the end. Great insight into the writing of the original, so much detail that I could definitely appreciate even more now that we‘ve read The Lost Tales & Silmarillion stories, so much great stuff about the writing process & writing at that period of time that I find particularly interesting. Now I feel like picking up The Hobbit and just reading the original completed tale again.😂
Oh my...that was a dark little gruesome story full of animal abuse, I can‘t believe it was in a children‘s readers! 😱
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Haha! This made me think of Word by Word which I read last year with Litsy goes postal.
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@tjwill that was the book you sent right?
Two different, but great traditions! Probably why I love them both in different ways.
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Even after he has created the whole Shire Calendar to work out some of the date and moon phase issues, he‘s accidentally created new discrepancies. 🤪
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See, and this never bothered me...my fantasy brain said Bilbo and dwarves mostly stayed on a straight, even if rarely traveled and poorly maintained, road.....while Strider and his group where hiding for some periods, going off trail, cutting through the forests...slow and stealthy otherwise, because the road wasn‘t safe. 🤷♀️
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Every time we get to these parts, I think but, but there are special microscopes, and imaging now, they should be able to scan these in and darken up even trace pigments and then we would know the secrets!🤓
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#YearOfTolkien #HobbitHistory
Although l'm fascinated with the idea to bring The Hobbit closer to The Lord of the Rings and although l really like the changes Tolkien did do, l kind of agree with the person who told Tolkien that the new version was beautiful, but it really wasn't The Hobbit.
Bilbo's is a wonderful adventure, very different from Frodo's... a dopo so it should be.
Agreed! The styles of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are different, but both are wonderful stories in their own right.
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I had soup and salad for supper along with more Tolkien. It's been a few days since I read this, so I'm catching up on his attempt to make itineraries for travel times more closely fit with LotR and still make moon phases fit events. I am impressed by the time and effort that this shows, but I'm also ok with two different books written years apart and not planned together not quite matching up completely.
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I‘m all caught up again....whew 😥
How‘s everyone else making out, slowly catching up?
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So this is where one of my favourite parts in The Hobbit entered the book: Thorin's remembrance of the destruction of Erebor.
This was one of those passages (Durin's Falk was another) that marked my love for the Dwarves. They are far more complex characters that many readers credito them of.
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Finally!!! I missed nearly one week of Tolkien reading because l needed to read a couple of things for my blog.
Let's go back to the good habits 😁
I got a behind while finishing up The Tale of Genji, but this morning it‘s time again for Tolkien. I went by the library last night to pick up The Art of The Hobbit. It seems a perfect book to pair with reading the fifth phase in History of The Hobbit. I‘m starting New Chapter II and really enjoying the longer revisions. The short chunks can be a bit harder to place but are still interesting.
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Haven‘t been able to read the past few days. Attempting to get caught up on #HobbitHistory #YearOfTolkien Here is to hoping I can get some of my focus back! 🤞 At least it‘s Friday!!! 😋
Reposting the schedule for the last leg of the #HobbitHistory readalong, thanks to the awesome @Riveted_Reader_Melissa 😄
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This one will truly take our unexpected party through all the phases of the moon and back again to the very beginning. What would Tolkien have done if he‘d have had more re-writes and had them published in later editions?
The last schedule!
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"The Silmarillion, or the History of the Elves, which no one will publish.'
In halted at that point. I could almost taste the betterness.
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How fascinating, he often “corrected” mistakes by adding new information that made both correct. Oh no, the names aren‘t contradictory at all, he was just named after a far older relative and shared his name, & no, the Gollum story isn‘t wrong, or rewritten, it‘s just what Bilbo first told everyone and this is what he later said after a few years & some pressing. 😉😉😁👌
I love how he worked ”errors” into elements of the story itself.
I find these self-deprecating remarks about a revised edition entertaining. I also find it fascinating how Tolkien was able to use a fairly minor number of revisions to bring The Hobbit into line with LotR, yet even those work within the parameters of the created world. In the first edition Bilbo's story was told as he wrote it, later that's found to be untrue, and it's therefore being corrected in a new edition.
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Ok, this part made me laugh....Tolkien trying to do edits to his own work, and lost in his own time discrepancies....and that‘s before he starts to work out the phases of the moon issues and the shire calendar bits.
It‘s great to see famous authors with extensive world building, languages, and calendars still get tangled up in consistency issues, and even better to see them working through them.
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Every time this comes up, it still amazes me, the idea of him counting letters so that every rewrite will take up the same page space as the original so as to prevent the typesetters from having to reset proceeding pages.
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This is one of the notes about revising that amazes me every time I see it mentioned. It takes great precision to rewrite and add sections while not changing the beginning and ending of surrounding pages. It also makes me wonder about other authors. How carefully was this skill developed and/or how popular before they could force resetting of many pages?
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Really, the revised version of the conclusion of 'Riddles in the Dark' has such a different to e from the rest of the book, though it does match the heavily Norse-saga-inspired conclusion of the book.
No surprise that this is one of the most famous scenes from the book (and one of the very few scenes l like from the Hobbit movies)
Another lazy Sunday morning on which church has been cancelled gave me time to read the last of the notes for the Third Phase of The History of the Hobbit. I found the notes about the changing view of the origin and afterlife of the dwarves most interesting. It‘s amazing to me how much the dwarves changed from the earlier writings through the creation of the dwarf characters in The Hobbit.
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The first draft of The Hobbit is over. That was a great journey. Now l can't wait to read about the revision... especially those that were never published.
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Of course! How else would they come true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies because you have a share in bringing them about yourself? After all you don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and all your wonderful escapes were managed by you yourself, do you? You are a very fine person, Mr Baggings, and l am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world.
I think I‘m going to have to add the story of Sigurd and Fafnir to my constantly growing TBR, and I think there is a version by Tolkien. I find every reference and comparison of Bilbo and Smaug to this story fascinating.
Happily, I caught up on yesterday and today‘s chapters with supper tonight.
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These last few chapters are very rough to read. They are full of false starts and changes of wording. I'd love to see the actual manuscript. It is quite obvious that Tolkien was writing very fast to come to the end of the story. So many details are missing from the story we know.
Always fascinating to see the mind of the storyteller at work 😊
I am hurrying to get caught up with you (again), #hobbithistory folks! I feel like reading this book has been a game of catch-up for me, but I'm enjoying reading about how the story grew and changed over time!
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So interesting to read this first draft of the Battle of the Five Armies, which was clearly written swiftly, following the action. I love episodes with many characters. They are not easy to write, but when they come to full decriptions (as this battle eventually will) they are fantastic!
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I'm very happy Tolkien decided to go this route. I'll admit that the initial idea that Bilbo would kill Smaug was exciting, but in this version Bilbo really gets to show his valour, which is linked to his values, the values of his people: fairness, loyalty, peace. A good life.
Tolkien took a new turn here in comparison to his legendarium. I'm so happy he did.
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Really liked this recasting of the story with the introduction of the dragon-seekness grabbing the Dwarves... and pretty everyone else. It's a great development considering how Tolkien originally planned it.
I also like the fact that Tolkien didn't shy away from a total reworking when the opportunity showed up.
I'm a couple of days behind, but l hope to catch up during this catch-up weekend 😊
I managed to get in just a few pages for each of my readalongs this morning before leaving the hotel. I‘m in the middle of #Genji35 and just finished the chapter “King Bard” for #HobbitHistory.
Just a little behind... catching up before yoga though! 😋
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This has the feeling of a quick jot down as ideas were shifting in Tolkien's mind. The ending of the story was morphing. So fascinating to witness it.
Today‘s section is titled “The Arkenstone as Silmaril” and explores yet another interesting possibility to consider.
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I realized that it‘s been over a week since my last Tolkien related post. 😳 I‘ve been reading almost daily, but I haven‘t shared anything. Today I started the commentary for “While the Dragon‘s Away . . .” and found it fascinating as usual. I had to go back and reread the poem “The Hoard” and find the illustration of Smaug. Pondering the connections between his stories after having read them is so enjoyable. 🐉
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In a way, l'm sorry Tolkien didn't go the way he first wrote the story. It would have been nice to see Thorin King Under the Mountain. He's such an awesome character.
But then, part of his awesomeness comes from the complexity Tolkien infused into him with the new ideas that entered the conclusion of the story. So l'll for give him 😊
Our next stage in the #HobbitHistory readalong 😊
I'm enjoying it a lot. I've always loved The Hobbit, and l had imagined that many ideas came from Tolkien's love of Norse myths and culture, but l've never imagine the bearing heart of the book was so invested with it.
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