The Hobbit is 87 years old today

[Bêthberry]

The years are creeping up on The Hobbit. It was published September 21, 1937, at the tail end of a decade that saw the worst economic depression in the Western world. Yet its ethos was hardly that of doom, gloom, and depression. It was eagerly received and well regarded.Words such as "marvellous" and "freshly original" found their way into reviews, as well as the claim that it was destined to be a classic of children's literature. Now, it is seen as more than simply a children's book but as a narrative which shaped a culture in surprising ways.

What was the context in which you first read The Hobbit and did that context influence your reading of the book? Now that you are older, and possibly wiser, and living through the tumultuous and unstable times of the 21st century, does that world context influence how you read Bilbo's story now? Instead of being young and fresh, has it gone gracefully into an old age of seniority?

[Morthoron]

Actually, I started somewhat late, considering the era. I was a young teen, it was 1973, and I happened to see Tolkien's obituary in the Detroit Free Press. The obit was a full page with a photo of Tolkien surrounded by illustrations of Hobbits, Dwarves and other various characters of Middle-earth.

I had a natural affinity for mythology as a youth (Greek, Norse, the Mabinogion, etc.), and so I was intrigued. I borrowed The Hobbit from the school library, ran through it in a day and was immediately hooked. Soon I completed The Lord of the Rings and I was well on my way down the endless paths of Middle-earth. I remember waiting with anticipation the publishing of The Silmarillion in 1977 and I purchased a copy upon its release in the States. I still have that hardbound copy.

Is it still fresh? Truth be told, inundated by the various Jackson films I didn't read The Hobbit and LotR for many years thereafter (I needed to eliminate the faces of the actors from the characters they portrayed), and stuck with reading and re-reading the various HoME books, The Letters and other publications from C. Tolkien. I suppose a serious re-read is in order now that I am in my 60s and the glamour of Hollywood has been washed clean -- although the sense of wonder may never return fully from the first time I was enthralled by the series.

[Mithadan]

I first read The Hobbit when I was 10 or 11. I was a science fiction fan and decided I wanted to try fantasy and had heard that Tolkien was the best. I was unaware that there was a "sequel" until about a year later.

While I still occasionally read The Hobbit, doing so is more part of a tradition and I enjoy it a bit less because the writing style is less adult than LoTR, The Silmarillion, etc. Tolkien was writing to a target audience, after all. I believe that to a first-time reader (and probably also to a repeat reader who had not read it so often), it would still be "fresh."

[Bingo]

I was around 8 maybe, and found it on a shelf. My parents never told me about it, that I can recall. It was the one with Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves as the cover, and I thought it looked interesting, so I started reading and instantly loved it. It was the book I'd always wanted but never knew existed.

Now that I've read it I don't know how many times, I can appreciate the moral depth that I didn't see at first. When I was younger I thought Thorin was treated badly. Later I realized it's not that simple.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I ran into it in the little post library in Oberammergau; I was 9 or 10. I had read through all of Baum's Oz books (they had beautiful deluxe first editions, with tooled leather covers, green-gold ink and the most marvellous art-nouveau illustrations), and I asked the librarian if they had "anything else like that". She took me To The Hobbit and I was off.

(This was an edition with no LR blurb in it, so it was a while before I learned it had a sequel!)

[Bêthberry]

Interesting responses all. Thank you. I have a new context that differs from those of yours.

It was reading The Hobbit to my children. I hadn't realised at the time that I was possibly 'seeing' it as Tolkien had, through the eyes of his children. Now, years later, I wonder if my son's and then my daughter's reactions were similar to those of Christopher and the other Tolkien boys. Interestingly, The Hobbit remains the favourite of my daughter, who does not really like LotR, while my son I suspect favours The Silm. I can't recall ever reading anything whether Tolkien read it to Priscilla as a child or what her response was. Possibly I've missed something or forgotten some details of what I have read on Tolkien.

After I posted this thread, I received an email about a Tolkien blog that I follow, written by Tom Emanuel, who is a minister in the American United Church of Christ and also currently a doctoral student in fantasy at the University of Glascow. His interest is how reading LotR has molded its readers, including himself. I know quite a few here are not particularly interested in academic work on Tolkien--all well and good, there are many ways to enjoy his work--but he begins with his story of his first reading of Tolkien to his infant son and then moves into questions of why we "re-immerse ourselves in Middle-Earth", "The Tale We've Fallen Into: Reading The Lord of the Rings, Rereading Ourselves." The video is an enjoyable performance. Don't let the title of the blog throw you off. It simply means analysing Tolkien in different contexts, outside the normative.

https://queerandback.substack.com/p/...-jYLGWdrChHEhQ