Knights & Knaves Alehouse

It was seventy years ago today,
Bilbo Baggins kept the Slinker at bay
The story's in and out of style
but it's guaranteed to raise a smile
So let me introduce to you
the book you've known for all these years
...



Published Sept 21, 1937

Ooh, neat. In retrospect, The Hobbit was actually the coolest of the books.

Mythmere wrote:Ooh, neat. In retrospect, The Hobbit was actually the coolest of the books.

Grognard.

joe b.

Must just be nostalgia!

Both Houghton Mifflin (the American publishers) and HarperCollins (the Commonwealth publishers) are coming out with a special edition of The Hobbit, as well as a boxed set that includes The Hobbit along with both volumes of The History of The Hobbit.



Regards.
--

Philip Sokolov, Owner
Mr. Baggins' Bookshop
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Woo! Really, I don't have much else to say...I'm happy, but I already got my copies of the book...

jgbrowning wrote:

Mythmere wrote:Ooh, neat. In retrospect, The Hobbit was actually the coolest of the books.

Grognard.

joe b.

Nah, 'cause I like ST:TNG better than the original star trek. I think I'm alone in that one.

Falconer wrote:Both Houghton Mifflin (the American publishers) and HarperCollins (the Commonwealth publishers) are coming out with a special edition of The Hobbit, as well as a boxed set that includes The Hobbit along with both volumes of The History of The Hobbit.

Falconer: give us the scoope on the History of the Hobbit volumes---are these the ones that John Rateliff was writing, or another Christopher Tolkien scholarly manuscripts delve, or what?

Mythmere wrote:

jgbrowning wrote:

Mythmere wrote:Ooh, neat. In retrospect, The Hobbit was actually the coolest of the books.

Grognard.

joe b.

Nah, 'cause I like ST:TNG better than the original star trek. I think I'm alone in that one.

Weirdo!

The History of The Hobbit is John Rateliff's study, but if you're familiar with Christopher Tolkien's 3-and-a-half The History of The Lord of the Rings volumes, it's very similar. The HH publishes all extant manuscripts of the H and details the revisions, etc. It even publishes a total rewrite that Tolkien began after the LR! He wisely abandoned it, but it's still interesting. More interesting (to me) is Rateliff's very thorough analysis of every aspect of the manuscripts and of the final work, and putting the H in the context of The Book of Lost Tales and The Silmarillion as it existed at the time of the writing of the H. See "The Hobbit Project" forum for more info.

I definitely recommend it to any lover of the H, but you'll want to brush up on the first four volumes of The History of Middle-earth first.

One example is that prior to reading the HH, I thought for sure that Gandalf was nothing but a normal Man (of the wizarding profession) in H. But Rateliff changed my mind on that. There is a well-established tradition in Tolkien's pre-H writings of wizards: Tu/Tuvo and Gwendelin/Melian from the BLT and the S are good examples of these. These are from a type of creatures called fays, a mythological rank somewhere between gods and elves.

MUCH later--long after the LR--Tolkien invented a term called Maiar which included fays and wizards and balrogs and Sauron and much much more. But at the time of the H, Tolkien would never have said "Gandalf is an Angel" as people on the Internet like to say, much less that "Melian is an Angel!"

So I became satisfied that Wizards are, in fact, a race; but one that may naturally inhabit Middle-earth and aren't necessarily special emissaries from the West (again, a concept not even from the LR but later), nor necessarily strictly 5 in number. Regards.

Rateliff's work is intriguing, and it's too long ere I last looked at what the Hobbit Project is cooking.

Here's a foamy one lifted in toast!

TNG? Really? Mythmere loves in mysterious ways, but bless 'em anyhow.

Want to hear something cooler? Today I share my Birthday with both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins!!!

Happy Birthday to you then!

Happy Birthday to the book as well. I have many fond memories of the HObbit and the Lord of the Rings. I certainly plan to read them to my boys when they are old enough. Probably in the next couple of years.

Art

Arthnek wrote:Happy Birthday to you then!

Happy Birthday to the book as well. I have many fond memories of the HObbit and the Lord of the Rings. I certainly plan to read them to my boys when they are old enough. Probably in the next couple of years.

Art

May I also recomend The Santa Claus letters by Tolkien and also Rover Random (IIRC) by Tolkien to read to your children as well (if you don't know about them already.

Incidentally, The Silmarillon was first published September 15th 1977, just 6 days short of The Hobbit's 40th anniversary. Unfinished Tales was first published October 2nd 1980.

(There's a Tolkien calendar hanging on the wall within arm's reach of this computer -- I knew that but never really noticed it before!)

Also, today is the first full day of Autumn, the full moon is on Wednesday, and Sukkot begins on Thursday.