I found the discussions in Chapter One quite interesting, especially because I finished reading The Hobbit at the beginning of this class. Much of the information that was included in the first section, A moment of inspiration? and the second section, The world of fairy tale I was already familiar with because this was included in The Annotated Hobbit, which contained much of this information in its numerous footnotes. I also knew much of the information such as the sources of particular names (i.e. from Beowulf) from our class discussions.
One section which I found to be intriguing was the one in which Shippey discusses the creation of Smaug and how Tolkien incorporated various elements from three other dragons in ancient literature, notably Fafnir. It also brought up an idea that I had never considered while reading The Hobbit, that being that Smaug speaks as if a “twentieth century Englishman” (37), one who is upper class, which is different from how the other characters in this book speak. His language is archaic and impressive. It is interesting in that he seems to be from a different world than the heroic world of Middle Earth. Shippey points out that he is alike Bilbo in this way, that they are both “in two worlds at once” (39).
Although this point was also made in The Annotated Hobbit, I thought it to be important; that when the dwarves and Bilbo part from each other at the end of their journey, their final words are deep in contrast, but the meanings are identical, which shows the collaboration between the ancient and modern worlds which each are from. I also enjoyed the conclusion of the chapter when Shippey draws attention to the variety of modern values and challenge of these values, in addition to the “emotional depth” in this children’s book which is highly unusual, and the “richness of invention” which keeps the reader questioning and wondering about the rest of this Middle Earth. This is why there is no wonder as to why so many people who read this book clamoured for a sequel!
Kelsey Till October 22, 2008, at 07:55 PM
