The Hobbit - Week 1 - Ch. 1 An Unexpected Party

[Andorinha]

Yes, profgandalf, I'll echo Stormrider's thanks -- looks like an interesting essay!

[Stormrider]

profgandalf:

After reading your paper online, I have a few comments. I have always felt that the Narrator was very enjoyable. I loved his comments, side tales, and other quips. I never felt that he was arrogant, patronizing, or that he spoke down to the reader. I think his comments are important in several ways:

• He fills in missing information that would have taken chapters in themselves to tell, such as: describing Hobbits, Gandalf, Gollum, the Elf/Dwarf conflict, the difference between a regular hole and a hobbit hole, etc. His input gave important information quickly so the "real" story could go on smoothly.
  
• His humor and witty inserts about Bullroarer and Golfimbul gave me a nice little chuckle and I found those (and other similar comments) fun, informative, and entertaining.
  
• Soothing and comforting during the frightening scenes with the trolls, goblins, wargs, Gollum, Mirkwood, the spiders, and Smaug. (Not that I was scared while reading the book for the very first time and I WAS an adult!) But I see the value in adding those comments if children were reading it.
  

I think Peter Jackson's movie will be very frightening during those segments. Seeing those scenes without a Narrator will make them more terrifying (especially to children who may never have read or been read the story). When you think of The Hobbit book, those scenes ARE scary! However, in a movie version, I think having the Narrator would be more annoying and distracting while watching those scenes and understand why the Narrator was omitted.

I do not think that there should be any shame for an author being tagged as writing for children rather than for adults. There are many stories and tales that children, teens, and adults ALL like: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Narnia by C.S. Lewis, the Bartimaeus stories by Jonathan Stroud, Grimms Fairy Tales, and many many more than I can even begin to list here. Although JRRT's children were his audience and critics (and they were young when he wrote The Hobbit), I think there are many comments made by the Narrator that were of an adult nature and probably went over his childrens' heads! So I don't feel The Hobbit was written or told just for children.

[profgandalf]

Stormrider: Thanks for your kind words. I tried to contact DesiBaggins on my own but ran out of time. This article will be in the proceedings of the eighth Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on CS Lewis and Friends held at Taylor University. I and my wife had a great time being with people who value Tolkien, Lewis, G K Chesterton and others.