WEEK 6 - Heroic Journey: "The Annotated Hobbit"

After reading The Annotated Hobbit, it left me with one impression... what a wealth of information this thing has. Of course, the main body contains Tolkien’s masterful tale, with all the adventure and sly humor that we love-- but there is so much more than that. Along with the original story, there are extensive notes about, well.... about everything you can think of. Lots of stuff. These notes are about Tolkien’s private life, his work as a philologist, his varied inspirations gotten from other writers and his own personal experiences, and scores of illustrations. Connections are drawn from The Hobbit to the many details in The Lord of the Rings and also The Silmarillion. Some of the more helpful notes clarify language that is "hopelessly British" or a bit antiquated for today’s reader. These numerous annotations/marginal notes seemed a bit overwhelming at first glance, but the further I got into it, the more I realized that they were nothing to worry about--- most likely because they contained many references to other Tolkien works that shed light on the characters, location, or background in The Hobbit. (Yes, there are numerous references to The Lord of the Rings, especially to fill us in on some of Gandalf’s adventures.) Interestingly enough, there are also references to many other works by Tolkien, even including a number of poems in The Hobbit which originally appeared as free-standing poems or songs in literary magazines.
Most of the names in the book have interesting origins as well. For example, Tolkien’s elven language is loosely based on Welsh—a language he grew up with—but the rest of the Middle Earth names come from English or Nordic sources. Anderson has located Icelandic and Old Norse stories about dwarfs with names, and every dwarf name used in The Hobbit comes from one of these sources. How authentic! Knowing Tolkien’s fascination with ancient Nordic sources gives you a new angle on the proceedings. So much light is shed on the background of The Hobbit that you discover a whole new appreciation of the work.
I want to touch back on the illustrations though. Wildly different from each other, these black and white illustrations range from fanciful, to dramatic, to downright awful. Perhaps the most significant are those done by Tolkien himself, because his landscapes and colors are just that eye-catching. There are also illustrations from many different editions of The Hobbit portraying various lands. Some appear childish or distorted while others are abstractions, but nearly all have annotations as well (the name of artist, when it was published, which language and edition, etc.)
Even if it is just for the pictures, The Annotated Hobbit is definitely worth the reading, in my opinion. (Not like I'm biased or anything, being an Illustration major and all...)

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