The
Hobbit was one of the first full-length novels I ever read, back in my
childhood so many years ago. Back then I was hooked. Bilbo Baggins was a good
protagonist, growing from just an un-ambitious Hobbit at the start of the story
to a giant-spider killing hero about mid-way through. By the time I finished I
was whole-heartedly in love with Tolkein’s fantasy world, though the sequel
looked a little above my reading abilities at the time. With the prompting of
Peter Jackson’s recent film, I have gone back to the original story and found
myself a little underwhelmed.
I knew what to expect, a simple
children’s story with only a hint of Tolkein’s future developments, but I have
to say the first few chapters were a bit disappointing even with this knowledge
in mind. The story was dull and completely see-through; the Wizard Gandalf and
a bunch of Dwarves show up at Bilbo’s house, lay out the premise of journeying
to the Lonely Mountain, killing the dragon Smaug and reclaiming a great pile of
treasure, and Bilbo, after a bit of persuading, agrees to accompany them for a
share in said treasure. That all happens in the first chapter, and most of the
book consists of random tangents and obstacles on the way towards that goal. The
second chapter was probably the lowest point, where the group happens across
the three trolls, and then Gandalf pulls a rabbit out of a hat and solves
everything. During most of the book, the characters are still just a mess, the
thirteen dwarves are merely a series of names, and it’s up to Gandalf to sort
out literally everything that goes wrong. He leaves the group about half-way
through the story for an unspecified reason, and this just goes to highlight
how useless the whole Dwarf-company actually are – during the long slog through
Mirkwood it’s up to Bilbo, the wild-card newcomer, to virtually carry the rest
of the characters through.
The Dwarves really are a useless bunch
of faceless no-hopers, as far as characters go. That there are thirteen of them
could have meant that some could have been fleshed out into fully-functioning
characters; but no, they’re all effectively the same, bar the cursory input of
Thorin, Fili/Kili, and Bombur the overweight comic-relief, and they act more
like padding for the story rather than anything worthwhile.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little too
critical of this. Yes, I know it’s a children’s story, and I remember enjoying
it when I was a youngster. If the story were more complicated then it might
miss the point, and ignorance of a majority of the characters probably helps
the reader to focus on Bilbo, as the protagonist. Right, now I’ve got my major
gripes out of the way I’ll be a bit more positive.
The best character? Gollum, the
demented creature whom Bilbo exchanges riddles with, and inadvertently steals a
magic ring from. Long before I became familiar with The Lord of the Rings, Gollum was the character who most stayed in
my mind from The Hobbit. He’s just so
vastly different from any of the other character in the book, so much more
detailed in personality and speech. That his background is never explicitly
revealed, only hinted at, is the best thing about him – a creature living
underground, full of malice and treachery, but who has dim recollections of a
time when this was not so. However, I have since learned that this might well
be because of Tolkein’s subsequent revision of the character, after the
original publication of the book; the reason Gollum might be more interesting
is because he was one of several changes made in later editions of the novel,
after Tolkein began work on The Lord of
the Rings. Oh well; unless you read a first edition that won’t prove to be
an issue, for in my copy he’s one of the best bits.
One thing I should say is that The Hobbit starts off badly, but gets
slowly better as it progresses. It’s not until the last quarter of the book that
I really properly began to enjoy the thing. Smaug the dragon was quite
excellent as an antagonist, but the real villain of the story was something
quite unexpected. All through the novel we’ve known
where it was going to end; at a confrontation with the dragon. But it’s the
consequences of undertaking the quest that proves to be the real antagonist.
The killing of Smaug sets off a chain of events that leads to a quite serious
final few chapters, where what was once a simple children’s story about a quest
in a world of magic gradually finds its feet as a tale of greed, and the consequences
of the quest. I actually really enjoyed this bit, and it was worth getting
through the crappy trolls in chapter two, and the slog through Mirkwood, just
to reach this last section.
I don’t think I can whole-heartedly
recommend you read The Hobbit, as
there are a couple of problems with it. Then again, as I said before it gets
better as you go along, and by the time Bilbo and company reach the Lonely
Mountain the real story has begun. You probably know already if you’re a fan of
Tolkein, in which case I’ve probably just wasted your time. A real look at
Tolkein will involve digesting The Lord
of the Rings, because The Hobbit by
comparison is just a cheesy little
prologue, a wafer-thin hint at what is still to come.
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