The hobbit or there and back again

Seldom has a story been as widely praised as "The Hobbit" - by parents, teachers, reviewers, and especially by children themselves. Within a few years its hero, Bilbo Baggins, has taken his place among the ranks of the immortals: Alice, Pooh, Toad... As with all such classics enjoyment burgeons at each successive reading, and grown-ups as well as children feel the potency of its spell.

It is a tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves, in search of a dragon-guarded gold. A reluctant partner on this perilous quest is Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving, unambitious hobbit, who surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and skill as a burglar.

Encounters with giant spiders in the labyrinths of Mirkwood and the evil goblins that live among the roots of the Misty Mountains, the palpitating delicacy of Bilbo's conversations with the dragon, Smaug, and the grand climax of the Battle of the Five Armies, are supremely exciting incidents. But there are homelier moments too: good fellowship and welcome meals along the road, laughter and song and all "the freshness of an early world".

"The Hobbit" is in itself a complete and marvellous tale which may be read to the very young, or given to children of any age to read for themselves. But it is also a prelude to "The Lord of the Rings", in which the true significance of Bilbo's success in riddles and the nature of Gollum's 'Precious' are revealed.

These books - and first of all "The Hobbit" - speak of he nobility and delight of life. They speak too of the triumph of good over evil, and reaffirm our secret hopes that, whatever the odds, right will be victorious over might.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit's doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.

The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don't be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come--and so is the reader. --Alix Wilber