The Hobbit was a big part of my childhood, but here is the
weird part.
I never read the novel.
I read the graphic novel adaptation a few times but what
mostly fueled my knowledge of the plot was the 1977 animated film. I also decided I needed to read the
novel as part of my “classics Bucket list” and also before I saw the second installment
of the Peter Jackson movies. (So I won’t be those types of people who watch the
movies but never make an attempt at the novels) However the animated film is probably
one of the main reasons I never wanted to pick up the novel until now.
Simply, The Hobbit terrified
me.
I grew up at the dawning age of VCRs and readily available children’s
films. My parents had three “kids” movies on Laserdisc and the Hobbit was one
of them. (the others were Watership Down
and Pinocchio which also terrified me in their own ways) But the Hobbit was
sheer terror on the boogeyman level for me as a little kid. I still watched it but when the goblins
literally popped out of the black frame, I covered my eyes. The spiders
(shudder) and Smaug with his dog like face that didn’t really even look like a
real dragon. Oh yes Smaug was the stuff of nightmares. I was convinced that
Smaug was going to steal me from my bed while I slept, eat me, and then steal
my jewelry box.
The Lord of the Rings film and the of course the first
installment of the Hobbit I viewed with a different aspect. I found them
entertaining, using the strength of adventure and thrills to uplift their
audiences. So I was curious when I started reading the book, if the (oh so
handsome) faces of Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman would be the images
conjured in my imagination as I read.
They weren’t.
Opening the book and
reading the words that sounded so familiar but I actually had never read before,
I was sucked back to those original images of hooded dwarves and shadowy
forests and I had been accustomed to as a kid. No sir, no archery antics of
Orlando Bloom or jokes of James Nesbit to amuse you here. I read this book and
didn’t feel the sweeping excitement of adventure. This journey is simply, and hardly
unexpected. In Middle Earth, if you are small everything will try to kill you or eat you. I knew this as a
child, when I was small. I recognize this as an adult (who is still very short
in stature) We all love Gollum and doing our best my precious impersonations,
but do not forgot, Gollum is a creature who was planning to eat Bilbo (a creature of his own size)
if he wins a game of riddles. That’s
messed up. The goblins sing songs about burning
the dwarves alive in trees as they light to fire. And The Hobbit is
sometimes classified as a children’s book.
WTF?
(Those miserable goblins songs are now stuck in my head)
I will say I enjoyed the novel in a different way then I
enjoy the films. The films are defiantly more action, adventure and feel good
while the books is much more danger, peril, uncertainty and good God how has
Bilbo not being eaten yet?
I’m also still terrified. This book frightens me. This book didn’t help me conquer my childhood
fears; they cemented them. Black water, giant bears, Gollum’s underlying cannibalism,
giant spiders, Mirkwood. And Smaug (still terrifying)
The Greatest Adventure is what lies ahead.... oh and death watch out for that too.
The Greatest Adventure is what lies ahead.... oh and death watch out for that too.
