Undoing of The Hobbit
So I finished reading The Hobbit. Watched the movies four times before. I got connected with Middle-Earth through the movies and series; the two Middle-Earth games also played a part. This is my first Tolkien reading. It was good, very good. The world-building, for which Tolkien is enormously praised, was amazing; brilliant descriptions which make it easy for the reader. Tolkien explores the many themes of friendship, bravery, heroism; the nature of power.
Let’s talk about the fictional parameters set forth in this book. Wizards, elves, dwarves, hobbits, humans, goblins, trolls, orcs. One may find most things in other fictional worlds, but the hobbit and orc parts are exceptional. These two are amazing creations, extremely ingenious. The introduction of Gollum is simply sweet.
We also have dragons, big spiders and big eagles. Only one dragon, though. The dragon, Smaug has the trait of loving jewels. The dragon can also speak. I’d love to see this idea developed further in other works.
There is necromancy. Meaning there should be the undead. Nevertheless, this remains largely unexplored. This is among many things not included in the books, on which the movies improvised and added stuff. More on this later.
The ring. Again, largely unexplored. Only functions as an object that makes the protagonist special.
Now let’s come to a pressing issue. When I read the Harry Potter books, I felt that the writers and directors of the movies did not do well. They messed up at places, even though some miniscule improvisations were good. But while reading the Hobbit, it felt like the writers and directors of the movies did a mind-blowing job with the movies. In the books, there’s no Azog; the Azog-Thorin arc is non-existent. There’s no Tauriel; no Kili-Tauriel arc. Legolas also doesn’t exist very much. There’s no backstory of Bard. He just pops up when Smaug starts to destroy Dale. No Radagast, no Radagast! The characters feel lifeless. I mean, in the movies, you differently know the characteristics of Bifour, Bofur and Bombur. But in the books, it feels like these three are the same person. Fili and Kili also feel like the same. It feels like Dwalin doesn’t even exist. Only Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin have strong characteristics. Balin can be differentiated. Beorn has better development, though. Even though the whole book is on dwarves, it doesn’t add much information on dwarvish characteristics; the Rings of Power added more parameters to the dwarves than the Hobbit. Bolg is there among the orcs, but the level of depth the movies added to the orcs doesn’t exist in the books. So in conclusion, Peter Jackson did the movies so well that the excellence of Tolkien’s work in the Hobbit has faded a bit.
Nevertheless, it’s still a very good work of fiction and sets up the Lord of the Rings in a brilliant way. I look forward to reading those.
Far over, the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep, and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!
(PS: to be frank, the lyrics of the song in the movies look better to me than the book, though)
