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In a hole there lived a hobbit.” Thus begins one of the most popular fantasy stories of history. It started almost by accident. Professor Tolkien was grading papers at the end of the term and discovered a blank sheet at the end of one student’s essay booklet. He idly scribbled the opening line of the story, and almost immeditely was captivated. He had to find out what a hobbit was and what would happen to this hobbit. The only way he could was to write the story, and so he did. |
Bilbo Baggins was a quietly respectable hobbit, living in comfort in his hobbit-hole, enjoying five meals a day and never dreaming of having adventures.
All Bilbo wanted was to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse unknown dangers. Finally it was Bilbo–alone and unaided–who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside! Life on the road is a lot different from his cozy hobbit-hole. Soon he is encountering trolls, elves, goblins, and the mysterious slimy Gollum who lives beneath the mountains. This is the absolute necessary beginning of the great story of the War of the Rings which J.R.R Tolkien completes in his epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings. |
