A hobbit is a measure of weight equal to 168 pounds (or 4 Welsh pecks). You were probably expecting a different definition for a hobbit. I have read that the English writer JRR Tolkien was fascinated with Welsh language and customs, to the point that he designed his fictional Elvish language on Welsh meanings, words and traditions. When Wales became part of the United Kingdom in 1707 (after a long and difficult transition), that does not mean that the Welshmen lined up and did what they were told to do. In particular, the very independent Welsh language and culture endures today, and not only is this fine, but cultural identity, once branded as rebellion, is now fostered in all members of the UK.

Tolkien said he worked on the manuscript for “The Hobbit” for two and a half years, intending the story to be a fairy tale for adults to read to children. In fact, creating him from a “half” relative of humanity resulted in child-sized adults who had physical features that seemed to belong to full-size humans (feet, noses, ears, and sometimes large hands) . In that, he walked a fine line as a writer. The hobbits, in appearance and in their unassuming ways, were intended to amuse children and possibly allow their parents to explain the importance of accepting and loving people who look different. Still, some prejudice against little people crept into Tolkien’s hobbit adventures when both humans and other humanoids (elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.) considered hobbits to be reckless, uncommitted, and generally uninvolved. they didn’t matter. Even Bilbo Baggins wrote such observations about his own species in his book.

How did a children’s story become a series of violent war stories? I have read that Tolkien placed his horrific experiences as a British soldier in World War I in the stories. I don’t see that. He started writing The Hobbit 12 years after World War I ended and before World War II started. My theory is that The Hobbit had to contain action and stories of human misery to appeal to adults. After all, the adults who would buy the book would see that it contained too much detail for children to understand or sit still and read it to them. The horror of the book seemed to work for those who read it (many adults couldn’t sit still to read it, either). However, there was a low murmur of public interest in the story Tolkien wrote, a measure of his success through the constant persecution Tolkien endured, leading him to continue the story in one or more additional books.

When Tolkien revived The Hobbit, the story evolved into the darker “Lord of the Rings” series. A fiction writer usually starts with a theme, then adds a setting and characters to bring the theme to life. It is the plot that intrigues the reader, and good writers obscure the plot or even hide it, so that the story unfolds unpredictably. This is how the reader stays interested, on edge, forced to imagine where the story is going, because the author did not give the answer at the beginning of the book. Tolkien revealed the plot at the beginning of “The Lord of the Rings”. The whole story was about another hobbit who agreed to save “Middle Earth” by agreeing to throw a ring into the lava. But he remembers that Tolkien liked to create details. In revealing the plot, he allowed himself to explain the whole fabricated story of walking and talking trees, ruined elves, wizards rising from the dead, dwarves mining armored clothing, etc. He was also empowered to bring many characters in the series to life.

As the characters play their parts, something inexplicable happens that only another writer can appreciate. The characters tend to take on a life of their own, and it is they, acting in character, who fight with the author about what they will do next. They will “try” to bring the story to a different conclusion than the author intended. A disciplined writer reigns them. An author will rewrite a nearly finished work of fiction if he realizes that the story has developed without being true to the plot. But how could undisciplined characters screw up a plot that simply requires throwing a ring into lava? they can’t Problem solved.

I think writing gave Tolkien, the elderly war veteran and professor, another world in which to take his mind. Fantasy writing simply interested him. Editing what he wrote did not interest him (Note: author James Michener also refrained from editing). That’s why his books are so bulky (doorstop size). They contain extensive pages of details about languages ​​and other tidbits that can put insomniacs to sleep. He ran into trouble with book publishers, many of whom believed the story would not sell. In fact, Tolkien’s books did not become a huge success until after his death in 2001 and much later, when Barrie M. Osborne produced and Peter Jackson directed the film version of the books.

It was the movies that turned the stories into a nightmarish bloody war that should terrify children. Even tiny, innocent hobbits became killers: War Hobbits. Why? People will pay money to see those things, just like the Roman people did to see bloodletting in the sand. Do you think Tolkien would mind that? I have no idea how he would feel about it. I think he fulfilled his personal mission with the stories. He wrote them to have something to do with his wandering mind. Once he got tired, a hobbit dropped a ring into the lava.