The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit's sequel The Lord of the Rings is often claimed to be its greatest legacy. The plots share the same basic structure in the same sequence: the stories are both quests starting at Bag End, the home of Bilbo Baggins; Bilbo hosts a party that sets the novel's main plot into motion; Gandalf sends the protagonist into a quest eastward; Elrond offers a haven and advice; the adventurers escape dangerous creatures underground (Goblin Town/Moria); they engage another group of elves (Mirkwood/Lothlórien); they traverse a desolate region (Desolation of Smaug/the Dead Marshes); they are received and nourished by a small settlement of men (Esgaroth/Ithilien); they fight in a massive battle (The Battle of Five Armies/Battle of Pelennor Fields); their journey climaxes within an infamous mountain peak (Lonely Mountain/Mount Doom); a descendant of kings is restored to his ancestral throne (Bard/Aragorn); and the questing party returns home to find it in a deteriorated condition (having possessions auctioned off/the Scouring of the Shire). Scholars including Paul H. Kocher and Randel Helms have documented the similarities.[132][133]
| Event | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings |
|---|---|---|
| Start | From Bag End in the Shire | |
| End of 1st phase | Trip down River Running, nearing Erebor | Trip down River Anduin, nearing Mordor |
| Approaching the goal | Cross the dragon's withered hearth | Cross the evil polluted plain of Gorgoroth |
| Achieving the quest | Enter hole in side of the Lonely Mountain | Enter hole in side of Mount Doom |
| Success marked by | Arrival of Great Eagles | |
| Returning home | Have to stop auction of Bag End | Have to scour the Shire of Sharkey's evil |
The Lord of the Rings contains several more supporting scenes, and has a more sophisticated plot structure, following the paths of multiple characters. Tolkien wrote the later story in much less humorous tones and infused it with more complex moral and philosophical themes. The differences between the two stories can cause difficulties when readers, expecting them to be similar, find that they are not.[132] Many of the thematic and stylistic differences arose because Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children, and The Lord of the Rings for the same audience, who had subsequently grown up since its publication. Further, Tolkien's concept of Middle-earth was to continually change and slowly evolve throughout his life and writings.[134]
In education
The style and themes of the book have been seen to help stretch young readers' literacy skills, preparing them to approach the works of Dickens and Shakespeare. By contrast, offering advanced younger readers modern teenage-oriented fiction may not exercise their reading skills, while the material may contain themes more suited to adolescents.[135] As one of several books that have been recommended for 11- to 14-year-old boys to encourage literacy in that demographic, The Hobbit is promoted as "the original and still the best fantasy ever written."[136]
Several teaching guides and books of study notes have been published to help teachers and students gain the most from the book. The Hobbit introduces literary concepts, notably allegory, to young readers, as the work has been seen to have allegorical aspects reflecting the life and times of the author.[95] Meanwhile, the author himself rejected an allegorical reading of his work.[137] This tension can help introduce readers to "readerly" and "writerly" interpretations, to tenets of New Criticism, and critical tools from Freudian analysis, such as sublimation, in approaching literary works.[138]
Another approach to critique taken in the classroom has been to propose the insignificance of female characters in the story as sexist. While Bilbo may be seen as a literary symbol of "small folk" of any gender,[139] a gender-conscious approach can help students establish notions of a "socially symbolic text" where meaning is generated by tendentious readings of a given work.[140] By this interpretation, it is ironic that the first authorized adaptation was a stage production in a girls' school.[107]
Adaptations
The Hobbit has been adapted many times for a variety of media, starting with a March 1953 stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh.[107] The first motion picture adaptation of The Hobbit was Gene Deitch's 1966 short film of cartoon stills.[141] In 1968, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an 8-part radio drama version by Michael Kilgarriff.[142] In 1974, Nicol Williamson recorded an abridged version of the book on 4 long-playing records for the Argo Records label, voicing all the characters.[143] In 1977, Rankin/Bass made an animated film based on the book. In 1978, Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for his "execrable"[111] and "confusing"[144] teleplay. A children's opera composed by Dean Burry appeared in 2004 in Toronto.[145] Between 2012 and 2014, Peter Jackson's three-part live-action film version appeared on cinema screens.[146][147] Several computer and video games have been based on the story, including a 1982 game by Beam Software.[148][149][150][151] During the COVID-19 lockdown, Andy Serkis read the whole of The Hobbit to raise money for charity.[152] He then recorded the work again as an audiobook,[153][154] with cover art by Alan Lee.[155]
