Hello to all my bloggy friends :-). I really hate I am not around much these days, but I am busy, busy, busy! School is about to start, and combined with a much more demanding editing schedule, we're trying to scramble to get all those last minute, end of summer tasks completed!
I haven't been able to read as much or as quickly as usual, but I am rereading The Hobbit right now. It's slow going, but I plan to be all finished by the time the film releases this winter, after which I will have an updated review for you. I can't wait to see what Mr. Jackson does with this timeless classic!
So, I was thrilled when Lauren presented me with this little article about the upcoming trilogy. Enjoy! And have a great weekend!
Another Tolkein Trilogy
Tolkein fans have been awaiting the completion of The Hobbit for two years now. Director
Peter Jackson returned to complete the film, and after substantial delays, the
film is complete and scheduled to release in December of 2012.
Though the adaptation was scheduled to span the length of
two full-length films (subtitled An
Unexpected Journey and There and Back Again), last week Jackson announced
that the film would be expanded into three films. The second film will be released in December
of 2013 while the third is scheduled to open in summer of 2014.
Like so many Tolkein fans, I have been anticipating the
release of The Hobbit since the
announcement of the release date. The
story has been one of my favorites since childhood. Even as a bookworm, my
first memory of The Hobbit is of the
1977 animated version. I later read the Lord of the Rings trilogy to coincide
with the movie releases that extended into my college years.
The 1977 version remains one of my favorite children’s movies.
It is a dark and lyrical movie that does not spare children from the more
terrifying aspects of trolls, enormous spiders, goblins, wolves and elves. Even
as a full-grown Hobbit, Bilbo is immature, naïve and innocent to the ways of
the greater world. It is for him, as it is for the children who read the tale,
a quest of self-discovery that requires bravery.
At its heart, The
Hobbit is about the search for wealth and about the destructive nature of
greed. Bilbo, though he remains uncorrupted, is incapable of stopping the war
that follows the death of the dragon Smaug. The allure of wealth is enough to
destroy ties between otherwise peaceful people; and the arrival of a common
enemy is all that can bring peace again.
Though The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings are
intertwined, Tolkein had to make revisions to The Hobbit in order to align the greater context of the stories,
most notably in the chapter Riddles in
the Dark. In the original version, Gollum is a good sport about losing the
riddle game. In the revised version, Tolkein illustrates the ring’s evil
influence as Gollum secretly plots to kill Bilbo and becomes increasingly
aggressive.
Fans of The Lord of
the Rings film can easily make the connection between Gollum and Bilbo
during the Rivendell scene when Bilbo sees the ring for the last time. Catching
a glimpse of the ring, Bilbo is aggressive and desperate, echoing Gollum’s
description of “the precious.”
Though the ring is precious, it does not represent a greed
for earthly treasure the way Smaug’s hoard does. Instead, the ring represents
greed of power, which is powerful enough to destroy an entire world.
Tolkein also attempted to revise The Hobbit in order to match its tone to LOTR, but he abandoned changes after the story lost its essential
quality.
The risk that Jackson takes with extending the film over the
course of three movies is similar to the problem Tolkein himself had when
working to revise the book. To write the book, or the screenplay, as a prequel
to The Lord of the Rings threatens to
destroy the light-hearted and quick pace of the tale.
However, Jackson is also drawing inspiration from the
appendices of The Lord of the Rings
and will be telling a more involved tale that will involve the history of
Middle Earth, which is something that has yet to be done before.
Lauren Bailey is an education writer and freelance blogger.
She frequently writes about online
colleges and courses and welcomes comments and questions via email at blauren99@gmail.com.
