The Hobbit- reconsidering Tolkien

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A friend surprised me recently and told me she was reading the Hobbit to her six year old. I couldn't believe it because when I tried LOTR as a teen after watching the films, I was bitterly disappointed. It was turgid and so male. I was really captivated by the love story of Aragorn and Arwen and was disappointed to see she barely features in the book.

Anyway I decided to give the Hobbit a go with my own child and we love it! It's cosy and gets into the adventure quickly. I do skip some song verses but my 6 yo isn't to know that.

It's even made me consider trying LOTR again. Did anyone revisit this classic as an adult after being unimpressed as a kid and find you loved it?

No, but I read the books long before the films were made and I loathed the films because they mutilated the books!

I've always thought of The Hobbit as a children's book.
Never got on with LoTR, too long winded, so much dross among the stories.

@BigFatLiar yes, it was reading that it was intended for children that made me give it a try.
Regarding LOTR, the longwinded introductions of men son of blah blah son of blah blah blah made me lose the will to live as a 16 year old and all the Elvish.

I loved reading LOTR as a 13 year old.
Probably never will again as I’ll never have the time.
Yes it’s very male. It was written by a male.

of course but given its far reaching and enduring appeal and being somewhat misled by Peter Jackson's adaptation, I thought females would feature more than they did.

It's not a problem for me now but it was for me at the time having watched the films first.

I read the entire lot to my DD when she was about 8. Reading them aloud made me realise just how beautifully written they are, we loved them. I'd read them years before but actually reading them to someone can make you appreciate the use of language in a new way.
Apart from the bloody elvish! 😂

The films were rubbish books were great

I could never get on w LOTR, but The Hobbit is delightful. No women anywhere though, in either lot of books!

No women anywhere though, in either lot of books!

Not sure the films did much better on this front 😆

I really struggled with the books in my early teens (and I was a big reader). Tried them again in my mid twenties and loved them! They’re pretty different to the films, and be prepared for pages of description of a fence post, but definitely have another go at them.

Even the songs of Tom Bombadill? Suppose they would put her to sleep.

Yep even the songs of tom bombadil! 😂

we had a great audiobook of the Hobbit, read by Michael Hordern, for long car journeys. I’ve always liked it much better than LOTR as a book.

later, for further long car journeys 😆we had the tapes of the bbc dramatisation of LOTR which is spellbinding. I will never forget the bit in the Dead Marshes - printed on my tiny brain for 30odd years - oooo- I still like the Hobbit best though. LOTR is big, but TH is perfect.

car journeys if my cousins were with us (daring snd 1/2 a year older) also supplemented by doing episodes of neighbours out the back windscreen using teddies and bits of paper with the lines on. anyone else do this?

The BBC radio dramatisation of LOTR was indeed spellbinding - I loved it as a teen, and it's much more true to the books than the films. (It took me years to realise that Sam was Bill Nighy in his younger days!)

I just re-read the Fellowship of the Ring. You’re not wrong about it being very male and marginalising any female characters, but I loved it as a teen and still love it now. For me it’s pure escapism and just what I need at the moment.

It's quite interesting that Tolkien could write in different styles about his fictional world - The Hobbit is definitely a children's book, LOTR 'young adult fiction' before that was a thing, and the Silmarillion ... well, I don't know what that is as I found it completely unreadable whereas the others are page-turners.

@OrlandointheWilderness I had a quick skim through of the Fellowship last night and I was surprised to find I still remember some of the descriptions word for word. It made me realise what a beautiful writer he was.

I read aloud The Hobbit and then the whole of LOTR to my then 7 and 9 year olds during first lockdown. We spent about half an hour reading it together and cuddling every evening. They absolutely loved it. It became a way to connect and de-stress after the stresses of home schooling and home working. I hadn’t planned to read LOTR, but after we finished The Hobbit (and we were still locked down!) it seemed logical to continue. It took my 5 months to get through them both. It’s something we always have. They haven’t seen the films - haven’t wanted to. And they’d be gutted that Tom Bombadil and Fatty Lumpkin didn’t make the cut for the films.

Interesting, I have just come back to JR Tolkien after watching 'The Rings of Power' on Amazon. I read the Hobbit and LOTR when I was younger, but I think as an adult appreciate the complexities more. The fact that he wrote history and languages for the story with such intricacies fascinates me.

I do a lot of lone work and driving so wanted something long form to listen to, so downloaded Fellowship of the Rings on Audiobook, read by Andy Serkis. He is a brilliant narrator - so far I am loving it.

I agree with PP that it is very male, but understand that was his audience at the time. Though female characters are few, Galadriel is badass.

Tom Bombadil definitely needed an editor’s red pen. I remember struggling with that section and almost giving up the novel. Thankfully I didn’t - the rest was superb.

With so much tech now - and the fact that they’ve seen the films - I know my DC will never read them. Their loss!

I loved reading The Hobbit when I was 9 or 10. It is entirely male, but it's a cracking adventure.

I listened to The hobbit and the LOTRs as unabridged audiobooks recently, and I loved them.

I had read them years ago, and this was a brilliant way to re-visit them on my commute to work.

My dad read the whole of LOTR to us twice when we were kids! I’ve always had a soft spot for it, although the criticism about the female characters is totally valid. It does take itself very seriously with all the elvish etc and old fashioned language, but that’s part of what people love about it, it’s immersive. I can see it might not be for everyone though, so if you didn’t click with it don’t worry, it’s not Shakespeare!

The Hobbit is good too, but very much a children’s book.

I reread it every few years. Yes, it's very male, but one thing I like about reading is I get loads of different perspectives - I also read books with mostly women in, and with a whole mix, so it's all fine - and better no women than badly written ones.

No, I loved them all from the get-go, and as I've gotten older I appreciate Tolkien's LOTR language all the more.

And I have no objection to stories being male-dominated.