The Hobbit

[sawyl]

Prompted in part by the forthcoming film, I've just re-read The Hobbit for the first time in something like 25 years. And I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I'd expected.

I found that while I remembered the larger details of the plot, including the tea party, the finding of the ring and the death of Smaug, I'd managed to forget almost everything else. I'd somehow managed to confuse Beorn with Tom Bombadill. I'd completely forgotten about the wood elves, but I'd somehow remembered the idea of Bilbo's barrel ride while losing the rest so I couldn't quite remember who he was supposed to be escaping from. Amazingly, I'd managed to forget Thorin's moral collapse when confronted with the reality of Smaug's gold, so I to re-experience the shock I felt when I first read the book and realised that Thorin had fallen into darkness.

I was also slightly caught out by the style of writing. I'd remembered something with the cool, meticulous style of The Lord of the Rings. Instead, I found a brisk, pacy plot and strong narrator, always on hand to explain a plot point, who seemed to share more with CS Lewis' narrator in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe than anything in later Tolkien.