The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring

title of books

The Hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring

authors of the book

JRR Tolkien

info about author and when he is writing the books

the hobbit- 1937

Fellowship- 1954

written during times of war/ depression

Oxford professor  at the same time as CS Lewis

old english literature

Made up languages for the story

wrote immersive fantasy- only secondary world

Different from Narnia and Alice in Wonderland  

• No portal fiction used: secondary world is the only place there is  

• They live in hobbit holes in the hobbit  

• Special species (hobbits) 

• Tolkien draws the 1^st maps 

• Alice by herself on adventure there was like 15-16 of them in this 

• Pack of companions   

• Animals in narnia and alice in wonderland speak english here that's not the case 

  • Animals there might as well be people here they act more like animals  

Similar from Narnia and Alice in Wonderland and us

 

• Hobbits are like us in the fact that they live in a comfortable house, they use chairs, they like comfort, don't like unexpected visitors, love to eat 

• Hear a lot about food 

• Adventure/ a journey  

• Small protagonists -> childlike characters/ someone a kid can identify with  

• Magic  

• Wizard (gandalf in hobbit and corikin in narnia) 

• Dragons  

• Journey in quest form  

  • Go retrive the gold that belonged to the dwarf thorin from under the mountain have to take it from the dragon  

  • Token of power 

bilbo baggins

main character

protagonist

thief

at first was reluctant to go on the journey then he becomes the hero

Hobbits:

short and fat, they are generous and have good hospitality skills, a lot of eating, they are intelligent, they drink wine tea beer, don't have beards and distinguishes them from the dwarfs and they are a bit shorter, no have to wear shoes bc hairy leathery feet, enjoy finer things in life  

wear colorful clothes

Dwarves;

a little bigger than the hobbits, seem to always be males, always have beards, they mine for gold and silver, they live in the mountains, love gold  

gandalf

wizard

good guy

magic powers

helps them on their quest

Bert bill and tom

are trolls  

• Bad guys, bald and big/fat and stupid, lot of strength  

Elrond,

the great chief elf, who is “as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer.” 

can interprut the marking on the weapons and the map

thorin oakenshield

The leader of the dwarves who embark on the treasure quest in Chapter 2, Thorin is in many ways a typical member of his race: brave, stubborn, proud, and greedy for gold.

Thorin is not a true leader: he is incapable of formulating a plan, makes hasty and poor decisions, and generally relies on Bilbo to see him through his adventures, all the while treating Bilbo like an insignificant underling. Once Thorin gets his hands on Smaug’s treasure, he becomes irrationally greedy and obsessed with wealth, to the extent that he would rather wage a violent war than give the men from Lake Town their fair share of the treasure. Thorin is partially redeemed by his dying apology to Bilbo, but not even this act of remorse can fully redeem him.

gollum

immediately presents a sense of mystery; his origins are unclear, his speech patterns are very distinct, his obsession with his ring is fanatical and troubled, and even his species is unknown. Gollum appears capable of a more human or hobbit-like logic, as he opting for a riddle-telling challenge rather than something like brute combat.

half fish half human slippery thing

had the ring for a very long time and he called it my precious

beorn

half man half bear

lives outside of murkwood

Beorn tells them not to go off the path but they don't listen to this and they go off the path  

stayed at his house for a while

smaug

big dragon who guards the treasure at the lonely mountains

He is both the guardian of the treasure that Thorin’s company wishes to reclaim, and is himself a weapon capable of wreaking havoc on Lake Town, which prompts the large-scale battle following his defeat. Even Smaug’s weakness is not a character defect, but rather is a single gap in his armor-like scales, a contrast to Thorin’s weakness, which is his greed. 

bilbo tricked him

bard kills human

Bard

is brave and good and he takes over the leadership role  

bard protects the lake town and he kills smaug

eventually becomes

Bard got gold greedy and took most of the gold and ran away but he died of starvation in the waste deserted by his friends 

balin

dwarf

thrush

helps bilbo open the door to smaugs house

tells the people of lake town about the weak spot on smaug

general plot summary

gandalf comes to visit bilbo’s home he wants him to go on an adventure at first bilbo says no then a bunch of people show up the next day at bilbo’s house and after talking for a while bilbo decides to go on the quest as the thief. The quest is to get back thorin’s treasure that was stolen from him by smaug. deal with trolls go to rivendale long journey to the lonely mountains on this journey bilbo encounters gollum and earns the ring from him. arrive at the lonely mountains bilbo taunts smaug and steals treasure from him smaug figures out the people of the lake town have something to do with this he goes to fight them. this allows for bilbo to sneak in and all of them to get the treasure. at lake town bard kills smaug. the people of lake town town is destroyed they ask for a part of the gold to help rebuild. and the elves want some too. thorin is greedy and says no. they fight all fight against the goblins who come back. thorin dies and appologizes to bilbo. they share the treasure. bilbo only took a little bit

quest

retrieve the gold that belonged to the dwarves that is under the mountain

immeserive fantasy

they start in the secondary world and their is no mention of the primary world

High fantasy vs. low fantasy

• High fantasy- takes place in a secondary world and big/heroic things are going to be happening  

  • Low fantasy- set in the primary world with fantasy elements coming in a lot funnier, or make a secondary world but treat it funny   

Wrongness, Thinning, Crisis, Regeneration

Wrongness (something has gone wrong: you can't put your finger on it but you know it is there) -> thinning (specific examples of what is going wrong) -> crisis (where plot reaches its climax where the quest will either succeed or fail: crisis is solved by some great hero or someone who just got dragged into this) -> regeneration (you put things back as the way they were before the wrongness)

thinning

Thinning – the physical manifestation that proves that wrongness is actually happening: can take a number of forms  

• Failing of good magic – comments about how elves used to be powerful but they aren't as strong as they used to be  

• The departure of the good from the land- you see elves leaving middle earth they are going to the great harbor and they are leaving middle earths  

• Literally seeing a character fade: under a spell  

  • Dark lord is one of the first things to start thinning out  

wrongness

the dark lord causes the wrongness aka sauron

thinning

departure of the good from the land

elves leaving middle earth

crisis

is frodo taking the ring to mount doom or not

regeneration

the ending→ we are not sure of but everything should work out ok

Eucatastrophe

(= "happy ending," Tolkien's invented word) - the end of the plot: good ending 

 

• Tragic parabola-

  • Comic parabola-

• tragic- where you end up worse than where you began and then you end up dead  

• comic-there might be a bit iffy times and things might be bad in the middle but then things end well  

quest: for the fellowship

Destroy the ring

bilbo

not as important here

he has the ring orginally but it is causing him thinning

frodo

hero of the story/ main character

sauron

dark lord antagonist evil

if he gets the ring he will take over the world and be unstoppable

the 9 ring wraiths

got 9 rings of power from sauron and they were humans but they underwent thinning

now wear dark robes and ride on horse

evil and trying to get the ring from frodo to give to sauron

sam

frodo’s garderner

heroic

hobbit

helps frodo on his quest

gandalf

helps out the fellowship and tells them they must get rid of the ring into mount doom

merry and pippin

hobbits

also help out frodo a part of the fellowship

tom bombadil

super old

ring has no effect on him

power to control nature (the trees and weather)

rescued them from the trees and the barrows

strider/ aragorn

human

heir of isildur

he is supposed to be the king

heroic and a leader

elron

elf king

council of elron

boromir

from gandor

human

kinda a good guy

helps with the journey but he also wants to take the ring and use it for good the ring is corrupting him

he tries to take the ring from frodo

dies to make up for his sin

his family is the caretakers of the throne that aragorn is supposed to be on

Minas Tirith

Legolas 

elf

elves and the dwarves hate each other

glonin

at the council of elron

ginli’s dad

dwarves

ginli

dwarve

part of the fellowship

glonin’s son

Saruman

bad wizard

sided with sauron

wants the power

put gandalf on top of the tower

eagles

rescue gandalf from the tower

gollum

smaller here and a lot less powerful since he doesn’t have the ring

he follows the fellowship around

orcs and balrog

bad guys attack the fellowship

balrog is firey and had a whip and a sword

kills gandalf

celeborn and galdriel

elves live in lothlorien

galdriel has one of the elven rings of power

lets sam and frodo look in her mirror

mount doom

must throw the ring in

who is in the fellowship

Hobbits: frodo, sam, merry and pippin

Dwarves: ginli  

Wizards: gandalf 

Elves: legolas 

Men: Aragorn and boromir  

for plot summary look at sparknotes

book 2 and the wars

Book 2 –tolkien writing this during ww2 thinking about the dark forces taking over and the idea that this had happened before (ww1) didn't want it to be an allegory but similar to sauron who took over once before