Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week One

[sigridhr]

 *smashes a bottle of champagne over the post* And we're off!

Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week One (The Hobbit)
Chapter I: An Unexpected Party
Chapter II: Roast Mutton

Rules

I very much doubt we'll require much in the way of formal rules, but just for the sake of formality and clarity:

• Discussion is welcome and encouraged, as is disagreement. Name-calling and personal attacks will be punished by a barefoot gauntlet walk across a set of lego pieces. 
  
• There is no spoiler policy in place. Although we're reading the Hobbit, please feel free to bring in things from other Tolkien works, any of the films, the History of Middle Earth, the Letters of JRR Tolkien, and, if you should like, other literary sources. 
• There is no such thing as too nerdy. Or too excited. 
• If you have any concerns at any point, I'm the closest thing this gong show has to a mod, so feel free to get in touch. I can be reached either by PM through this site, or directly by email at sigridhr.lokidottir@gmail.com. 

Discussion on this post will officially run from Friday 11th January 2013 to Friday 18th January 2013. However, the post will remain open after that point, so you're more than welcome to continue discussions on. 

(I'm cheating a bit, as it's not quite the 11th here yet, but I want to get this up before I go to work tomorrow, and 6am posting is just asking for disaster). Have at it, guys! :) 

Comments

[sigridhr]

‘But this is terrible!’ cried Frodo. ‘Far worse than the worst that I imagined from your hints and warnings. O Gandalf, best of friends, what am I to do? For now I am really afraid. What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!’

‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’

[...]

'He deserves death.’

‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least. In any case we did not kill him: he is very old and very wretched. The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.’

Luck? Or Gandalf meddling?

[anki_koda]

Good Point.

I mean, we know Gandalf likes to involve in every single thing that happens on Middle Earth and there is something about him that always lead him to take the right decisions. Perhaps is his Maiar powers.

[sigridhr]

I have a theory about this (I wrote an essay on it, actually). I think Gandalf is an embodiment of wisdom, in contrast to Saruman's knowledge. Gandalf sees the pieces of information, and synthesizes them into something he can act upon.

So, he's wise in the sense that he knows a) there's a dragon in Erebor that needs to be dealt with, because if shit goes down and the dragon sides with Sauron, Imladris and many other places are, literally toast; b) there's a Necromancer in Dol Goldur who is very probably Sauron, and that needs to be dealt with; and c) I've just been approached by a Dwarf who wants the dragon gone, and I've got a backdoor key.

So, he takes this information, and he has the wisdom to see that a burglar would be better than a warrior, and that Bilbo, who he'd noted, and sort of put aside in the back of his mind, might be precisely what is needed – presumably because he's noted how resilient Hobbits are, and how wise Bilbo himself is (or at least has the potential to be).

Saruman, on the other hand, becomes lured by the knowledge that he amasses about the Ring. About it's power, its indestructibility, and the inevitability that, if it is found, Sauron will reclaim it. And he despairs – which is pretty much a one-track road to DOOM in Tolkien's writings – and decides his best course of action is to try and take the Ring himself.

But a wiser person might have seen that there was, indeed, hope, and that no matter how powerful Saruman was, himself, he could not wield the Ring without it doing Sauron's will.

[anki_koda]

This semester I sign up for a Tolkien class. I am so going to ask for your help if you don't mind.

I never thought about it that way, but you do make a fine, perfect, point about. In the end all of Gandalf's plans play out well it is because he trust in the right people. Hobbits mostly. :)

[sigridhr]

YOU HAVE A TOLKIEN CLASS?!
WHY AM I NOT ENROLLED AT YOUR SCHOOL? CAN I JUST COME AND SIT THERE AND BE EXCITED?

Rule 24. When you want shit done, hire a Hobbit. :P

[anki_koda]

God yes!!! I would love it so that I'm not the only one freaking out because of it! :)

HAHAHAHAHA, That's so true!! (okay, is it true or truth?)

[sigridhr]

I feel like I would fit in very nicely in a Tolkien class. :P

Either 'that's so true', or 'that's the truth'. :)

[anki_koda]

Oh, I've been waiting for that class because every time I tried to sign up I have some other class that I need to see before that and....ugh, it's just a mess.

[sigridhr]

I got really excited and distracted and failed to actually answer the question: no, I don't mind at all. I'd probably enjoy that. :P

[anki_koda]

Thank you!