Marching into Middle Earth… again

“Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!”

I’ve been rereading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien this month. This is my first reread. The last time I read this book and the Lord of the Rings trilogy was over 20 years ago… just about before the time when the Lord of the Rings movies were released in 2001.

My reread has been going good so far. I’m past the halfway mark so I thought I’d give my thoughts on what I think so far.

For one thing, The Hobbit has been inspiring me to go outside more for little adventures of my own, even if it is just taking my niece and nephew to the park. I also have been noticing a lot of similarities to Tolkien’s experience in World War 1 and his story in The Hobbit. He definitely was able to write what he knew; like what it felt like to travel on foot for days, to have a deep friendship with those that your with for such a long time. Also the monsters and dragons can be similar. The dragon for the flame throwing torches used, the spiders for the poison gas, also just the desperation of the orcs, goblins and trolls can be like someone wearing those gas masks.

I love the books and wish I had been rereading them before now. I’m loving Bilbo. I can relate to him a lot, especially right now with the pandemic quarantine. I’d love second breakfasts and so on. Also to just laze around sounds blissful. Bilbo has been making me hungry a few times from the way he complains about starving or not eating.

I am looking forward to rereading the Lord of the Rings and then even some of Tolkien’s other books too, like The Children of Húrin, or The Silmarillion or even the short story of Bilbo’s Last Song.

Have you read or seen any of the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings? They’re such fun fantasy stories.