Read The Hobbit with me!

there are things more beautiful

than words can ever tell  

  I’m running a book club this year and our current book is the Hobbit - so I thought it might be fun to do a post on each couple chapters I read! It would be especially fun, I think, because this blog was kind of founded on my love for Tolkien :)

    So this is both the intro post and the review of chapters 1-3. I have no idea how many times I’ve read this book, but I think I love it more every time. Bilbo is the funniest, sweetest, most relatable protagonist ever written (in my personal opinion) and I love watching his character face (many) challenges and victories and grow in the end. 

    Also I love how different the tone of the Hobbit is from The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien wrote it for his children, and you can almost taste his delightful wry humour. For example (just to choose one, because there are too many delightful moments to choose from): 

    “Thank you!” said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horribly thought that the cakes might run short, and then he—as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful—he might have to go without.” (Gasp! The horror—no cake!)

I would be upset too if I knew I wouldn't get any of this...

    And of course there’s Gandalf’s classic “do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not, or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” (I shall be using this very frequently.)

    And then too there are beautiful things, like Bilbo’s thoughts while listening to the dwarves sing. 

    “As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

    Those words wake up something inside of me, much as the dwarves’ song do in Bilbo. I want adventures like those—like Bilbo goes on to have. Something inside of me has always craved adventure, and I think it always will. But like Bilbo too, a part of me loves the comforts of home. Cozy things are beautiful too, and I think one of the most lovely things about the Hobbit is that it holds both in tension. Tolkien shows us comfort, and then shows us adventure, and makes us realise sometimes we must be made uncomfortable to truly appreciate the beautiful things in life. (Yes, I am well aware that I sound very academic. No, I do not apologise. Even “children’s books” have meanings deeper than those on the surface.)

    So overall—this is and will probably always be one of my favourite books. I’ll leave you with a part from the dwarves’ mountain song that will hopefully encourage you to pick it up too :)

far over the misty mountains cold

to dungeons deep and caverns old

we must away, ere break of day

to find our long-forgotten gold

There and Back Again

there is a time for the evening under starlight,

a time for the evening under lamplight

(the evening with the photograph album).

(t.s. eliot, the four quartets)

    It’s been almost two months since I’ve been here. Things look a little different (and not just because I redesigned the header). I’m a different person than I was two months ago, although I’m not quite sure what’s changed. I travelled all around the country auditioning for music schools, and then came home. And home is the same, but I am not.

    I have learned to love life more. I have learned to push myself harder than I ever would have thought possible, and I have learned when to rest. And most of all I have learned to place my trust in God no matter what. Some things might not turn out the way you thought they would, but His plan is better than mine.

    Even still, sometimes I miss gallivanting around the country. There was a sense of excitement to it. I’m going on an adventure. And sometimes I’m happy to be home, before I leave next year on another adventure.

    All that being said, all this traveling and this series of auditions is only a slight foretaste into what my life will be like starting next fall. Everything I am is going to go into violin. And that’s what I want. I’m not going to stop loving great books and having deep conversations - banish the thought! But things will be different. I don’t know quite how yet, because I’m still in the process of choosing a school (after getting back some exciting offers!) People who haven’t gone through this process won’t quite know how difficult it is - there are many more factors than one would think that go into choosing a school. (I may do a post on that at some point - it’s important, even if it isn’t very literary.) 

    I guess all this is to say that though I will be posting and writing, it won’t be as often. But I will never stop loving the things that prompted me to start this blog, and I hope to keep it as long as I can. In the interim, I’m starting to do some more writing again, and will hopefully post a lot more in the weeks to come. 

    I have only a few months left before I leave this part of my life behind forever and I am going to hold onto them tight until there is nothing left to hold. I am going to get the most out of them and cherish the memories. Of people, of laughter, of difficulties, of doing hard and good and beautiful things together. I’m going to miss it, this world. But I’m going to do something that I love, and I am going to do it well for the glory of God. And my childhood home and these friends I have made, they are not lost. I am only leaving for a time, like I have done before, and then I will come back.

    I will come back, and we will laugh together again.

January Inklings (I know it’s February… shhh)

    It’s been rather too long since I’ve done an Inklings post. Last month’s was a scene with a horse in a book or film.

    I agonised over what to choose for this for a grand total of perhaps a minute. I always talk about the Lord of the Rings. I could talk about it for hours. I really should choose something else. I am, after all, a well-rounded person with a variety of interests.

    And, well, I lost that particular fight. So here’s a scene (with not one, but many horses) from the Lord of the Rings. All credit, of course, to the inestimable J.R.R. Tolkien.

At length even Gimli could hear the distant beat of galloping hoofs.

The horsemen, following the trail, had turned from the river, and

were drawing near the downs. They were riding like the wind.

Now the cries of clear strong voices came ringing over the fields.

Suddenly they swept up with a noise like thunder, and the foremost

horseman swerved, passing by the foot of the hill, and leading the

host back southward along the western skirts of the downs. After him

they rode: a long line of mail-clad men, swift, shining, fell and fair

to look upon.

Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed; their

grey coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes

were braided on their proud necks. The Men that rode them matched

them well: tall and long-limbed; their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed under

their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them; their

faces were stern and keen. In their hands were tall spears of ash,

painted shields were slung at their backs, long swords were at their

belts, their burnished shirts of mail hung down upon their knees.

In pairs they galloped by, and though every now and then one

rose in his stirrups and gazed ahead and to either side, they appeared

not to perceive the three strangers sitting silently and watching them.

The host had almost passed when suddenly Aragorn stood up, and

called in a loud voice:

‘What news from the North, Riders of Rohan?’