I’m no Middle Earth scholar, but everything I know about J.R.R. Tolkien tells me The Hobbit was written carefully, over a long period of time, and regularly revised.
Tolkien scholar John Rateliff documents precisely how that happened.
First, something of a confession. I bought Rateliff’s The History of the Hobbit last year, ordering it online. I was so excited I didn’t pay attention to the number of pages.
Including the index, it’s 938 pages. That doesn’t include the 41-page introduction.
To read a nearly 1,000-page volume requires determination and time. I had the former but not the latter. For several months, the book rested on my desk, almost staring at me in a kind of silent reproach. The only path forward in tackling it was the one I eventually followed.
I read it gradually and in spurts, until I could finally read it straight through.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Winter Grief – revised poem by David Whyte.
The Word in the Wilderness, a Journey through Lent – Malcolm Guite.
“A Light Snow-Fall After Frost” by Thomas Hardy – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
“Requiem” by Robert Louis Stevenson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Overlap – poem by Rachel Donahue at Rabbit Room Poetry.
