The Hobbit Book Log #10

12/16/2012

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 140-151

           

            This section begins when Bilbo and the dwarves plunge into the mysterious forest of Mirkwood.  A soon as they enter the forest they get a gloomy feeling about it.  They grew to hate the forest more than anything on their adventure this far.  They soon came about a river, which they were warned not to touch or drink from, and crossed it using a boat that was there.  However, the fattest of the dwarves, named Bombur, fell in and ended up in a deep sleep when he got pulled out of the water. They had to go on and carry Bombur, making seemingly no progress.  When Bombur finally woke up, he wept over there not being any more food, when suddenly, one dwarf saw something shining in the woods.

           

            “His heart, that had been lightened by the sight of the sun and the feel of the wind, sank into his toes; there was no food to go back down below.”  This quote that Bilbo says when he is up in the tree gives us a feel of worry for the dwarves.  They are lost, without food, and are unable to find any way out of the forest.  Bilbo, who was not so enthusiastic to go on this adventure, was able to find a shred of joy in being atop a tree and feeling the breeze.  They are lost in a forest, and have hardly any hope.

            In this section, the dwarves send Bilbo up a tree so that he can see what is all around their position.  He is not too ecstatic about having to climb this tree.  I can relate to that because I am afraid of heights.  I can go up Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park, but that’s pretty much it. I can never get up to high on a climbing wall.  Every time I try, I just freeze once I get to a certain point.  Bilbo is a braver man than I, because he was actually able to climb that tree, and I would never be able to.

The Hobbit Book Log #9

12/9/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 125-139

           

            This section starts out with our group of adventurers eating dinner with Beorn.  Afterwards Beorn leaves to take a look outside and the dwarves go to sleep.  When they awaken, Beorn is gone and now so is Gandalf.  Around supper time Gandalf returns and tells the dwarves that he was tracking bear prints.  The next morning Beorn returns and tells them that he was checking to make sure that their story was true.  Beorn gives the dwarves traveling advice and soon after lunch they leave, back to their adventure with refurnished supplies. As they reached the edge of Mirkwood (a forest), Gandalf leaves the dwarves, causing a large worry among them.

            “I am not sending the horse back, I am riding it back!” When Gandalf says this, it is easy to tell that the journey is about to get a lot harder for the dwarves.  Gandalf has been the dwarves’ everything.  He was their connection to hospitality, the one who saved them from the goblins, and the one who saved them from the trolls.  One can only imagine how they will manage getting through the forest without Gandalf.  Also, if his doesn’t come back by the time the dwarves get to the dragon, they are in for a big fight. It will be quite interesting to see how the story progresses from here, we will see if Bilbo is finally ready to toughen up or not.

            As I stated before, the dwarves are very worried of their current situation because they now must journey fourth without Gandalf.  This reminds me of when Bret Favre left the Packers.  All the fans were upset and worried that the Packers would start to do worse as a team.  Not long after Favre left, Aaron Rodgers started to prove himself as a quarterback and break many of Favre’s records.  The Packers were ready to move on without Favre, and now the dwarves need to be ready to move on without Gandalf.  It’s time for Bilbo to become the dwarves’ Aaron Rodgers.

Hobbit Book Log #8

12/1/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 112-124

            After our adventurers wake up from their night of feast, the eagles kindly take them down off of the mountains so that they may continue their adventure.  Once they get off the eagles and are ready to once again begin their adventure, Gandalf announces that he will not be continuing on the adventure for much longer.  All the dwarves (and Bilbo, who I wish to remind you is a hobbit) become worried when they hear this because they would have never gotten this far without him.  Gandalf then takes them to someone’s house who he knows of, but this man, named Beorn, is not familiar with Gandalf.  Still, Beorn eventually welcomes them all in and offers them dinner.

            “Indeed we are now a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you, for after all, this is not my adventure.  I may look into it again before it is all over, but in the meanwhile, I have other pressing business to attend to.”  When Gandalf says this, you can practically feel the dwarves get nervous.  Without him, they surely would have never gotten this far.  While he still hasn’t left at the end of this section, one can only wonder how the dwarves will fare without Gandalf guiding them through the many dangers of this adventure.

            As I have been reading this book, it has started to remind me to the Percy Jackson series.  Much like the Percy Jackson series, this book has many different kinds of warriors, and the different kinds of warriors between the two books are very similar.  For example, they both have warriors who use traditional swords and shields, and they both have people who are able to use elemental-type abilities.  Also, in both books they fight various kinds of creatures. In The Hobbit they fight trolls and goblins, and in Percy Jackson they fight minotaurs and cyclopses.  I find it interesting how books then and now can be so much alike.