Week six: The Hobbit

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing to sit down on or eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." 

There are many aspects of The Hobbit trilogy that I love and admire, so many, that I don't even know how to begin writing this.

The Hobbit has been a huge part of my life, since I was very little. I have heard of these fantastic stories of fantastic creatures going in even more fantastic adventures for as long as I remember being... well, me. I have always been fascinated with it, with how it's written, how it's told and how it's seen. But only recently, after I, myself, have taken an interest in writing my very own stories, that I came to realize how rich Tolkien's entire world is.

The Hobbit is fantastic for many reasons, but perhaps there is one in particular that exudes more than the rest: The world building itself. The choice of words is particularly fascinating to me, in a way resembling a magical spell of a wizard: Luring, captivating and precise. Every word placed in the paper feels right to be there, and helps enrich this already rich story with visual imagery of the events narrated.

For some, however, the narration of the book might be tiring, I have heard so even from my own father, who is huge fan. "It's way too descriptive" he said, and it is true. Sometimes I just want to skip words and paragraphs as well, get right into the story and the actual adventure, but I can't bring myself to do, it's just too captivating and too... vivid.

To me, reading The Hobbit is like having a lucid dream. The words are like magic, and as I read it's like the world around me is slowly morphing into The Shire, the Realm of Mordor, the magical woods, the elven kingdom. The descriptions are so very clear and poetic, that without realizing your imagination is flourishing with pictures and images of the green hills, of hobbit holes and epic battles. It's truly like magic, and feels like an adventure.

And perhaps, this "magical" aspect of The Hobbit that I love so much is not even in the fantastical creatures itself, but rather the ability of making me, the reader feel that I too am going in this unexpected, but glorious journey, filled with joy, mystery, battles and peculiar, but life-long friendships.