Background History: The Hobbit

To begin, I started to look into the background and history of how the idea of Lord of the Rings first came about and started right at the beginning in 1954 when J.R.R Tolkien released the first copy of his trilogy, and the mass media for this subject began.

(Lord of the Rings, covers designed by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Before their was Lord of the Rings, Tolkien also wrote and published a book in 1937 entitled 'The Hobbit' which followed Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey on their adventures around Middle Earth accompanied by 13 dwarves, Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Kili, Fili, Bombar, Ori, Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur and Bofur. This book being the prequel to Lord of the Rings makes it very important to the history of it as it is were the story began and is also an introduction to some of the main characters, like Bilbo and Gandalf and when watching back Lord of the Rings after you have read this book you realise just how many references there actually are to The Hobbit, such as Bilbo's journey to the Misty Mountains and to Rivendell, and even learning about Gollum's hatred for hobbits in the first place.

75 years later, and The Hobbit was remade into the masterpiece that is shown below in a simple picture of the 13 dwarves of Dale and The Lonely Mountain. Even though there have been films in between of the Hobbit including the 1977 animated musical television version which was produced by Rankin/Bass, which by looking at the image of the theatrical poster looks like a very interesting film to see (insert sarcasm). Then the other film that was brought out in 1985 looks even more strange, especially the image of Bilbo sitting next to a person who is meant to be Gollum, and after watching Peter Jackson's version of the films, who just doesn't seem right. Rather than this film being the story Tolkien wrote, this is a Russian adaptation entitled 'The Fabulous Journey of Mr. Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit', which in my opinion is a rather lengthy title that does not need to be that long.