Medievalists.net » The Hobbit http://www.medievalists.net Where the Middle Ages Begin Mon, 07 Dec 2015 03:31:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.9 Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance http://www.medievalists.net/2014/05/13/staging-medievalisms-touching-middle-ages-contemporary-performance/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/05/13/staging-medievalisms-touching-middle-ages-contemporary-performance/#comments Tue, 13 May 2014 21:40:14 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=49581 Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2014/05/13/staging-medievalisms-touching-middle-ages-contemporary-performance/feed/ 0 Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/13/review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug/ http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/13/review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug/#comments Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:53:13 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=45747 While the first film was mostly criticized for its divergences from the novel, in this second instalment they usually prove to be an improvement.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/13/review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug/feed/ 0 Imagination For Better Not Worse: The Hobbit in the primary classroom http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/12/imagination-for-better-not-worse-the-hobbit-in-the-primary-classroom/ http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/12/imagination-for-better-not-worse-the-hobbit-in-the-primary-classroom/#comments Thu, 12 Dec 2013 21:36:38 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=45726 The story of The Hobbit can be utilised to develop the concept of the Hero's Journey, a persistent trope in oral and recorded literature and an archetype for virtually all human experience.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/12/imagination-for-better-not-worse-the-hobbit-in-the-primary-classroom/feed/ 0 Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Bilbo’s Quest for Identity and Maturity http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/11/tolkiens-the-hobbit-bilbos-quest-for-identity-and-maturity/ http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/11/tolkiens-the-hobbit-bilbos-quest-for-identity-and-maturity/#comments Wed, 11 Dec 2013 21:35:45 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=45698 Notwithstanding the fact that The Hobbit was generally relegated to children literature, its individual layers should be scrutinised more profoundly because it may help the understanding of the human psyche.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/11/tolkiens-the-hobbit-bilbos-quest-for-identity-and-maturity/feed/ 0 Doing a PhD in Middle-earth http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/10/doing-a-phd-in-middle-earth/ http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/10/doing-a-phd-in-middle-earth/#comments Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:33:01 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=45672 In this paper, I show how The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien can be viewed as an extended allegory for any challenging and arduous human endeavour, and in particular for tackling and completing a PhD.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/10/doing-a-phd-in-middle-earth/feed/ 0 Horses of Agency, Element, and Godliness in Tolkien and the Germanic Sagas http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/12/horses-of-agency-element-and-godliness-in-tolkien-and-the-germanic-sagas/ http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/12/horses-of-agency-element-and-godliness-in-tolkien-and-the-germanic-sagas/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 05:32:15 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=37949 What is the contract between man and equine that allows a beast ten times our size and one hundred times our strength to willingly serve in our ambitions? What magnetism (and who placed it) is it that draws humanity and horses together?

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/12/horses-of-agency-element-and-godliness-in-tolkien-and-the-germanic-sagas/feed/ 0 Talk to the Dragon: Tolkien as Translator http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/11/talk-to-the-dragon-tolkien-as-translator/ http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/11/talk-to-the-dragon-tolkien-as-translator/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:48:27 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=37930 When Bilbo, and the readers of The Hobbit, are confronted with the dragon, they are in for a surprise, as Smaug’s behaviour is somewhat unusual for a dragon.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/11/talk-to-the-dragon-tolkien-as-translator/feed/ 0 A Single Leaf: Tolkien’s Visual Art and Fantasy http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/10/a-single-leaf-tolkiens-visual-art-and-fantasy/ http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/10/a-single-leaf-tolkiens-visual-art-and-fantasy/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:55:02 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=37915 With such a model in mind, then, we have entered into a discussion of art, myth‐making, and the Primary World from a combined academic and artistic perspective.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2012/12/10/a-single-leaf-tolkiens-visual-art-and-fantasy/feed/ 0 J.R.R. Tolkien: Did You Know? Windows on the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien http://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/21/j-r-r-tolkien-did-you-know-windows-on-the-life-and-work-of-j-r-r-tolkien/ http://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/21/j-r-r-tolkien-did-you-know-windows-on-the-life-and-work-of-j-r-r-tolkien/#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:13:54 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=35864 Tolkien anticipated his books might inspire a film adaption, and he stated his concerns in a letter he wrote in June 1958. "The failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration," he explained, "and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies." He objected to editors who "cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights," and said he would resent "perversion of the characters ... even more than the spoiling of the plot and scenery."

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/21/j-r-r-tolkien-did-you-know-windows-on-the-life-and-work-of-j-r-r-tolkien/feed/ 0 Running Widdershins Round Middle Earth: Why Teaching Tolkien Matters http://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/21/running-widdershins-round-middle-earth-why-teaching-tolkien-matters/ http://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/21/running-widdershins-round-middle-earth-why-teaching-tolkien-matters/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:59:57 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=35862 Returning to Tolkien’s allegory, it is clear that he suggests that his fellow medievalists have taken a work of great imaginative and artistic power, and instead of using it to “see the sea”, they have mined it for words and phrases, and pulled it apart, looking for bits and pieces from other ancient works, and even reworked it after their own notions of how it “ought” to be built.

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