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Old 09-11-2019, 10:09 PM   #9
Legolas
A Northern Soul
 
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Valinor
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When looking at the style and character development change across The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it may go without saying that you should keep in mind that they were not originally devised as direct volumes in series. The Hobbit was a child’s tale that included allusions to a wider world only intended to emphasize one of the themes of the book, embodied best in Gandalf’s famous closing line: “You are a very fine fellow, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you. But you are really just a little fellow, in a wide world.” Tolkien never thought he would have to explain the Necromancer and was not sure he would have the chance to publish the story of Gondolin. Enough people asked about the Necromancer to change his mind; indeed, he did not have the chance to publish the Gondolin story in his lifetime in the way he might have liked.

What might be less considered is that, within the story, these smaller stories are written by characters from said stories to be included in the Red Book of Westmarch. They are written by different people - Bilbo and Frodo/Sam - at different times and with different levels of understanding of what was actually going on. I find that to be consistent with Tolkien’s suggestion of “incomplete information.”

Though it was not the original intention at time of writing, the full mythology - what I think of as the story - frames The Hobbit as Bilbo’s own account of his adventure, so we are only hearing his version of the story. It is not a historical account from a omniscient narrator. We only learn of Gandalf what Bilbo remembers of him, which is also limited to what Gandalf chose to reveal of himself at the time. Likewise, there is an obvious necessity as Frodo’s story progresses for Gandalf to put aside his jolly fireworks-and-smoke-rings persona to fulfill his true purpose - to rally the peoples of Middle-earth against the evil threatening them. The immediacy of the Ring situation intensifies Gandalf’s demeanor and behavior, but if we could have seen him away from Bilbo and Frodo, we would have known that he was always like this when he needed to be. There is also the clear unharnessing of Gandalf’s strength when he is rembodied as the White.

As for the elves and dwarves, I do not think it is unreasonable to expect that there were multiple instances of grievance, annoyance, and distrust. Disagreements would not only come historically from grudges, but also perpetually from an inherent difference in nature and values. Again, Bilbo is writing from what he knows; he encountered Thranduil’s wood elves and their obvious distaste for dwarves. Thranduil would have carried the pain of Thingol and his kin’s troubles with the dwarves, but is also presently annoyed by the dwarves’ meddling in his kingdom as Bilbo is looking on.
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