LOTR Or The Hobbit II?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I believe that had Tolkien continued on the vein of the early LOTR drafts, the book would have been much shorter, and would have ultimately lacked the depth and sense of immensity the finished work contained. We might hear of Tolkien today spoken in the same breath as a Kenneth Graham or an A.A. Milne, and the even larger compendium of works brought to some form of completion by CJRT would likely have remained private papers for the family. So perhaps the critics of "hobbit-talk" did more good than they ever knew.

Oh yes! There are stacks of great children's books that were just as good as The Hobbit and didn't have the 'fatherly' tone, that have now largely fallen into the dusty ranks of 'classics', namely books that only the bookworm kids read or those lucky enough to stumble on them - thinking of books by John Masefield, E Nesbit, Arthur Ransome etc. Had Tolkien rushed out a sequel it might have had that same tone and now few of us would be discussing his work (fans of the above three mentioned writers certainly exist but it's very niche). Eh, thank goodness for the spectacular writer's block that Tolkien suffered.

But I don't see A Long Expected Party as all that close to The Hobbit. It might well be about rural Hobbits and assocated fun and games, but it's written in a more adult style and tone. I tend to think that it serves throughout the entire Lord of the Rings as an anchor, as something worth fighting for. And at the very end of the story, when the Hobbits finally take their country back from Saruman, they quickly try to turn it back to the way it was, and the tone returns back to that of the beginning, but with an underlying sadness. I think that's important, because at heart the story is not about saving Elves, or Dwarves, or Men, it's about saving The Shire.