Happy Baggins Day!

Tomorrow is the joint birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

Not sure why J.R.R. Tolkien picked June 22nd but he did and in America June 22nd is celebrated as Hobbit Day and that whole week as Tolkien Week. As it says in the prologue to my book, "...for they love peace and quiet and good tilled: earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favorite haunt." Sounds like something we should all emulate. Be sure to raise a glass.

Also be sure to read the first book - The Fellowship of the Ring - to get a better understanding of how Tolkien wanted Hobbits portrayed. As Sam says, "It's the job that's never started that takes the longest to finish." So read it now.

Many things in The Lord of the Ring's beginning are not captured in the three movies including the travails of the four Hobbits (including Ring-bearer Frodo). For example the attack of the Ringwraiths at the Prancing Pony completely happens off-screen in the book whereas in the movie it is completely made-up. Probably more menacing in the book. Tom Bombadil is completely skipped over in the movies even though Gandalf called Bombadil saving the Hobbits from the Barrows the most perilous thing they faced (not to mention the later scouring of the Shire which everyone loves to talk about). Something like "second breakfasts" quoted in the movie and by many these days - never happened in the book. Although Frodo having to travel alone to the Cracks of Doom is predicted early in the book if you pay attention.

Another example is in the movie Steven Tyler's daughter Liv Tyler who played Arwen does not sneak up on Aragorn and save Frodo. Instead it is elder Elf Glorfindel and his white Elf horse who saves Frodo. We don't meet Arwen until later in the story. Much more drama in the book but they were pressed for time. 

At the mines of Moria it is Boromir - not one of the Hobbits - who throws the rock that disturbs "the watcher in the water" and it was Gandalf who figured out all on his own to speak "friend" and enter. The movie may have been renamed "comic relief" instead of The Fellowship of the Ring. Also it was a "huge orc-chieftain, almost clad in black mail from head to foot" that seemingly killed Frodo with a spear, not a troll but I forgive the director and screenwriters for that choice.

To be fair, the movies often go for equal opportunity comedy as it was not Gmili in the book that the Elves could hear upon his entering Lothlorien. It was Sam (poor old Sam).

It is a classic book but don't take it for granted. There's no way Tolkien could get away with a name like "Fatty Lumpkin" today without triggering hordes of people. Times are just different. Who knows what else they would insist on changing. As it says in the book, "The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourself in, but you cannot forever fence it out."

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