Ever On and On

 

A Contemporary Effort

The first time I ever read J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, as I have said, was in middle school. I had already been introduced to the story in third grade of course, via a visit to a high school play. Probably it was fading memories of this that prompted me to give the book a try. Of course, I found the cover very eye-catching too, whenever I was searching the shelves for a new read. The spine was thick enough to feature the unusual title right-side up and was decorated with a picture all along it. I took the book down, checked it out, and started reading it between class periods.

It was a quantum leap for me. Although I had enjoyed fantasy and adventure before, it had been on a fairly simplistic level. The protagonists of my reading had been, for the most part, children like me. Perhaps the fact that Mr. Baggins, while childlike, was not a child (and indeed no children as characters ever appeared in the story) had something to do with its appeal. Tolkien’s style was very rich, indeed, at times incantatory, and I found myself swept away by his spell.

The impact on me was immediate and compelling. Under the influence of The Hobbit, I began to start drawing, or at least trying to draw, in earnest, seeking to capture a vision. I began attempting to write poetry. Using the World Book Encyclopedia, I learned to write the Futhark runes that adorned the cover and the maps; this skill led to me meeting my one friend in middle school, Steve Jones, who had an interest in codes and secret writing.

Not only did I begin to read more widely (chasing that high), I started to desire to get books for myself, real books, books unavailable at school. I bought The Tolkien Reader. I pestered Mom until she finally sent off for The Guide to Middle-Earth, an unprecedented mail-order occurrence in our family. Our shared enthusiasm for Tolkien led Mr. Fleming (our drama teacher) to loan me the Earthsea Trilogy, and soon I had to have a copy of those.  I got Mike to get me The Lord of the Rings trilogy from high school one year before I went.

But always The Hobbit holds a special place in my heart. It is rather like that path of pale white stones that Gandalf follows to lead Bilbo and the Dwarves to Rivendell. Such a simple, juvenile thing, perhaps, but it’s taken me on a road that goes ever on and on.