'The Hobbit'

Fairy Tales, the beginnings of wonderment. Why did they begin? Will they end? All questions are unknown. Children are raised on such fantastical stories. They weave into their hearts and minds. Epic heroics and tales of magic fly off of the worded page. There is a catch to all of this. Not all fairy tales, are fairy stories. Not just the ones that have the magical beings classes as fairies are fairy tales. There are several criteria that must first be thought of. If you dream of a fairy realm, that dream story is not a fairy tale. Talking animals with no apparent cause as to how, again, are not a fairy story. Many of these are found in books that are labeled “fairy tales,” but their content was not taken into consideration. The technicality was not thought out. Why label things as fairy tales when they are not fairy tales? J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a marvelous essay, On Fairy Stories, in which he studies the idea of what actually qualifies as a fairy tale. In accordance to the essay, fairy tales are only “fairy tales” if they take place in the realm of Faerie. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, does indeed take place in the fantastical realm. It is a fairy tale.

In his essay, Tolkien does not give us a set definition of what the realm of Faerie is. His reasoning behind this is amazing: “I will not attempt to define that, nor describe it directly. It cannot be done. Faerie cannot be caught in a net of words, for it is one if its qualities to be indescribable,” ( Tolkien p. 4). It is amazing to think about the fact that Tolkien, one of the most celebrated authors of all time, is unable to describe something. In a bit of a comical way, since the realm of Faerie is like the wonders of God—indescribable. After all, there is no known origin of the realm of Faerie. Tolkien makes that very clear on page seven: “The history of fairy-stories is probably more complex than the physical history of the human race, and as complex as the history of the human language” (Tolkien p. 7).

Now, how does The Hobbit fit into all of this? For starters, there are several different beings in this book; hobbits, elves, dwarves, wizards, trolls, goblins, dragons, giants, necromancers, skin changers, talking spiders, and this list really does just keep going. Now, earlier in the paper I mentioned that talking animals were not part of the realm. They are and they are not. They are only apart of the realm if they are mixed in with all of the creatures in this list. If not, then it is just a beast fable. Peter Rabbit, for example (Tolkien p. 6). There is no magic in Peter Rabbit. The creatures in that story just happen to talk in the normal human world, there is no reason they do. For something to take place in the realm of Faerie, it must not take place in the realm of men: Earth. The Hobbit takes place in Middle Earth, a different realm than our this one.

Middle Earth is an independent fantastic realm with its own history, gods, political issues, and creatures. There is nothing similar about this realm and Earth's. Nothing in this story took place in any human time period. It is merely a fantasy devised for the enjoyment of curious readers. There are languages in this story beyond any of the ones found on earth. The alphabets are made unique and in every possible way different than these on this page. This whole world in a sense has left the world of man and has entirely become its own.

Look in this world of Middle Earth. In The Hobbit, there are fourteen—or fifteen counting Gandalf—of this troupe in the book. None of these men are human. As a matter of fact, we do not even meet the first human until chapter ten (Tolkien, The Hobbit, p. 248). This very much coincides with what Tolkien explains about the realm in his essay, “But in such “fantasy”, as it is called, new form is made, Faerie begins, Man becomes a sub-creator” (Tolkien p. 8). This is very much true in a sense that, yes, there is man in this book, but men are not the ones who are really the most important in this realm as the are in earth. In this realm they do have kingdoms, and armies, and yes they do make some difference. There is more going on in this realm that has more to do with the magical being aspect. The elves, the dragon, and the wizard, these beings are the ones who are the top creatures. They are the ones who hold the most power, and can tip the balance more.

In the realm of Faerie, man is not the most important being as they are in the realm of Earth. The Hobbit is proof to this. They are not even a main character. Man in this book does hold a decent part, but it is one that is deserved in a vengeance. It is man who is the one to kill Smaug the Dragon (Tolkien, The Hobbit p. 308). Bard, the descendant of the past king of the city Dale, who killed him with an armor piercing arrow. In a way it seemed almost fitting. Bard’s ancestors failed to kill Smaug in the beginning, so it is Bard who should be the one to kill him in the end.

The Hobbit, in another way, is a fairy tale epic as well. There is a massive battle between five armies. The battle was between five warring parties, the Goblins and the Wargs against the men of Dale, and the Elves and Dwarves against one another. It is amazing to think that all of these creatures have a full out battle at the same time. One can just think of all the confusion. As with all wars, there is death. The great King Under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield, is killed along with his sister's sons, Fili and Kili, in the horrible carnage. In a way, it is an epic death for an epic king.

At the end of this story, all is well in a sense, but it leaves the reader wanting for more. Bilbo journeys back to his home in Bag End, not without the frustration that he has been declared dead. A while later, he is visited by his friends Gandalf and the dwarf, Balin. In a comical way, the story ends the way it began. The characters sit down and smoke together, “Thank goodness! Said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco jar” (Tolkien The Hobbit, p. 363). After everything that all of them have been through; the countless times they all died, and the various suspicions, they are all able to return to a sense of normality like one would do as any other day. Sit down and reminisce with old friends.

In conclusion The Hobbit is a fairy tale. It takes place in a fantastical realm called Middle Earth. There are several marvelous and magical creatures that have character superiority over man. There is nothing comparable to this world and the world of earth. There are several magical languages that do not compare to the historical and present ones. There are talking animals, but they are not comparable to a beast fable except the fact that they can talk. This whole world takes place in a literal fictional realm called Faerie. With all of this in mind, one can see that this place is not real. It was fabricated my a magnificent mind who thought of every possible detail, and it is shown in his works. Tolkien is a genius and we take him for granted. His works should be praised until the end of time.

Works Cited:

On Fairy-Stories - Tolkien Gateway, tolkiengateway.net/wiki/On_Fairy-Stories.

Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The annotated Hobbit: the Hobbit, or There and back again. HarperCollins, 2003.