Oh, it’s a momentous day, my friends … a momentous day. On this day, in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” was published. What began as a scribble – “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” – on a blank page, in a sea of student papers, went on to become one of the world’s best loved stories. Of course, we owe our gratitude not only to the author, but those friends and acquaintences who encouraged, pushed, prodded and otherwise convinced him to publish. C.S. Lewis being one.
So to all of you who support writerly-types, thank you! You are every bit as important as the one who pens the tales. You are the guardians, the champions of fine story-telling. If it weren’t for the likes of you, we wouldn’t have the likes of this upon our bookshelves …
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole,
filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell,
nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it
to sit down on or to eat:
it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole,
painted green,
with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle.
The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel:
a very comfortable tunnel without smoke,
with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted,
provided with polished chairs.-Excerpt, The Hobbit
and…it will be coming out as a movie finally 😉