# Carry over. . .Hobbit to Lord of the Rings. . .



## HLGStrider (Apr 9, 2004)

I don't know whether to place this in the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit section because it is about how they relate to each other. I chose Lord of the Rings, but if a mod thinks otherwise, let him/her so mod.

Anyway. ..

The Lord of the Rings is such a different book from the Hobbit. One is a children's story. One is an epic for all times. Both are classic but in a different way. However, you can't read one without the other. 

Now I'm sure we have on this forum one or two who did the unthinkable and read the LotR's without first discovering the Hobbit. This thread is not for them! Go away now! Leave! Bye-Bye!

If you read the Hobbit first, how did it effect your reading of the Lord of the Rings? 
What were you expecting?
What surprised you?

Did you expect Bilbo to be the continuing hero? I truthfully didn't due to reading a short paragraph about the cartoon version of the Lord of the Rings which mentioned a Frodo, though I remember thinking "Bilbo is such a better name." 

I had a misconception that it would somehow involve Thorin's group because Thorin and Bard were the only two kings to come out of the Hobbit and I knew the last book was "The Return of the King." This also had to do with the Hobbit cartoon where there is, I seem to remember, a scene where you hear what I now realize to be Thorin's voice yelling, "I am the true king under the mountain." But the picture appears to be of a hill of gold. My mind thought, "Gosh, the true king is buried under the gold and the RotK is where they unbury him and he comes and rules."

Ok, I know it sounds ridiculous but I was very small at the time. . .

What effected you? Did you expect more dragons? Happier elves? What?


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## Confusticated (Apr 9, 2004)

The biggest effect it had on my reading of LotR was that during a few of the chapters I was sad about not having Bilbo around, and like Frodo wanted to find him. I was also not too happy with the way Gandalf didn't show... I feared he would have no part in most of the story, but luckily I was wrong.

I do not remember if I expected Bilbo to be the big hero in this, but if so that quickly changed when he ran off and left Frodo his Ring. Though the films had been out for a few months at this point and there was much talk about the movies and JRRT in the paper and on TV I paid so little attention to it that I knew nothing more than that a Ring had to be destroyed. How or by who, or exactly why? I had NO idea. I just didn't know what to expect but I recall beying very skeptic of LotR being able to live up to _The Hobbit_.


My love of Bilbo also effected the LotR experience in that his sailing away at the end had a much deeper effect on me that did Frodo's.

Of course it had the smaller effects of making the bit about Gollum's history especially interesting, and same for the meeting with Gloin... and perhaps other tidbits of the sort.

In most ways _The Hobbit_ tops LotR on my favourites list, and I sometimes wonder why I never see anyone discuss the way that having read LotR changes _that_ story. But this is another thread.


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## Niniel (Apr 9, 2004)

I read the Hobbit after I read LOTR (about three years later actually). I didn't really know what to expect, but I was kinda disappointed. After the enormous adventure and epic style of LOTR, the Hobbit seemed very childish. I never liked children's stories so much, so LOTR is for me far preferable over the Hobbit.


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## Maeglin (Apr 9, 2004)

I did not expect Bilbo to be the continuing hero, although that was only because my dad told me that the story was about Bilbo's nephew (that the stupid/silly name of Frodo) right before I started reading LotR. I expected happier/drunker (is that a word?) elves, not stern and wise ones such as Elrond and Galadriel. I also did not expect that men would be involved in the story at all, I thought it would just be strictly Hobbits, Dwarves, a little bit of Elves, and Gandalf. The one other thing I was expecting that didn't happen was a trip through Mirkwood. I really wanted the fellowship to go through it, because I loved that part of the Hobbit. But once I realized where Mordor was, I knew they wouldn't take Mirkwood, and I was disappointed.


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## HLGStrider (Apr 11, 2004)

One thing I didn't want carry over was spiders! Dang, it did carry over. . .bigger and uglier spider. . .but fortunately just one this time.


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## Maeglin (Apr 12, 2004)

I agree, I hate spiders! So did Tolkien, yet he put a big, nasssssty, evil spider in each of his 3 major works, I don't get it!


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## Manwe (May 2, 2004)

Even though I read The Hobbit before LOTR I read LOTR a long time after The Hobbit so all I thought was " Hey I remember that ring thingy" and "I thought elves were happy little shrimps not really powerful beings"


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## 33Peregrin (May 4, 2004)

I read The Hobbit before LOTR. Unfortunately, I didn't really 'read' it. I thought Bilbo was green, with big pointed ears! Even when I figured that he wasn't, I still didn't change it. I didn't even finish it, I stopped at the Battle of the Five Armies. And.... I hated it! I thought I hated it. I 'didn't like' fantasy. 
But then my dad took me to see FOTR, thank God. I didn't even want to go. But needless to say, I loved it, and I loved it! It was literally all that I could think about. The night I saw FOTR (Christmas Eve) I reread The Hobbit, and I did love it, but I was eager to begin LOTR, which I did two days later (December 26). That was when I was thirteen, nearly three years ago.
They are two different types of stories completely, and I prefer LOTR. I love it being so deep and rich. I love The Hobbit too, though, and even feel like reading it right now. I know this sounds stupid, but I kind of think of The Hobbit as being told by Bilbo, and LOTR being told by Frodo. It just seems that way... how I knew Bilbo, and then found Frodo.
I prefer Frodo over Bilbo. But that may have something to do with imaging Bilbo being green....(I was so stupid!) and maybe even something to do with Elijah Wood as Frodo.


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## Niirewen (May 4, 2004)

I first imagined Bilbo as being green for a little while, too! I have no clue why I did that.. maybe I had some trouble imagining what a hobbit was. Anyway, I read the Hobbit a couple months before I read LOTR. I loved it. As soon as I finished it I wanted to read LOTR, too, but for some reason it took me awhile to get to a bookstore. But it's true, the Hobbit and LOTR are completely different books. And when I read LOTR, I loved it even more. And as for what I expected of it compared to the Hobbit.. I don't think I really "expected" that much, I sort of just dove into it. But I do remember being disappointed that Bilbo wasn't the main character.. and I remember thinking "Who is this Frodo guy?.. I want Bilbo!" but I grew to love Frodo, too. I was also surprised that the elves were so different.


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## Inderjit S (May 5, 2004)

I read LoTR after 'The Hobbit'. 'The Hobbit' was pretty much a children's story...but I knew that LoTR would be bigger, better and darker. You cannot write a 1000 page children's book. Plus, given I knew the general storyline....Frodo going to Mordor to cast the ring in Mount Doom, I knew this was a lot darker. The opening chapters really helped me settle in the book since they were so much like the Hobbit, plus all of those hints at the world getting bigger and darker, with some nameless beasts prowling around....it really made me interested...what were these things? Will we encounter them later on in the book....then Gandalf’s account of the ring's of power, it gave us a whole, new grander, more heroic storyline, this thing affected all of the races in Middle-Earth and they were going to tackle the big bad Sauron. 

We then meet Gildor, the Black Riders, Old Man Willow, Bombadil, Goldberry, Barliman, Glorfindel, plus of course the Hobbits and we get a wide range of personalities.


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## kerrie_mcrobert (Jul 2, 2005)

I read the Hobbit first but that was when I was still inprimary school, then several years later I found this book called the Lord of the Rings written by someone called Tolkien. On seeing that name my curiosity led me to read it to see if it was written by the same author of the Hobbit. I couldn't beleive it he had continued the story. As soon as I read the opening pages of the book vague memories of Bilbo came back. I still don't remember a lot from the Hobbit. I do know that when I had finished reading it I was wondering what happened to Bilbo and the rest of the gang,now considering that it had been a few years sinc I last read it, I was surprised that Bilbo had handed over the ring to his nephew Frodo, especially when he felt that the ring was his. Netherless I coontinued to read the book, and the more I read to more involved I felt. Especially when we get to the part where I thought that Gandalf the Grey had fallen to his death. Only to discover that he had survuved but nw he was Gandalf the White. This was one book I found it hard to put down. I think I finished it in about four days. maybe a bit longer. By the end I was like wow. Brilliant book. I am now on a mission to get hold of the Hobbit again and all the books just so I can read right from the begining, can't wait. Speak soon Ugly Duckling


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## Alatar (Jul 2, 2005)

I thought that hoggits were ant sort of creatures...???!!!??
Any way i think it had been a whilew since i had last read the Hobbit so the whole battle of 5 armies was unclear to me, when i read the LotR.
Well i liked reading about Frodo, and shelobs lair was great, and a great thing is that all of his desriptions atre unique! Fangorn and Mirkwood, Moria and Mordor, all of them are sooo different from each other, great.
The way i see it, tolkien said it was written by the hobbits, i think that the hobbit was by Bilbo, book one and two by frodo, three7 Five was by merry& Pippen, with Gimlis help, book four and six were Sam.


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## ingolmo (Jul 4, 2005)

This route wasn't taken by a lot of people, but here's the one I took:
-First I saw the FotR
-Then I read the Hobbit
-Then I read LotR.
Foolish me. I wish I had read the two before seeing the movie.


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## cupn00dles (Jul 4, 2005)

I took this order:

- Fellowship of The Ring movie
- The Silmarillion
- The Hobbit
- LOTR/The Two Towers movie
- Unfinished Tales
- Return of The King movie


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## Narsil (Jul 6, 2005)

I saw _The Fellowship of the Ring_ and _The Two Towers_ (movies) before reading _The Hobbit_ and LOTR. That tended to implant an image of Middle Earth in my mind and gave me a rough idea of what to expect. Fortunately I read LOTR before seeing _Return of the King_ so a lot of the excitement and suspense was still present when I read the last half of TTT and ROTK. I guess I should thank Peter Jackson for ending his movie version of TTT much sooner than in the book and leaving out so many parts of FOTR!  

Since then I've read _The Silmarillion_ and am halfway through _Unfinished Tales_. Reading these books adds a whole new and expanded dimension to LOTR. Highly recommended!  I've just finished reading _The Quest of Erebor_ in UT, which ties in nicely with the _The Hobbit_. I like how each book compliments one another.


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## ingolmo (Jul 7, 2005)

Narsil said:


> I saw _The Fellowship of the Ring_ and _The Two Towers_ (movies) before reading _The Hobbit_ and LOTR. That tended to implant an image of Middle Earth in my mind and gave me a rough idea of what to expect.



Exactly how I did it. Yeah, I know what sort of feelings you meant. It's like having heard and read all about colors, but not having seen them. Or maybe not...


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