# Starting The Hobbit with my grade 7s again tomorrow



## Thorin (Oct 5, 2014)

Hey everybody! Been awhile since I've been back! I did The Hobbit last year with my ELA class with mixed results and am starting it again with my new class tomorrow. The goal is to have it done before December so we can watch both movies (ugh...) before the 3rd one comes up. I usually have readings and worksheets and I picked up the CD book version of it this summer to play in class as well. I usually have an opinion essay with about 5 different topics they can choose from to write.

Any ideas as to projects for the kids?

I'm gearing up for my LAST review on this forum for the 3rd Hobbit movie. 13 years in the process. *sigh* it seems like yesterday when I did my first LOTR purist review.


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## Alcuin (Oct 6, 2014)

*Thorin*, this might be too convoluted for modern seventh graders, but you might note how Bilbo changes through the story. 

Bilbo starts out more than a little disappointing to Gandalf. You might wait until the end of class exercises to you read “The Quest for Erebor” from _Unfinished Tales_ to them: 


> Suddenly in my mind these three things came together: the great Dragon with his lust, and his keen hearing and scent; the sturdy heavy-booted Dwarves with their old burning grudge; and the quick, soft-footed Hobbit… I went off at once to have a look at Bilbo, to see … whether he was as promising as gossip seemed to make out. But be was not at home. …
> 
> …Bilbo had changed, of course. At least, he was getting rather greedy and fat, and his old desires had dwindled down to a sort of private dream. Nothing could have been more dismaying than to find it actually in danger of coming true! He was altogether bewildered, and made a complete fool of himself. …
> 
> [Y]ou know how things went, at any rate as Bilbo saw them. The story would sound rather different, if I had written it. For one thing he did not realize at all how fatuous the Dwarves thought him, nor how angry they were with me. Thorin was much more indignant and contemptuous than he perceived. He was indeed contemptuous from the beginning, and thought then that I had planned the whole affair simply so as to make a mock of him. It was only the map and the key that saved the situation.



Tolkien emphasizes this change in the repeating theme of Bilbo’s wishing for or dreaming about Bag End. In Bilbo’s various dreams and daydreams, he smells bacon, coffee, reminisces about his garden, and so forth. Except right after he finds the Ring! Then he lies in the eyrie of the Eagles and “dreamed of his own house and wandered in his sleep into all his different rooms looking for something that he could not find nor remember what it looked like.” *Bilbo lost his old self and become a different person*, but we do not realize that until later. You probably cannot mention the religious context of dying to oneself and being reborn anew, but of course Tolkien was intimately familiar with it. Bilbo has passed through the underworld (i.e., the land of death) and been changed by it. In his case, it enriched him; in Gollum’s, it impoverished and ruined him. 

If you have a copy of _The Annotated Hobbit_, edited by Douglas A. Anderson, you might also read the chapter “Riddles in the Dark” as originally published: Tolkien suggested that this was Bilbo’s original tale to Gandalf and the Dwarves as he sought to set aside Gollum’s accusation of thievery, and that the real story as now published emerged only later. In fact, Gandalf explained to Frodo, it was the evil influence of the Ring. 

You might point out the concept of Mercy exemplified when Bilbo spared the life of Gollum. Gollum certainly meant to murder Bilbo in cold blood. It’s outside the scope of _The Hobbit_, but Gollum’s possession of (or by) the Ring began with murder; Bilbo’s began with mercy. 

There is also a recurring theme of greed: The Dragon is greedy. The trolls are greedy. The goblins are greedy. The Master of Lake-town is greedy. The Dwarves are greedy – especially Thorin, who was willing to starve rather than part with a farthing of what had been the treasure of Dale mixed in with that of the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain in Smaug’s hoard, even though it should rightfully have been given over to Bard. (Thorin later repented of his rage, then died, foreshadowing the death of Boromir near Parth Galen.) Even Bilbo was greedy, as Gandalf later observed in Frodo and his companions at Minas Tirith (in the citation at the beginning of this post). Those who cannot give up greed – Smaug, the trolls, the goblins, the Master of Lake-town – all come to bad ends. Thorin repents and is redeemed, but only at the end; Bilbo will only take two small chests with him: when told he could not take claim one fourteenth of the treasure, he replied, 


> [R]eally it is a relief to me. How on earth should I have got all that treasure home without war and murder all along the way, I don’t know. And I don’t know what I should have done with it when I got home.



Smaug the Dragon represents greedy men: Thorin’s description in “An Unexpected Party” is apropos: 


> Dragons steal gold and jewels … from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live … and never enjoy a brass ring of it. Indeed they hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they usually have a good notion of the current market value; and they can’t make a thing for themselves, not even mend a little loose scale of their armour.


Those of us who have lived long enough, have met two-legged dragons (though some of you might unfortunately meet one earlier in life). He continues with a prescient observation of their effects: 


> There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold was probably getting scarce up there, with the dwarves flying south or getting killed, and all the general waste and destruction that dragons make going from bad to worse.


Smaug’s devouring maidens is a euphemism for deflowering virgins; but that point is inappropriate for seventh-graders. 

The Dwarves’ opinions of Bilbo change as Bilbo himself changes. Tolkien as narrator (presumably as the autobiographical Bilbo) says in “Flies and Spiders” that the Dwarves “had changed their opinion of Mr. Baggins very much, and had begun to have a great respect for him (as Gandalf had said they would).” Later he reiterates this point in “Inside Information”, that the Dwarves “had come to respect little Bilbo. Now he had become the real leader in their adventure.” 

There is the issue of facing what you fear: in “Inside Information”, Bilbo pauses before stepping out into Smaug’s subterranean lair: 


> Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.



There is the lasting friendship of Balin and Bilbo. Balin liked Bilbo from the beginning, cheered him when he arrived at the inn without a pocket handkerchief, took delight and no offence when Bilbo sneaked past him (using the Ring) while the Dwarves argued with Gandalf about going back into the goblin-tunnels to look for him; and loved him all the more when Bilbo admitted he had a magic ring. He was pleased by Bilbo’s successes and never begrudged them, overlooked his foibles, and encouraged him in his adventure. 

Finally, there is the “little” joke at the end of the book, often overlooked, I think. Gandalf and Balin have come to visit Bilbo at Bag End, 


> “[T]he prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!” said Bilbo.
> 
> “Of course!” said Gandalf. “And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”
> 
> “Thank goodness!” said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.


Because of course, had Bilbo not literally been a “_little_ fellow”, he could not have served in the role in which he was cast. The theme is echoed by Aragorn meeting Éomer and his éored in Rohan: 


> [N]ot we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!


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## Alcuin (Oct 6, 2014)

If their imaginations wane midway through, you might show them this clip of riding on the back of an Eagle _for real_. A man training a captive eagle to fly has mounted a camera on his wingéd friend. There’s more at this link. I sometimes wondered what Bilbo saw when he opened his eyes and peeked from the back of the eagle on the way to the Carrock. (I imagine he was much too preoccupied with holding onto Dori’s legs on the way to the eagles’ eyrie!) Note the sound of the wind.


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## Thorin (Oct 6, 2014)

LOL. Thanks Alcuin. You and I think alike because I have all of those options they can choose from that I used before. Here are my topics that I had chosen for them last year.

1. How did Bilbo grow through the story? Explain 3 instances where we see growth of Bilbo
2. Give 3 instances where greed plays a part in the story as a central theme of some characters
3. How is heroism shown in 3 different characters in The Hobbit
4. What was the most important part of The Hobbit to you and give 3 reasons why.
5. Many readers have criticized Thorin. Defend him using 3 arguments
6. The dwarves grow to respect Bilbo. How did this happen? Show 3 examples.


I think I saw the clip of the eagle with a camera attached to it. I'll have to find that one!


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## Starbrow (Oct 6, 2014)

Our 4th/5th grade class has a party when they finish the book. The students design the decorations and decide what would be good food. One year they had a second breakfast theme. Some of the kids come in costume.


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## Alcuin (Oct 7, 2014)

Those are very good questions, particularly


Thorin said:


> 5. Many readers have criticized Thorin. Defend him using 3 arguments


Did you tell them *Thorin* is your screen name? for purposes of full disclosure. (Heh!) As Gandalf observed in “The Quest of Erebor”, 


> … Thorin … was a great Dwarf of a great House, whatever his faults; and though he fell at the end of the journey, it was largely due to him that the Kingdom under the Mountain was restored…



Links to the eagle’s flight are [post=509177]embedded in the post[/post]; if they are hard to find, however, for clarity’s sake, they are: 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EAgbW1u00M&list=PLHAeTnu9pdAJySTi0nGeZljmRw96bUNUg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC661JhZW_AVZXQKhb0qYynA



Starbrow said:


> Our 4th/5th grade class has a party when they finish the book. The students design the decorations and decide what would be good food. One year they had a second breakfast theme. Some of the kids come in costume.


Ooh! I like that, too!


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## baragund (Oct 27, 2014)

Thorin,
I am probably a day late and a dollar short, but if you are still taking suggestions on how to teach The Hobbit to your 7th graders, here's an idea to consider:

Your 4th question about the "most important part" of the book seems a bit vague to me and I wouldn't be surprised if the answers you received in the past were all over the place. Consider making the question more concrete like "most important _lesson_" or "most important _character_". (If you decide to use most important character, YayGollum will argue for his namsake until the cows come home! 

Hope you have better success this time around!


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## SKYLAH OAKENSHIELD (Mar 17, 2015)

I am in year 8, and all of the questions you have proposed sound quite good to me. I just wish that my year 7 teacher had been a Tolkien fan. You sound like a great teacher! Which school do you work at?


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