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FarFromHome
Valinor
Jul 6 2012, 3:07pm
Views: 319
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Is it the same as an inner meaning or 'message'? Because if so, Tolkien makes it clear that even LotR doesn't have (or need) one of those:
"As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the intention of the author none." (Foreword to the Second Edition of LotR)
I think you hit the nail on the head, though, with your references to On Fairy Stories. It's not what I'd call a moral, as such, but Bilbo acts out in "real life" what we can only experience second-hand in fantasy - he visits Faerie. He experiences the world as a place full of magic and mystery - the world, Tolkien suggests in On Fairy Stories, as it might have seemed to the people of long ago, when magic and the supernatural were intricately bound up in the meaning of everyday life - giving everyday things an added dimension that we can no longer access, except through metaphor, poetry or fantasy (this is based on the theory of meaning developed in fellow-Inkling Owen Barfield's book Poetic Diction).
Fairy stories such as The Hobbit are a way for us to get a glimpse of that long-lost "magical" world, and what happens to Bilbo reflects what can happen to us (in a much less concrete and more metaphorical way, of course) when we allow ourselves to be dragged off on an "adventure" in the world of the imagination - like Bilbo, we too can experience Recovery, Escape, Consolation. That's what Tolkien mostly offers, I think. He professes to offer no inner meaning or message. I suppose he would like to think that he has done enough by offering his readers a glimpse of the deeper "underlying reality" that can sometimes be found in Faerie. His adventures teach Bilbo to interact with the world more deeply and appreciate it more fully. If there is a moral, maybe it's that.
They went in, and Sam shut the door.
But even as he did so, he heard suddenly,
deep and unstilled,
the sigh and murmur of the Sea upon the shores of Middle-earth.
From the unpublished Epilogue to the Lord of the Rings
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User
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Time
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What is the moral of the story in The Hobbit?
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Curious
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Jul 5 2012, 4:15pm
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Multiple morals?
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Otaku-sempai
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Jul 5 2012, 4:25pm
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That is what Thorin learned,
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Curious
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Jul 5 2012, 4:30pm
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The first is what Bilbo learned about himself.
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Otaku-sempai
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Jul 5 2012, 4:42pm
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You don't think Thorin learned it as well?//
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Curious
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Jul 5 2012, 5:40pm
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The New Shadow
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imin
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Jul 5 2012, 4:56pm
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Nice essay Curious
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SirDennisC
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Jul 5 2012, 6:03pm
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Morals
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Yngwulff
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Jul 5 2012, 9:34pm
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What Bilbo gained
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Gwytha
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Jul 6 2012, 6:21am
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Well, he started writing poetry.
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Curious
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Jul 6 2012, 11:56am
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You don't consider Bilbo a poet?
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Gwytha
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Jul 6 2012, 7:24pm
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Relevant
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Curious
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Jul 6 2012, 7:37pm
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Heh heh
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Gwytha
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Jul 7 2012, 4:33am
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You asked what Bilbo was afraid of at the beginning of the story...
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dormouse
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Jul 6 2012, 2:10pm
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What's a moral exactly?
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FarFromHome
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Jul 6 2012, 3:07pm
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Tolkien did not like allegory because
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Curious
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Jul 6 2012, 3:49pm
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That's a wonderful analysis
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dreamflower
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Jul 6 2012, 10:08pm
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I think that the reader is more like Bilbo than like Thorin.
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Curious
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Jul 7 2012, 1:00am
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Re: I think that the reader is more like Bilbo than like Thorin.
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dreamflower
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Jul 7 2012, 1:45am
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One of the main things I learned
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Curious
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Jul 7 2012, 2:44am
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Story externally
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dreamflower
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Jul 7 2012, 3:17am
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It's tricky, though, interpreting TH based on LotR.
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Curious
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Jul 7 2012, 12:14pm
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'Tolkien invented Cyberpunk?
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Otaku-sempai
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Jul 7 2012, 5:46pm
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In hindsight, hiring William Gibson for the rewrite may have been a mistake. //
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SirDennisC
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Jul 7 2012, 11:58pm
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Oops!//
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Curious
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Jul 8 2012, 11:37am
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Tricky? Perspective is key
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Yngwulff
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Jul 7 2012, 10:29pm
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I question whether the dwarves in TH took the quest seriously.
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Curious
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Jul 8 2012, 12:06am
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Re: It's tricky, though, interpreting TH based on LotR
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dreamflower
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Jul 7 2012, 11:00pm
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The Bilbo of TH is the Bilbo of LotR,
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Curious
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Jul 8 2012, 12:03am
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Re:The Bilbo of TH is the Bilbo of LotR,
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dreamflower
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Jul 8 2012, 12:22am
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Never laugh at live dragons
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ElendilTheShort
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Jul 12 2012, 4:28am
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You would think we would know that one.//
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Curious
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Jul 12 2012, 2:49pm
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