The Hobbit and History: Companion to the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit continues to fascinate readers 70 years after its original publication. Over the past two years, the film version of the novel has brought to life the book's main character, Bilbo Baggins, and a host of elves, dwarves, and other denizens of Middle-earth. In this rather uneven and lackluster collection of twelve essays, scholars attempt to "unlock the historical parallels between the Middle Ages, which Tolkien knew so well as a scholar of medieval literature, and the intricate cultures of Middle-earth which he created." Thus, Marcus Schulzke argues in "The Faces of Five Armies" that the novel embodies qualities of famous warrior cultures of past and present: "the condottieri of medieval Italy, the common and knightly English soldiers of the Hundred Years' War and more." In "Merlin, Odin, and Mountain Spirts: The Story of Gandalf's Origins," Leila Norako explores the ways in which the Norse god Odin, the great wizard Merlin from the Arthurian legends, Myrddinn%E2%80%94the Welsh antecedent to Merlin%E2%80%94and the Norse god, Loki were the mythological and legendary figures who had the most influence on Tolkien's development of Gandalf. Christina Fawcett, in "Battle of Wits, Battle of Words: Medieval Riddles and The Hobbit," examines the depth on which Tolkien relies on the medieval The Exeter Book%E2%80%94a collection of wisdom sayings and riddles%E2%80%94in his creation of Bilbo, who is a "font of proverbial phrases." While most of this territory has already been well covered in Tolkien studies, this collection might nevertheless serve as a useful introduction to Tolkien and The Hobbit. Illus. (Nov.)