Finished Re-Reading the Hobbit

I first read the Hobbit twenty years ago. I was only in 5th or 6th grade. My father bought a mass market copy and handed it to me. He said that after I finished it, I had to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was familiar with the Hobbit, but not so with the Lord of the Rings. In elementary school, my classmates and I watched the 70s cartoon version of the Hobbit at least a dozen times. The librarian showed it as though it were her only VHS tape. When I first read the Hobbit, I was young and did not understand all the idioms and vocabulary. I nevertheless enjoyed the storyline and details not disclosed in the cartoon version. The shape-shifter Beorn in particular fueled my imagination.

Today, I just finished a second reading. It took less than a week. Having read the LOTR trilogy, seen the LOTR trilogy movies, and, more of late, seen the first two installments of the Hobbit trilogy, the book impresses me in new ways. In my childhood reading, I had skimped over the passages on the Necromancer, Gandalf's meeting with the white wizards, their expulsion of the Necromancer from the south of Mirkwood,and the wars fought in earlier years between goblins and dwarves in the Mines of Moria. I also paid less attention to the Orkenstone and the ancestors of Thorin, and their bare escape from the clutches of Smaug. This reading, I have highlighted these passages and considered how they relate to events of the Lord of the Rings, which I largely remember from the movies, and to the opening chapters I've read of the Silmarillion.

My admiration for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien has never waned, though I never quite read through all his major works. I used to own The Book of Lost Tales v. I & II, but when I attempted to read them, I found the style much unlike the narrative one used in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I gave them away. Twenty years older now, and more knowledgeable of ancient mythology and literary techniques, I want to give this work a second go, and newly survey Tolkien's other important works. A few months back, I purchased a book containing Tokien's translation of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo. I had read the first two works in other English translations during my English studies at college, but Sir Orfeo was new to me. I've read Sir Orfeo and found it an enchanting medieval twist to the Greek myth of Orpheus, and one that has a more palatable ending. I've read pages of, but have yet to read in entirety, Sir Gawain and Pearl.

On Amazon, I discovered that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a novel posthumously edited by Christopher Tolkien, his son, titled The Children of Hurin. I had no idea this work existed. I have ordered a used copy, and also a used copy of Tolkien's Book of Unfinished Tales. I hope to read both when I have the time.