by Deborah Globus
I love Tolkien. From those very early days of reading The Hobbit for the very first time, to falling in love with Strider and hunting for Ents in my neighborhood – Tolkien has become embedded in my life.
It’s not that passionate love either. It’s the kind that grows when you’ve been together for so long and experienced so much together that you just are…together.
So, in honor of the new Hobbit movie here’s one of my favorite passages:
” “Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the rim of his hat.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before us!” Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over the Hill,
“Very pretty!” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smoke rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”
“I should think so – in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anyone sees in them,” said our Mr. Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out an even bigger smoke-ring. Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. But the old man did not move. H stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit without saying anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little cross.
“Good morning!” he said at last. “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water.” By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
“What a lot of things you do use Good Morning for!” said Gandalf. “Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good until I move off.”
“Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don’t think I know your name?”
“Yes, yes, my dear sir – and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you do know my name even if you don’t remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladona Took’s son, as if I were selling buttons at the door!” ”
- JRR Tolkien
As my dear friends and I head out to see it this Thursday at the midnight showing, I’ll share that my intention for the month of December is to have a Hobbit-y holiday!
And I’m wishing you and yours the very same. Good morning!
” “Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the rim of his hat.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before us!” Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over the Hill,
“Very pretty!” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smoke rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”
“I should think so – in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anyone sees in them,” said our Mr. Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out an even bigger smoke-ring. Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. But the old man did not move. H stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit without saying anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little cross.
“Good morning!” he said at last. “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water.” By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
“What a lot of things you do use Good Morning for!” said Gandalf. “Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good until I move off.”
“Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don’t think I know your name?”
“Yes, yes, my dear sir – and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you do know my name even if you don’t remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladona Took’s son, as if I were selling buttons at the door!” ”
- JRR Tolkien
As my dear friends and I head out to see it this Thursday at the midnight showing, I’ll share that my intention for the month of December is to have a Hobbit-y holiday!
And I’m wishing you and yours the very same. Good morning!
what a "hobbit-y" holiday feels like
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