Just a quick heads up to let people know what’s coming up in Hall of Fire over the next fortnight. This weekend we’ll be finishing Book 3 of The Two Towers with a discussion of the chapter “The Palantir”.

Then over the weekend of August 31 - Sept 1 we’ll be having a special discussion:

“Is the Hobbit a worthy precursor to Lord of the Rings?”

The literary styles of the Hobbit and LoTR vary wildly, and where LoTR has been hailed as the Book of the century, the Hobbit often is overlooked. Is this because of a deficiency in the storytelling of the Hobbit? Is it simply a less worthy and interesting tale?

Does the simplistic style and the seemingly childish hobbits/dragons/dwarves trivialise this as a prelude to LOTR, or do the hints of deeper waters, larger stories, wider lands, and myths, give the Hobbit an extra dimension that works as a springboard to a more complex story?

Don’t forget to brush the dust off your copy of the Hobbit and re-read it beforehand! Hope to see you all there for what should be a cracker of a discussion.

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