Concerning Hobbits...

 Concerning Hobbits…

One of my earliest memories is of Hobbits. Growing up, I had a See, Hear, Read copy of The Hobbit. I have visceral memories of sitting on the floor in my room with the small staple bound book and the record playing while reading, rather listening to, the adventures of Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves. I remember Bilbo’s cleverness in his encounters with Gollum and Smaug, how he wasn’t anyone special, he was a regular person who lived a comfortable life and yet his bravery, loyalty, and quick thinking allowed him to accomplish amazing feats. It was my first introduction to the Hero’s Journey and it would create a lifelong love of a normal person leaving all they have known, accompanied by an older and wiser mentor, going through trials, tribulations, and having adventures, all to eventually return home a changed person. 

The Hero’s Journey is recorded as far back as we have writings. From Heracles, Theseus, and Oddyseus, to Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and the Hobbits from Tolkein’s epics, the Hero’s Journey is ingrained in humanity. It’s ancient, primal, marvelous, and wonderful. Sitting around a fire, telling stories of heroes long past has been replaced with writers telling stories in amphitheaters, playwrights and actors in theaters, directors and actors in movie theaters and television, and most recently, by people sitting around a table, building new epics and storieswith the assistance of dice. 

As I grew older, my fondness for fantasy only grew. I remember forcing my Dad to take me to see Willow in the theater, watching the escapades of He-man, Teela, Man At Arms, and the Sorceress in Eternia, playing the Sierra Games edition of The Black Cauldron and begging the people at the video store for a VHS copy of the movie. In 3rd grade, I was introduced to Pyrdain properly by my teacher, Mrs Appenzeller. She had me read all the Chronicles of Pyrdain after learning of my love of Taran, Henwen, and Gurgi. I was particularly fascinated by tales of the witches in the swamp, which reminded me of the wizard’s duel between Merlin and Madam Mim in The Sword and the Stone.

In high school, I was introduced to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I got to play at lunch with some other band geeks on the steps to the library at my high school. I was fascinated at the possibilities of a game with the only limits being the creativity and quick thinking of the players. I don’t remember my first character, but I remember a typical D&D argument about the effects of a fireball on stalactites in a cave and if multiple saves were required for anyone caught in the fireball, one for the spell and one for the falling stalactites. I got introduced to rules lawyering within my first 15 minutes of play.

Our adventures were cut short when the principal found us playing a couple of weeks after my introduction, saw we were playing with dice at school and confiscated our lone dice set and banned the game from school grounds. I might have pushed things a little to help continue our play in secret by creating a dice app on my TI-82 graphing calculator but I had been suspended for hacking into the school’s computers my freshman year and didn’t want to repeat the experience.

After I graduated high school and went to college I rediscovered my love of high fantasy books. Harry Potter became huge and not wanting to miss out on the biggest pop culture sensation at the time, I watched the first movie and was amazed at the world and how Chris Columbus had created movie magic that brought believable high fantasy magic to the silver screen for the first time outside of animation. As soon as I was done watching the movie, I immediately went to the bookstore and bought all the books that had come out to date, (1-4, if I recall) and read them within the week. I was hooked, and from that day forward, I was at every midnight release for both books and movies.

The midnight release of The Half Blood Prince almost led to my death. I started reading book 6 as soon as I got home from the midnight release, refusing to go to sleep before I finished it. I had to take my parents to the airport and on my way back from the airport I fell asleep while driving 75 MPH on I-680, only 5 miles away from home. I was awoken by the bumps on the side of the freeway that are there specifically for that purpose. I am thankful for those bumps every time I drive that section of 680.

Shortly after I started my Harry Potter kick, I was at Safeway and saw the books for The Lord of the Rings near the checkout stand, alongside The Hobbit. The books were there as a promotion for the new live action movies that were going to be shortly released. In my house growing up, there was a rule that if there was a movie that was being released that was based on a book, we had to read the book before we could see the movie. While my Mom wasn’t there to enforce the rule, her voice still rang in my ears as I looked at the books. Remembering the rule, and my old “book on tape”, I decided to grab them.

I sat on the couch and started to read “The Fellowship of the Ring”. I was quickly transported to Middle Earth, the land of Men, Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits; and I hated it. I hated it so much! Pages and pages of weird poetry and “a-ringa-dinga-dillio” Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, poetry and stories written in incomprehensible made up languages, and so much excess bullshit! I just want to get from the Shire to Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring, thank you very much! I had seen the cartoons that were made in the 70’s so I had some understanding of the story, but I did not “get” this. I put Fellowship down and set it on my “try again never” pile, upset that I had wasted a day’s wages on a terrible impulse purchase.

A few weeks passed and I saw the 4 books on my bookshelf and remembering my fondness for my old “book on tape”, I decided to give The Hobbit a try. I sat down one evening and started reading. I read about Gandalf visiting Bilbo, an unwanted visit by the dwarves, and Bilbo choosing to leave his comfortable life and join the dwarves on their quest to get their ancestral lands back. I read about his encounter with Gollum, deep under the mountains, the escape from the spiders of Mirkwood and the elves. I was engrossed as Bilbo snuck into Smaug’s dragon horde and praised the dragon’s greatness. I read faster and faster as the climax came, Bard killed Smaug with a perfectly shot arrow, the dwarves got their home back, and Bilbo was rewarded for his bravery and returned to the Shire. By the time I finished, it was morning and I was late for work. I loved every moment of The Hobbit. I was reminded of Bilbo’s bravery, loyalty, and cunning, all from a seemingly normal person. It was… perfect.

I didn’t understand how the man who had written The Hobbit had also written the drivel that was Fellowship. I ended up talking to a friend, who was a Lord of the Rings fan, about this and he made a comment that changed my perspective and my life. He said “I only read the prose. Any time I see an indent in the text, I skip to the part after. The songs and poems will give you some history of the world, but none of it is important to the story.” After hearing this, I picked up Fellowship again as soon as I got home and started reading.

With this new knowledge from my friend, I consumed Fellowship like it was a feast set in front of a starving man. The Tom Bombadil part was still weird, there is no getting around that really, but the description of the Shire and life in Hobbiton, Bilbo’s 111th birthday, and later the Ringwraiths, meeting Strider and buying Bill, the pony, the travels to Rivendell and Tolkein’s descriptions of the Elven city enraptured me. The horrors of Moria, the beauty of Lothlorien, and the death of Boromir, redeeming himself after his fall, all consumed in a day. 

Up next was The Two Towers, read with ever increasing speed, following Frodo and Sam as they form an unlikely partnership with Gollum, Merry and Pippin’s adventures with Treebeard and the Ents, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas’ adventures in Rohan. All fantastical, never a dull moment.

Finally, The Return of the King, Gollum betraying Sam and Frodo, Shelob, the encounter with the orcs in the tower, Merry and Pippin separated, meeting Faramir, Rohan coming to Gondor’s aid, the Fall of the Witch King of Angmar, Sam and Frodo getting closer and closer to Mt Doom, and the showdown in the volcano. The hobbits’ return to the Shire to find it burned and their people enslaved and Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pip rallying the hobbits to defeat Sauruman and his orcs. The hobbits realize they are no longer the same people they were before their journey but they are home. Frodo, realizing he has changed too much, goes into the Undying Lands with Bilbo.

In less than a week I had read all three books. I needed more. I read them again, and again, and again. By the time the movies came out, I had read them 4 or 5 times, finding new things, making new connections, and growing to love the world of Middle Earth and the lands of the Shire.

I was at the midnight release of The Fellowship of the Ring. I was nervous and excited. Excited for what might be, and nervous that Peter Jackson could screw up the images that I had created in my head from Tolkein’s words. I had been disappointed by movie adaptions of books dozens of times in my life, where what I had created in my head wasn’t what the director had in theirs, or what the special effects would allow and I was terrified that my newfound love of these books and the characters in them would be destroyed by decisions of people I would never meet who wanted to make money from “geeks”.

The screen went black, the first few haunting notes rang through the theater, “New Line Cinema”... “The Lord of the Rings”. Cate Blanchette’s voice as Lady Galadriel talking about the history of the ring, the war in the second age between Sauron and the forces of evil vs Men and Elves. Sauron’s “death”, Isildur’s betrayal, the ring’s betrayal of Isildur, Gollum’s acquisition of the ring, and Bilbo finding it. Cut to the Shire… one of the most beautiful and serene places ever put on film. From Bilbo’s own voice, you learn about hobbits, their customs and how they live, simply but happy.

The next 3 hours I was enraptured by what was put on screen. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was grand, epic, beautiful, horrifying, exciting, happy, devastating, gorgeous, and above all else better than any image I had in my head of the book. Sure there were things missing, and timelines were different from the books, but the movie was… perfect.

It was a long wait until The Two Towers came out, but between the movies were massive life changes. I was laid off from the school district, got a job at a local computer store, left Davis and moved home, started working at the local pizza joint, and started school at the local community college. During all these life changes, my escape from it all was Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books. No matter the challenges or stresses, I could always return to Middle Earth and read about Gandalf, Bilbo, the dwarves, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pip, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir.

The Two Towers was released in theaters and again, I was at the local midnight showing. I had high expectations, and was again blown away by Peter Jackson’s vision. Fangorn, Edoras, the Dead Marshes, the Black Gate, and Helm’s Deep were amazing! All these amazing locations while following the three parallel stories of Sam/Frodo/Gollum, Merry/Pippen, and Aragorn/Legolas/Gimili in a way that felt natural and gave equal importance to all 3 stories. It’s rare that a director can create a cohesive movie from disparate yet intertwined stories and yet Peter Jackson did it, not just did it, but excelled at it.

Coming out of the theater after Two Towers was another long wait for the final movie in the trilogy, Return of the King. Life slowed down at this point, although I did quit the pizza joint and started working at my local Hollywood Video. Working in a video store at this time was fantastic. I was working with a long time friend, I was able to hire some of my friends to work with me, and everyone was excited and passionate about movies. It was working at the video store where I was reintroduced to the 70’s cartoon editions of the Lord of the Rings. I spent many nights late at the store listening to the movies. I always stopped what I was doing when Sam, Frodo, and Gollum got to Minas Morgal and the music started with a deep voice singing “DOOM! The cracks of doom.” It always made me laugh how ridiculous the cartoons were but also how lovingly they were crafted.

I forced my brother and friends to join me for the Return of the King midnight release and I think they were less than thrilled. I was excited to see the climax, the battle for Minas Tirith, the confrontation above the fires of Mt Doom, and the war for the Shire. My brother and friends hadn’t read the books and didn’t know how much needed to be unraveled after the ring was destroyed. Sam and Frodo being rescued, “must almost be over”. My friends, you bow to no one, “It’s over now, right?”. The Hobbits return to the Shire, “Ok, back home and movie over?”. Frodo finishing his story at the end of Bilbo’s book, “That’s the end!”. Everyone going to sea to take the journey to the Undying Lands, “This has got to be the end, right?!?!”. Sam returning home to Rosie and entering their Hobbit home, and credits, “Finally! Can we go home now?!?”.

Despite the frustration of the folks sitting around me, I was emotional. The battle for Minas Tirith was action packed, the ride of the Rohirrim and Theoden’s speech was awe inspiring, Eowyn’s showdown with the Witch King of Angmar was fantastic. Merry and Pippin proving that they too could fight for those they loved, Sam carrying Frodo and the final confrontation at Mt Doom (again showing that Sam is the real hero of the ring bearer storyline), Aragorn’s coronation (“My friends, you bow to no one” still makes me choke up), the return to the Shire and Sam marrying Rosie, all the “power” touched characters going to the Undying Land, and finally Sam returning home and closing the door to his hobbit hole, closing the movie and being a fitting end to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was… perfect.

I’ve since watched the Lord of the Rings movies more times than I can count, both at home and while working at the video store. I still get choked up at Gandalf talking about hobbits surprising him, get excited when Arwen brings the river down upon the Ringwraiths, emotional at the “You have my sword” speech, enraptured at the battle for Helm’s Deep, cheer when the fires of Gondor are lit, and cry at Aragorn’s coronation. The biggest surprise to me though isn’t the story, acting, directing, cinematography, or music; it’s always the fact that all the places they filmed at are real places on this Earth. The Shire is not made with movie magic or CGI. Pelennor fields, the Anduin river, Fangorn, Helm’s Deep, the Dead Marched, and Edoras were all real places in a magical land known as New Zealand. The locations in these movies were more beautiful and surreal than any place I had ever known, and I hoped to one day see them in person.

Eventually, Peter Jackson made movies of The Hobbit as well. I am fond of these movies, although I do wish they hadn’t mixed other source material with The Hobbit to make them. They are great in their own right, however I don’t think they have the soul of The Lord of the Rings. The one thing it absolutely has in common however is the amazing locations they filmed at. Still in New Zealand, still surreal in its beauty. Again, I hoped that some day I would get an opportunity to visit some of these incredible places.

That brings us to today. On Thursday, February 22, 2024, our 10 year wedding anniversary, Valerie and I got to step foot in New Zealand. We got here on a cruise ship and docked in Wellington. We got off the ship, took a shuttle to the central business district and then hopped onto a bus to Miramar, where Weta Workshop is located. Weta Workshop is a special effects shop that has done effects, both practical and digital for movies like King Kong, Godzilla, Avatar, Black Panther, and most importantly, The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. 

Visiting Weta was one of the coolest experiences of my life, second only to getting married to my beautiful wife. Outside were the 3 trolls from The Hobbit and inside the gift shop was a statue of Gollum and another of Lurtz. The details were all incredible. We got to see set work armor and weapons, how they make prosthetics, how they make chainmail, both real and lighter sets for armor for actors. We got to see the actual weapons and gear the actors wore and used in the LOTR and Hobbit movies, and we got to see up close Sauron’s costume. Every point in his helmet and crown, every link in his chainmail, every tear in his cowl, the spikes on his boots. We got to hold Azog’s mace from the Hobbit movies, talk about how Theoden’s improved run along the front line before the battle of Pelennor Fields, hitting the spears with his sword caused 3 weeks of extra work for the Weta team as they had to scuff up all 300 identical copies of Theoden’s sword so it looked the same as it did after he did his speech in future shots. It was an incredible experience. It was… perfect.

After leaving Weta, I was so excited for what we would be doing the following Saturday. When we got to Taraunga, we would be visiting the actual set of the Shire/Hobbiton. As beautiful as the Anduin River, Lothlorien, Pelennor, and Fangorn were, the Shire continues to be one of the most magnificent places that has ever been filmed. The slow, rural, idyllic life portrayed by Bilbo in both movies hits a chord deep in my soul, and we had the opportunity to visit this place. 

Today, 2/24/24, we got to experience the Shire in person. It was a long drive from the port, almost an hour. We had a fantastic tour guide, Amanda, who told us about the local area and drove us from Tauranga to Matamata where the Hobbiton bus picked us up. There was a sign in the center divide that said Welcome to Hobbiton and a statue of Gandalf. We got our tickets and were ushered onto the bus.

The bus drove us another 20 minutes to the staging area before starting our tour. The Hobbiton set was built on a sheep farm in the middle of New Zealand farm country. There was nothing but farmland for miles around. We had gotten there a little early and had to wait about 15 minutes before our tour started. Our tour guide was a young Kiwi named Kieren. The bus dropped us off and Kieren ushered us through the pathway where Bilbo runs out of Hobbiton after the dwarves, yelling “I’m going on an adventure!” It was surreal to be there. Once you walk through the gap you are in the Shire. You see hobbit holes, clothes on laundry lines, tools, food, bee hives, the party tree, and at the very top of the hill, you see Bag End and the oak tree standing tall, watching over all of Hobbiton.

We began winding our way through the dirt paths between hobbit holes with our heads on a swivel. There was so much to see, so much beautiful set decoration making this look like a lived in place. Slowly we headed to the top of the hill, to Bag End. As we got higher, we were able to look over the lake to the mill, the bridge, and the Green Dragon Inn. All of the Hobbiton sets for Lord of the Rings were torn down after filming because the agreement with owners of the farm was that the farm would be put back to as close to its pre-filming status as could be done. All the original sets were made with temporary materials, the Green Dragon Inn was actually burned down during filming, shown during Frodo’s interaction with Lady Galadriel in Lothlorien, with fire fighters dressed up as orcs so they could watch the fire while the fire was being filmed. Given all the LOTR sets were destroyed, they had to build new ones when filming The Hobbit movies. The farm owners had been giving tours to people, using pictures to show how things looked during filming, and now wanted Peter Jackson to build permanent structures so visitors could see things as they looked in the movies, and this was agreed to. It took 2 years of building and they only filmed there for 12 days, but the structures still stand today, with hundreds of people visiting 7 days per week. 

The lower hobbit holes were really cool, but the one everyone wants to see is the one at the top of the hill with the green door, Bag End. It was awesome, but it felt a little rushed. I would have liked to spend more time at Bag End and less time at the lower holes, but the experience was still awesome. The gate at Bag End had the sign “No admittance except on party business” up and there was a pipe and book on the bench where Bilbo is sitting when Gandalf approaches at the start of An Unexpected Journey. You can turn your back on Bag End and see the party tree, with some tents set up under it, the lake, the bridge, mill, and Green Dragon Inn, green rolling hills, and in the distance, the Misty Mountains. It was absolutely surreal standing in that spot. After taking a couple of pictures from Bag End, we headed down the hill, passing more hobbit holes, and eventually ending up in front of the party tree. We milled around there for a minute, and then got to see the highlight of the tour.

In December, the original set designers for the 2 trilogies finished building 2 fully furnished hobbit holes. The tour allows you to go in, sit on the furniture, touch anything in the hole, and take pictures and film. It was incredibly cozy and was better than I could have ever imagined. Thinking back on it, it was so surreal. Everywhere you looked was more detail, something new that you hadn’t seen before. You could spend days in there and still not realize everything in the hole.

On our way to the set dressed hobbit holes, we passed by Sam and Rosie’s hole. You only see it briefly at the end of Return of the King, but it is unmistakable and lovely especially since it is the last thing you see before the movie ends.

After the visit in the hobbit hole, we headed around the lake, past the mill, over the bridge, and to the Green Dragon Inn. The Inn was incredible as well. A drink was included with our ticket. We had the option of a ginger beer, ale, apple cider, or stout. I had the stout and Valerie got the cider. Both were fantastic, and while you could buy the ginger beer, ale, and cider from the gift shop the stout was only available at the Inn. The inn was dressed in a similar style to the hobbit holes we went through, just more inn-ish vs homey. It was lovely and I could spend a lot of time there enjoying the occasional drink.

After the Inn and our drinks we headed back to the bus and to the staging area. We did some shopping in the gift shop, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then hopped in Amanda’s van to do some more non-LOTR related sightseeing, and then headed back to the ship. It was sad leaving this beautiful place, but Hobbiton will always have a place in my heart. There is something magical about that place, tourist warts and all. It was… perfect.

Having had only a sneak peak at what New Zealand has to offer, Valerie and I want to come back. There is so much natural beauty and the people are incredible. Next time we will rent a camper and see New Zealand properly, up close and personal. The land is magical and it’s little wonder why Peter Jackson chose this place to represent the lands of Middle Earth. There is no place on Earth I’ve been that compares to the majesty of the islands that comprise New Zealand. While we are not quite “There and Back Again”, we have certainly gone on an adventure that neither of us will ever forget.

I found a copy of my childhood See, Hear, Read edition of The Hobbit on YouTube if you are so inclined to experience it as I did almost 40 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Ed7vTV6bo