Looking forward to the Hobbit film



Along with probably millions of others I just loaded The Hobbit onto my Kindle (not sure what J R R Tolkien would think of that) and it is my bedtime reading. I'm trying to limit myself to a chapter a day because I read too quickly and want to chew it over. There are many devotees of Tolkien who will, no doubt, be disappointed by the film because of inaccuracies and omissions that are inevitable in transferring a book to the screen, especially one like this.

Although it may make me a philistine among keen Hobbit fans, I am looking forward to the film. Unfortunately the release date seems to be 14 December in the UK which means that I will have to be quick off the mark to book a seat at Bluewater after the opening rush and before the schools break up.

Poor Tolkien lived to see his beloved traditional Mass eclipsed, and dying in 1973 he did not live to see its revival. NLM records how he used to make the responses loudly in Latin, and on one occasion made three low bows while walking out in the middle of Mass. For a man of his culture it must have been painful to see what passed for "renewal" in the sixties and early seventies.

Fr Z has some interesting reflections and a fascinating story about an aerogramme from J R R Tolkien.

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