“Took and Baggins”
Reading: Chapter One, “An Unexpected Party”
In this lecture, I look at the steps Tolkien takes to introduce his juvenile audience to his secondary world, exploring the tension Tolkien builds between the fantastic and the mundane as we see the adventurous world break in on Bilbo’s quiet and orderly life. Further, Tolkien embodies this tension in Bilbo himself, who is himself divided between his poetic Took side and his “prosy” Baggins side.
Length: 37 minutes
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Heard