The Hobbit: New Trailer

TolkeinReally sorry, I couldn’t resist this. Here’s the new Hobbit trailer just released to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the book’s publication in 1937. I first read Tolkein’s quiet epic of high fantasy when I was nine. I don’t think I understood much of it until I read it again a couple of years later, but I remember loving every thrilling second of suspense. I suspect I identified with Bilbo, hopefully not Gollum. I am really glad to see Martin Freeman as the lead, he has a perfect balance of phlegmatic poise and near panic.

The cover image to the left is the edition I still have, an Unwin paperback bought second-hand in 1968.

Also, here’s a link to the brilliant Andy Serkis reading as Gollum, in the Fulham Palace Gardens, in West London, just close to where I work.