Karey's Overflow: The Hobbit

About Me

Name: Karey

Location: Colorado, United States

I garden at 8000 feet, cook from scratch, needle felt, read books continually, study history and epistemology, write daily, contemplate spiritual theology, and pursue heirloom arts. I love to paint pictures of living beyond maintenance -- living creatively, discovering beauty in everyday ordinary things. I've been happily married to Monte, who is a geologist, for a long time and still very much in love, even after raising a family and building two houses. Our children are our best friends. Heather is newly married to Bill. Travis, a minister of the fine arts, is married to Sarah. And Dawson is in college. I naturally live first-hand and have recently realized that this is how we educated our children and ourselves. I love to learn about everything, teach, and work with my hands. I love my home, but my life has overflowed -- as a teacher, radio/conference/retreat speaker, author, and most recently as a MOPS mentor. Kareyswan.com is an ideal way for me to share my overflowing life with kindred spirits and those hungering to move beyond maintenance -- to be known by who they are, not just by what they do.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Hobbit

Two dates this week for JRR Tolkien fans. On September 22, 1921, Tolkien began to recount the stories of Bilbo and Froddo Baggins, hobbits of Middle Earth. And on the 21st, 1937, The Hobbit was published (see the link for the special 70th anniversary edition).

Professor of Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature at Oxford, Tolkien was grading papers, and he turned one of those papers over and wrote, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit", not knowing what a hobbit was or what that meant. He started with drawing a map of the sort of world a hobbit might live in.

With 'a little help from his friends' like CS Lewis, Sayers, Williams - the Inklings - Tolkien was encouraged to write and finish the story. Which of course carried on into The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I'm posting the cover of the 70th anniversary edition because the picture is one Tolkien drew himself. How do I know this? I have his Father Christmas book that is full of all his pictures in letters he wrote to his children over the years, which includes cute postage stamps he drew too.

"Never laugh at live dragons."

JRR Tolkien 1892-1973

Labels: Art, Books, Calender