Reading Tolkien's the Hobbit As a Story of Xenia Or Homeric Hospitality

CHAPTER 8 “Home Is Behind, the World Ahead”: Reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit as a Story of Xenia or Homeric Hospitality Hamish Williams J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit1 fits comfortably into the modern genre of fantasy literature; this is a story about a metre high, hairy-footed creature called a hobbit, who teams up with a group of quarrelsome dwarves and a staff-wielding wizard in order to slay a dragon, get some treasure—and slay a few thousand goblins on the way. The fantastic subject matter of the novel, however, should not blind us to those more prosaic, quotidian aspects which render the work relevant to both reader and critic: Throughout the novel, Tolkien has introduced elements of polite and im- polite behaviour assumed to be proper or improper by the narrator and the characters, and thus by the reader.2 But to label The Hobbit a ‘tale of manners’ or ‘proper behaviour’ is perhaps not quite specific enough; in Tolkien’s work, we are dealing with prescribed social conduct which occurs in a defined space between a host and a guest, the owner of a home and its visitor, and which, in English, is called ‘hospitality’. Despite my employment of a modern English term, along with its related cul- tural connotations, this chapter will reflect how Tolkien’s understanding and implementation of this social phenomenon lies in an Ancient Greek, particu- larly Homeric, appreciation of the relationship between a guest and a host, known as xenia. Although Tolkien earned his bread and butter as a scholar of Old English, much of his formative education, at least up until the conclusion of his under- graduate studies, was based in a rigorous training in classical philology.3 We 1 John R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: or There and Back Again (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997). 2 David Stevens & Carol D. Stevens, C.D., “The Hobbit”, in Harold Bloom (ed.), Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: J.R.R. Tolkien (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2008) 20. 3 Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: a Biography (London: Harper Collins, 2002) 90. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi ��.��63/9789004346383_0�0 “Home Is Behind, The World Ahead” 175 know that the young Tolkien displayed an early proficiency in and affinity for Latin, in which he was instructed by his mother from a young age,4 and that this was soon accompanied by Ancient Greek lessons at school, in which he excelled;5 of his affinity for the Hellenic language Tolkien later wrote: The fluidity of Greek, punctuated by hardness, and with its surface glit- ter captivated me. But part of the attraction was antiquity and alien remoteness … it did not touch home.6 More specifically, Tolkien was instructed in Homeric Greek in school;7 and of the Ancient Greek bard(s), the English novelist would later write, “I was brought up in the Classics, and first discovered the sensation of literary plea- sure in Homer”.8 This is no small praise for a writer to make, and we may pause to reflect just how much this first literary love shaped Tolkien’s later storytelling ex- ploits. Eaton remarks that, although there are certain mythological parallels in characters as well as episodic similarities between the worlds of Tolkien and Homer, any direct correspondences are purely accidental and on account of their drawing from a shared mythic pool.9 I contend, to the contrary, that there is one marked influence of Homer’s Odyssey in Tolkien’s first novel, The Hobbit—and this lies not in any sustained character depiction, plot thread or thematic correspondence but in the social phenomenon of hospitality. Xenia, or hospitality,10 is central to the story of the Odyssey.11 Odysseus’ quest is a nostos, a voyage home to Ithaca after the sacking and destruction of Troy; the hero’s home, however, is not being respected: an unruly mob of men have taken advantage of his decade-long absence by overrunning his property, 4 Ibid., 38. 5 Ibid., 45. 6 Ibid., 45–46. 7 Dustin Eaton, “Homer”, in Michael D.C. Drout (ed.), J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (New York: Routledge, 2007) 285. 8 John R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (London: Harper Collins, 2006) 172. 9 Eaton (2007) 284–285. 10 ‘Hospitality’ is perhaps an insufficient translation of the Greek term, which entails a strong religious element (Hom. Od. 9.266–271), not necessarily present in contemporary associations of the English word, although, as I shall discuss (cf. pages 25–28), it is relevant to Tolkien’s representation of hospitality. 11 For a systematic recent monograph on hospitality in the Odyssey, cf. Steve Reece, The Stranger’s Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1993)..

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