LITERATURE The Hobbit Discovering Grace and Providence in Bilbo’s Adventures Joseph Pearce LECTURE GUIDE Learn More www.CatholicCourses.com LITERATURE The Hobbit Discovering Grace and Providence in Bilbo’s Adventures TABLE OF CONTENTS Joseph Pearce Joseph Pearce Lecture Summaries Thomas More College, New Hampshire LECTURE 1 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Bilbo’s Pilgrimage 4 LECTURE 2 Joseph Pearce is Writer in Residence and An Unexpected Parting 8 Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH. He is also Feature: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholic Bestsellers 12 a Visiting Scholar at Mt. Royal Academy in Sunapee, NH. A popular speaker, he lectures LECTURE 3 regularly at a wide variety of events at major Trusting in “Luck” 14 colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Europe, Africa, and South America. LECTURE 4 Goblins and Gollum 18 Professor Pearce is a renowned biographer whose books include: Feature: Redemption, Salvation, and Christianity in Tolkien’s Fiction 22 • Through Shakespeare’s Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays (Ignatius Press, 2010) LECTURE 5 • Tolkien: Man and Myth, a Literary Life (HarperCollins, 1998) Bilbo Comes of Age 24 • Literary Giants, Literary Catholics (Ignatius Press, 2005) • Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press, 1997) LECTURE 6 • Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (Ignatius Press, 2002) The Return of the King 28 His articles have been published in Lay Witness, National Review, Feature: Rediscovering Reality Through Fantasy 32 Distributist Review, and National Catholic Register. LECTURE 7 Professor Pearce is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Higher The Dragon Sickness of Pride 34 Education from Thomas More College for the Liberal Arts and the Pollock Award for Christian Biography. He is co-editor of the St. Austin LECTURE 8 Review, editor-in-chief of Ignatius Critical Editions, and editor-in-chief Blessed Be the Poor in Spirit 38 of Sapientia Press. Suggested Reading from Joseph Pearce 42 2 The Hobbit / Joseph Pearce Learn More 3 The Hobbit Joseph Pearce Lecture 1 Bilbo’s Pilgrimage Throughout the course of his adven- ture, the hobbit Bilbo develops the habit of virtue and grows in sanctity, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have been illustrating that we only become wise a publishing phenomenon, and Peter Jackson’s when we realize we are pilgrims on film versions of The Lord of the Rings are among a purposeful journey through life. the most popular ever made. Much more than just Tolkien is at war with our current a simple children’s story, The Hobbit is a pilgrim- homo superbus or relativist culture, age of grace, in which its protagonist, Bilbo Bag- asking in his books: What is it to gins, becomes grown-up in the most important be human? To be human is to make sense, which is the growth in wisdom and virtue. progress in the spiritual life of virtue, It is important that we don’t lose this Christian on the journey to reach the goal. Life dimension of morality when viewing the films or is about the truth that’s beyond us, reading the book. and we have to move toward that The Hobbit reflects the words of Christ, “Where truth to grow. So, Bilbo Baggins is a Bilbo’s journey reflects Everyman Figures our own journey through your treasure is, there your heart will be also” homo viator, engaged with his jour- life, involving growing up (Matthew 6:21), and as J. R. R. Tolkien said of The ney through life, and the people and Hobbits are a bit different from us: they and growing in virtue— Lord of the Rings, the story is “a fundamentally reli- creatures in the story who resist the live in a hole in the ground, they have furry through grace. gious and Catholic work.” Children should learn journey are self-aggrandizing—they feet, and they’re short. But Bilbo in The Hobbit from the book, and hopefully the movies, about the are homo superbus, suffering from the and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings represent scariness of dragons, and to distinguish between dragon sickness. us. They are a mirror of all of us. And their evil and good. Virtue can only be attained, through Bilbo represents us, and his journey—whether Frodo’s journey to Mount grace, by slaying the monsters and demons that journey from the Shire to the Lonely Doom or Bilbo’s journey to the Lonely Moun- seek to prevent the achievement of the paramount Mountain, and then back home to tain—imitates our journey through life. We goal of our life’s journey: being united with God the Shire again, mirrors our journey can follow in the furry footsteps of Bilbo and in Heaven. This understanding of the purpose of through life. Bilbo’s journey is appli- Frodo, learning the lessons that they learn and life is the key to reading The Hobbit and seeing its cable to us on two levels: literally as the coming to the same spiritual destination that deepest and most applicable meaning. story and allegorically as it relates to us they reach. There are two ways of understanding human- as individuals. On the allegorical level, ity: we are either homo viator (on a journey the story has much to teach us morally through life with the purpose of living virtuously about what has eternal significance. and getting to Heaven) or homo superbus (pride- This journey of growth in virtue fully living life to maximize self-gratification). is impossible without grace, without 4 The Hobbit / Joseph Pearce Learn More 5 supernatural intervention—labeled nature entails our natural tendency Bilbo’s Pilgrimage “luck” in the story. But as Gandalf towards concupiscence and its makes plain at the conclusion, what destructive consequences. If we Discussion Questions had been called “luck” was not really don’t ask for help, we are bound to luck at all. “You don’t really suppose, fall. It is in this choice, rooted in the 1. Consider the differences that characterize the two concepts of human- do you,” Gandalf asks Bilbo, “that all gift and responsibility of free will, ity discussed in this lecture—homo viator and homo superbus—and your adventures and escapes were that the struggle with evil is won or discuss the way in which they are represented in the characters and managed by mere luck, just for your lost. A person must willingly coop- the plot of The Hobbit. sole benefit?” Moral will, on its own, erate with grace or, in his failure to 2. In what ways does the The Hobbit act as a meditation on the words is never enough. An outside agent, do so, must inevitably fall into evil. of Christ that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” which we call grace, is always neces- Thus, there is a supernatural (Matthew 6:21)? sary. Grace is illustrated in The Lord dimension to the unfolding of 3. Tolkien once wrote that fairy stories may be used as “the Mirror of of the Rings as Gollum’s life is spared events in Middle-earth. Tolkien scorn and pity towards Man.” In what ways can we see ourselves re- on three occasions by hobbits, shows through his stories the mys- flected in the character of Bilbo Baggins, and our lives reflected in his leading to his crucial role at Mount tical balance that exists between the journey from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain? Doom. By sparing Gollum, the hob- promptings of grace, or of demonic bits have passed a test of love—the temptation, and the response of a Notes: toughest of all virtues—because the person’s will to such promptings greatest commandment Jesus Christ and temptations. Christians believe gave us was to love our enemies. in dragons, even if they can’t see them, and know they are perilous and potentially deadly. The Hobbit is not merely about slaying the dragon who is wasting fairyland but more importantly, about slay- ing the dragon who is attempting to waste our own souls. Even as Bilbo wanders further from his own home, the truth that In The Hobbit, good “luck” is he exemplifies is always close to inextricably connected to good home for each of us as readers. Each choices, and bad “luck” is inextrica- of us is prone to the ill effects of bly connected to bad choices. “Luck” the dragon sickness, and each of us is biased in both directions: grace is needs to walk with Bilbo so that we always available to those who seek may be healed from its potentially it, biasing “fortune” in the direction deadly consequences. of goodness; yet, the fallenness of 6 The Hobbit / Joseph Pearce Learn More 7 The Hobbit Joseph Pearce Lecture 2 An Unexpected Parting Hobbits—the very word makes us think of “home” and “habit.” As creatures of home, hobbits don’t want Hobbits made their literary debut in Tolkien’s to go off on adventures. They like to be book, but they could not be entirely new because at home in their hobbit holes, which nothing under the sun is entirely new. Perhaps mean comfort. The hobbit is very close Tolkien resurrected the word “hobbit” from a to home because he is very like us; in nineteenth-century list of folklore creatures which fact, he is one of us. Bilbo Baggins is lists hobbits as a sort of ghost or ghoul. Obviously a creature of comfort dedicated to the Three Types of Magic though, Tolkien’s hobbits have nothing remotely creature comforts. Nothing could be ghastly about them.