Tolkien the pee

 

Happy World Read a Book Day to all who celebrate!

This is my current reading. I had any love for The Hobbit beaten out of me at primary school when one of our teachers decided to read it to us. Clobber us over the head with it, more like. I think we were slightly too young and I never took to it. She would have been at teacher's training college in the early-mid 70s when Tolkein was all the rage, what with him being an influence on the lyrics of a load of the rock bands at the time.

So all of those Peter Jackson films passed me by. "Bloody fantasy crap" was what I thought about those.

Fast forward to about a month ago and I'm listening to a podcast and the guest is talking about an adaptation of an abridged The Hobbit that she had as a child, that was on a double album and read by the actor Nichol Williamson. They played clips from it on the podcast and were talking in general about other non-Jackson adaptations of The Hobbit. What was mentioned was the 1979 Jackanory adaptation which celebrated the 500th Jacaknory story and was told over two weeks and with four actors, which included Bernard Cribbins and Jan Francis. I distinctly remember that, and they sat around a camp fire while they told the story. So I thought "Why aren't I into this? It's about things I love: folk tales, mountainous landscapes, runic symbols, adventure etc. And it's been a massive influence on a load of music I like and directly referenced by both Led Zeppelin and Rush. And I'm also into old telly" so I thought I'd look to see if the Jackanory adaptation was on YouTube. But of course the Tolkien estate is rather controlling, so it isn't.

However, what is on Spotify is the album version that was talked about on the podcast. So I thought I'd listen to it. And do you know, I really rather enjoyed it. So I bought the book. And I'm actually reading Tolkien. This is a slippery slope to The Lord Of the Rings, isn't it?