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From Baggins To Beowful And Back Again: Teaching (Via) Tolkien, Jeff Massey Ph.D.

Faculty Works: ENG (1995-2016)

Beowulf, is traditionally at least, a difficult text for incoming freshmen. The Hobbit is arguably less so. In part this has much to do with their respective languages: one is so archaic as to seem foreign, the other is as comfortable as an old English shoe. One is a tale told to children around a quiet fire, the other an elegy shouted above raucous barbarians at beer. Beowulf is peppered with digressions, and shot through with violent revenge cycles. The Hobbit is a relatively straightfoward quest, adventures along the way notwithstanding. They are, on the surface at least, as …