Happy Hobbit Day! Our tenth annual Hobbit Party was this past weekend and it was such a gift to spend so much time with our good friends. I’m so thankful to everyone who made the journey to celebrate with us, and for everyone who helped out while they were here. I couldn’t have done it without you all — and I wouldn’t have wanted to, either. Here’s to many more Hobbit Parties in the years to come.
I’m thrilled to announce our fall book club today and share some details about it. We’ll be reading The Lord of the Rings over the course of six months, beginning in September 2021. For more details and to join, use the newsletter form at the bottom of this post.
Hey, friends! Today I’m sharing a tutorial for creating your own ‘Hobbit Party’ invitations. I’m really happy with how this year’s invites turned out and I hope you’ll be inspired by these to create your own! This year’s invitation was inspired by Bilbo’s contract from the Dwarves in The Hobbit, and our RSVP card ‘contract’ is my favorite thing about it.
As our family’s annual Hobbit Party is just a few months away, I’ve been sitting down to plan out what I want this year’s celebration to look and feel like. I’ve just finished designing our invitations, although I want to keep those a surprise until our guests have received them!
However, I do want to share the printable menu I’ve just put together. Now that we’re on our tenth year (!!!!!) I really feel like we’ve gotten our usual menu settled and it’s easy to know what I’ll make. I’m sure there will be a few variations but here’s what I’m planning.
To celebrate the wrap-up of our Silmarillion book club, we’ve got activities going on all week! These are my way of saying thank-you to everyone who read along with us and participated in our discussions. I hope you’ll have a wonderful summer break and will join us in the fall to read The Lord of the Rings together!
"There at the last they looked upon death and defeat, and all their valour was in vain; for Sauron was too strong. Yet in that hour was put to the proof that which Mithrandir had spoken, and help came from the hands of the weak when the Wise faltered. For, as many songs have since sung, it was the Periannath, the Little People, dwellers in hillsides and meadows, that brought them deliverance."
While Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is primarily a work of prose, poetry and song are woven throughout its pages like stars across the night sky. While some are lighthearted (such as the infamous “Bath Song”) and others serve as exposition, there are some that stay in your heart well after the story is over.
“...Yet it seems that you desire now to have the good of both kindreds, to sail to Valinor when you will, and to return when you please to your homes. That cannot be. Nor can the Valar take away the gifts of Ilúvatar. The Eldar, you say, are unpunished, and even those who rebelled do not die. Yet that is to them neither reward nor punishment, but the fulfilment of their being. They cannot escape, and are bound to this world, never to leave it so long as it lasts, for its life is theirs. And you are punished for the rebellion of Men, you say, in which you had small part, and so it is that you die. But that was not at first appointed for a punishment. Thus you escape, and leave the world, and are not bound to it, in hope or in weariness. Which of us therefore should envy the others?” - JRR Tolkien
"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!"
"At last, in the year when Eärendil was seven years old, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his wolves; and with them came dragons of the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now many and terrible." - Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
“Morgoth hath bewitched thee; for he that seeth through Morgoth’s eyes, willing or unwilling, seeth all things crooked. Long was Turin thy son fostered in the halls of Menegroth, and shown love and honour as the son of he King; and it was not by the King’s will nor by mine that he came never back to Doriath. And afterwards thy wife and thy daughter were harboured here with honour and goodwill; and we sought by all means that we might dissuade Morwen from the road to Nargothrond. With the voice of Morgoth thou dost now upbraid thy friends.”
"Thereat Glaurung stirred for the last time ere he died, and he spoke with his last breath, saying: ‘Hail, Nienor, daughter of Húrin. We meet again ere the end. I give thee joy that thou hast found thy brother at last. And now thou shalt know him: a stabber in the dark, treacherous to foes, faithless to friends, and a curse unto his kin, Túrin son of Húrin! But the worst of all his deeds thou shalt feel in thyself.’ Then Glaurung died, and the veil of his malice was taken from her, and she remembered all the days of her life."
