Thorin's map, which blends into Bilbo's entryway, and through the door the movie poster for The Desolation of Smaug can be seen

Assignment One

Assignment 1 is due by February 29. Do not send it in before the term starts; those early submissions will be deleted.

Send your homework to [email protected] using the following subject line: The Hobbit - Lesson 1 - your HOL name. For example, if I were to send in this assignment, the subject line would be, "The Hobbit - Lesson 1 - Prof. Tarma Amelia Black".

Do not send attachments; any email with attachments will be deleted.

Within the body of every assignment, at the top of the page, write your full HOL name and House.

Each lesson will have an assignment page where there will be a variety of opportunities for you to earn points. You may choose which you do; you can earn a maximum of 60 points per assignment.

Forum Post

10 points for at least 100 words

Post in the introduction class forum, introducing yourself with your HOL name, any HOL nicks, what house you are in, and what year you joined. Post to say whether you have seen The Hobbit movie(s), read the book, or both.

Fill in the blanks

1 point per blank correctly filled in. (Note: there might be more than one word required to correctly fill the blanks.)
20 points

1. Professor ________ went on to write The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, and it was published ________.
2. The screenplay was written by a team of four people: ________, ________, Phillipa Boyens and ________.
3. The publishing firm of ________ & Unwin hired ________ son, 10-year old Rayner, to review The Hobbit in 1936.
4. Thorin looked for one in particular — the ________.
5. This book, with the help of ________, does not need any ________ it is good and should appeal to all children between the ages of 5 and 9.
6. The ________ of the movie trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, came out in ________.
7. Bilbo Baggins, a rich and ________ Hobbit, lived in ________.
8. Changes were made to The Hobbit after the writing of The Lord of the Rings to accommodate the ________ as presented in LotR, but they were kept in the same ________ of the story.
9. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ________ and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means ________.
10. Written by J. R. R. Tolkien and published in ________, it has been published (and revised and added to) many times and has been translated into over ________.

True or False

1 point each; if it is false, write what is true.
10 points

1. Bilbo Baggins was an adventurous hobbit from the very beginning; that is how Gandalf knew to go to his house and tell him about the Dwarves and their need for a burglar.
2. The young reviewer of the book thought it would be improved with illustrations.
3. Bilbo Baggins had some Took blood in his ancestry.
4. Beorn is a skin-changer.
5. The Elves of the Woodland Realm welcomed the Dwarves and then helped them on their way.
6. Elrond is the elven King of the Woodland Realm.
7. Thorin sought the Arkenstone above any other jewel and valued it over everything else.
8. The name of the dragon in the story is Twinkletoes.
9. Bilbo was chosen for the lucky number.
10. Bard the Bowman shot the dragon and killed it.

Maze

You are a dwarf and have traveled to the mountain. Now you need to find your way to the treasure. (In other words, find your way to the center of this maze.)
10 points

A maze

Direct image link

Story

If you were to write a story for children, now, what kind of story would you write? Keep in mind that you are writing for a young audience, such as Professor Tolkien did.
10 points for at least 150 words

Reading The Hobbit

Have you read The Hobbit, or There And Back Again? If so, did you like it? If not, do you feel any temptation to read it (whether you've seen the movie(s) or not)?
10 points for at least 200 words

Creatures of Myth

10 points for at least 100 words on a creature, for a maximum of 30 points

Tolkien had different mythological creatures in his story. You may choose up to 3 of them and do a little research. What information might he have drawn upon to write about...

The Great War

20 points for at least 100 words

Tolkien fought in World War I. How much of the scouring of the Shire came from his experiences of the war, and how much came from the destruction of the natural land around him (in the years after the War) as industrialization set in? This is your opinion but based upon what others have said about it, including any research that you do on what Tolkien himself said.