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January 08, 2011

The Red Book of Westmarch

Elijah Wood is set to reprise his role as Frodo Baggins, appearing at the beginning of each of two installments of Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit. While Frodo does not appear in the book, Tolkien readers will most probably not object. Some role as narrator is easy to imagine given Frodo's co-authorship with his uncle Bilbo (and Sam Gamgee, at the very end) of The Red Book of Westmarch, the tale re-told by Tolkien as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

[A]ccording to the official fan site TheOneRing.Net, plans are for Frodo (who is the nephew of Hobbit hero Bilbo Baggins) to appear at the beginning of each of the two installments of The Hobbit as a sort of framing device for the narrative. As we’ve already seen from the return of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel — who also doesn’t appear in Tolkien’s original Hobbit tale — Jackson clearly seems comfortable taking a few liberties with his adaptation, like he did with The Lord of the Rings.

Galadriel is a bit of a stretch but as it's Cate Blanchett I am fully prepared to suspend my disbelief.

Also: Martin Freeman is an excellent choice for Bilbo Baggins. If you have yet to see Sherlock (2010), by all means do so and, yet more important, if you have never read The Hobbit, do that before you see the film too.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at January 8, 2011 10:47 AM