HOBBIT DAY!!!!

Get ready to take your shoes off and free those Hobbit feet, it's Tolkien week! And September 22nd is Hobbit Day!

Hobbit Day was first celebrated in 1978 to commemorate the birthdays of everyone's favorite hobbits, Biblo and Frodo. Annie at Lake Forest Park is super excited and advises that any festivities "should include many, many fireworks (possibly dragony in nature), eating cake, and lots of dancing." And in all your revelry, she begs you not to forget, "elevensies, the most important meal of the day! Except for, of course, breakfast, second breakfast, dinner, and supper." Head over to the American Tolkien Society's site for more history and lore on Hobbit Day.

To celebrate Hobbit Day, The EMP will be displaying some awesome Hobbit and Lord of the Rings artifacts.  They'll be unveiling Sting, the dagger used by Bilbo and Frodo, as well as Aragorn's sword and Gimli's axe. Click here for more info.

In my "research" for this post, I was checking out Wikipedia's page on the Middle Earth Calendar. It is mind blowing. Bet you've never thought much about Shire-reckoning. Maybe you should start. I also stumbled on to The One Ring, and its Today in Middle Earth calendar. It's really astounding how much time and effort fans have put in to the upkeep of this website. Just for kicks, I checked out what happened in Middle Earth on my birthday:

When :March 4, 3019
Where: Helm's Deep
Description: Gandalf returns. (not from the appendices)
 "There suddenly upon a ridge appeared a rider, clad in white, shining in the rising sun. Over the low hills the horns were sounding."

Very cool.

Here are a few of Annie's hand-picked, favorite, hobbity books:

The Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull

This beautiful book was released a few years ago to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit's publication. I'm so glad it was! Tolkien was not only a talented author, but also a brilliant artist. This book is stuffed full of sketches, paintings, doodles, maps, and plans, as well as the complete Hobbit illustrations. Hammond and Scull lead the reader through Tolkien's work, some of which had never been published before this book was released. It's an easy and wonderful way for Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fans to get to know another side of the beloved author who created Middle Earth.

The Hobbit illustrated by Alan Lee

Though I love The Hobbit with Tolkien's original illustrations, this breathtaking edition with Alan Lee's beautiful drawings really is my favorite edition. He captures Middle Earth with such clarity and accuracy, I find myself falling into the Shire with every turn of the page. Smaug is devastating in all his dragon glory, Beorn's bear is glorious and terrifying, and I wish I could burrow myself into Bag End. A must have for even the smallest Hobbit fan.

And here's a trailer for that movie that's coming out soon...

So there you go. Raise up a buttered scone or perhaps some mushrooms, and enjoy a most festive Hobbit Day, and a merry Tolkien Week!

Happy Burns Night

It's Burns Night tonight.  If you don't know what that is, you're not alone.  But a quick Wikipedia search has informed me that it's a holiday celebrated in Scotland and Northern Ireland (and more recently in the UK) honoring the Scottish poet Robert Burns.  How awesome is that?  A place that loves writing so much they commemorate authors and poets and books with holidays and feasts.  Just look at Bloomsday.  Burns Night is mostly celebrated with a Burns Supper, which actually seems pretty cool and elaborate.  I've got half a mind to throw my own impromptu Burns Supper tonight, but I'm not sure I know how to track down a haggis on such short notice.

But back to this literary holiday thing.  Sure, we celebrate things like Banned Book Week, and Library Week, and Childrens' Book Week.  But what about other holidays celebrating individual authors and books.  Well, don't you worry.  There's a bunch.  Here's a cool list.

My personal favorite is Tom Sawyer Fence Painting Day.  We should definitely celebrate that this year.  I know a fence that could really use it.

Oh, and for your Burns Supper this evening...here's a poem about a haggis.

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, 

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! 

Aboon them a' ye tak your place, 

Painch, tripe, or thairm: 

Weel are ye wordy of a grace 

As lang's my arm. 

The groaning trencher there ye fill, 

Your hurdies like a distant hill, 

Your pin wad help to mend a mill 

In time o' need, 

While thro' your pores the dews distil 

Like amber bead. 

 His knife see rustic Labour dight, 

An' cut ye up wi' ready slight, 

Trenching your gushing entrails bright 

Like onie ditch; 

And then, O what a glorious sight, 

Warm-reekin, rich! 

Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive: 

Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive, 

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve, 

Are bent like drums; 

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, 

'Bethankit!' hums. 

Is there that owre his French ragout 

Or olio that wad staw a sow, 

Or fricassee wad mak her spew 

Wi' perfect sconner, 

Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view 

On sic a dinner? 

Poor devil! see him owre his trash, 

As feckless as a wither'd rash, 

His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash, 

His nieve a nit; 

Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash, 

O how unfit! 

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, 

The trembling earth resounds his tread. 

Clap in his walie nieve a blade, 

He'll make it whissle; 

An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned, 

Like taps o' thrissle. 

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care, 

And dish them out their bill o 'fare, 

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware 

That jaups in luggies; 

But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, 

Gie her a Haggis!

-Robert Burns