Welcome Back to Middle-Earth for the Summer!
As a summer
break for me and, I hope, a fun treat for you, I'm going to spend
some time here excerpting from my last book, Hobbits, You, and the
Spiritual World of Middle-earth. Here starts Chapter Two. Chapter One can be found here and here.
Hobbits, You, and the Spiritual World
by Jill Richardson
Chapter TWO
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE . . . A REALLY BAD DAY
(THORIN) part 1
Vital Stats:
Name: Thorin Oakenshield
Favorite Saying: Mine.
Home: Home? What home? I have no home! That creature stole my home! Vengeance!
Family: Family? What family? I have no family! That creature ate my family! Vengeance!
Height: Height? What height? I have no height! That creature stole my . . . oh, wait. I’m a dwarf. Never mind.
Favorite Saying: Mine.
Home: Home? What home? I have no home! That creature stole my home! Vengeance!
Family: Family? What family? I have no family! That creature ate my family! Vengeance!
Height: Height? What height? I have no height! That creature stole my . . . oh, wait. I’m a dwarf. Never mind.
From the minute Thorin walks through Bilbo’s little round door, you know he’s in charge. He’s got the hood with the bling. He calls the shots at dinner (not poor, hungry Bilbo, who is the host). He’s the one introduced as “and especially Thorin.” Obviously, from the way he swaggers into the room, he thinks he deserves that special treatment.
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“’Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!’” They hung up two yellow hoods . . . and also a sky blue one with a long silver tassel. This last belonged to Thorin, an enormously important dwarf, who was not at all pleased at falling on Bilbo’s mat. Thorin was indeed very haughty, and said nothing about service.” (The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, p. 23)
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| Some birthday celebrations can go very, very wrong. |
Too bad he has no real plan for the job. That’s a problem for less important people. They need to get him what he deserves. And when they actually do? Instead of a proper thank you, they get a two-year-old’s temper tantrum. Mine! It’s all mine! That’s mine, and that’s mine, and especially that—that’s mine, too. I’m King, guys. I make the rules now. Later, a very sorry Thorin admits, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” In those last words, Thorin finally realizes, too much pride can be a tough thing to die with. Too late, he wishes very much he hadn’t lived with it, either.
He’s not the only king ever to learn that lesson.
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On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother (Mark 6:21-29).
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Hobbits, You, and the Spiritual World is a devotional using twenty J.R.R. Tolkien characters. It looks at what makes those characters who they are, where Scripture talks about the same kinds of people, and what it all means to a young person today. Interactive application and fun side additions included!
If you would like to find the book for yourself or a teen/young adult you love, you can purchase it here:
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