Fifth Day of Christmas: 20 GO-OLD RINGS!

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, 

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, 

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, 
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne 
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. 

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, 

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them 

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

-J.R.R. Tolkien's epigraph, The Lord of The Rings

...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Love this pocket edition, with illustrations by Tolkien

"Official Movie Guide" by Brian Sibley (review here)

The Celebration of an Unexpected Journey

It's the 75th Anniversary of the publication of a book that introduced the whole world to a furry-footed hobbit named Bilbo.  This book magically took us on a quest with Bilbo, Gandalf, and thirteen dwarfs to the Lonely Mountain, home of a sly dragon named Smaug...  

CHAPTER I - An Unexpected Party

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms 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 comfort."

The novel by Oxford professor JRR Tolkien was published on September 21, 1937, and has since sold 100 million copies and been translated into almost fifty languages.

Tomorrow, September 22, is "Hobbit Day" - a separate annual tradition - celebrating the birthdays of Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins (who later shows up in Tolkien's trilogy, Lord of the Rings.) 

It would be a great day to have a "Second Breakfast"!