Tolkien's Quests

I have been sitting in my room for about an hour now, ruminating on all of the possible topics that my first official blog post could be about.  I finally decided that I would write about a book that is very dear to me.  Ever since I was a little kid, I, like every other small child, had a strange fascination with tales of ancient soldiers, elves, and dwarves.  So my father introduced The Hobbit to me when he felt I was old enough to comprehend everything that was occurring throughout the novel.  This has been my favorite book for years, and the fact that a movie is finally being made about the book only increases my love for this novel.  I thought that I would talk about the quests that Tolkien always sends in characters on in his novels of Middle Earth.  Of course Tolkien is not the first person to use a quest in his novels, nor will he be the last; but he masters the telling of a quest in a way that I have not seen matched by another author.  His quests always consist of the same key features: A wise old wizard who has encountered many adventures in his days, a novice adventurer who does not think fondly of quests, and a few skilled warriors as protection.  This is standard in almost all tales of adventure, but Tolkien discovered a new way of presenting it which allowed the readers to know more of the events surrounding the quest and the hardships the characters faced.  I will always love Tolkien's novels and I know for a fact that I will be one of the first in line to watch The Hobbit when it comes in theaters in early December.