I've read that nordic myths help prepare you for the Hobbit. Any recommendations...

[Kfamily]

would be great.

 

Any recommendations for other books to be read with or before the Hobbit?

Should I look into a reader's guide? I have decided to choose literature carefully for 6th and I plan on spending more time on a couple of selections. I own Favorite Norse Myths by Mary Pope Osborn but I also saw Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Column at Amazon. I want to be sure to use a quality book that is appropriate for a 6th grader. I am worried the Fav. Norse Myths will not be enough.

 

I am grateful for all of this support. Thank you.

 

 

P.S.

Thank you Janice for sharing with us about diagramming and the Hobbit. I learned so much as I have only read about half of the book myself and that was too long ago.

[Suzannah]

I can't really help with recommendations, but be careful with some of those Nordic, particularly Icelandic myths. My family was stationed in Iceland when I was in high school and a family I babysat for had some Icelandic children's books. I remember being troubled by the bawdiness of some of the stories. I thought it was inappropriate for the age child they had, somewhere between 6-8 I think. As I recall, the story mentioned that the trolls were very noisy in bed, causing earthquakes and thunder...or something along those lines.

 

I don't know that this would be a common problem when looking for stories about Odin and Loki. Just an FYI.

[Suzannah]

I did a quick search and found this as the American-Scandinavian society's page:

 

Each of Tolkien's major works shows a slightly different set of Nordic influences. His children's tale The Hobbit draws its form in part from folk-tales--we know from the start that everyone will live happily ever after, even if frightening things may happen before then. Yet even in this work, Tolkien drew liberally from medieval literature. The names of Bilbo's 13 dwarf companions and his wizard friend Gandalf are taken from the Old Norse poem Völuspá, which was written down during the 13th century.

 

On the other hand, the tale's dragon, and Bilbo's awakening him when stealing a cup from his hoard, derive from the Old English epic Beowulf. In his The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien drew on Old Norse saga literature, particularly The Saga of the Volsungs.

 

HTH

[Kfamily]

nt

[dragons in the flower bed]

I own Favorite Norse Myths by Mary Pope Osborn but I also saw Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Column at Amazon. I want to be sure to use a quality book that is appropriate for a 6th grader. I am worried the Fav. Norse Myths will not be enough.

 

Padraic Colum's retelling is wonderful, literary, high quality writing that is perfectly on target for sixth graders. No offense meant to Mary Pope Osborne fans, but her writing is simply not in the same category with Colum's.

[karensk]

 

Any recommendations for other books to be read with or before the Hobbit?

Should I look into a reader's guide? I have decided to choose literature carefully for 6th and I plan on spending more time on a couple of selections. I own Favorite Norse Myths by Mary Pope Osborn but I also saw Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Column at Amazon. I want to be sure to use a quality book that is appropriate for a 6th grader.

 

After ds read the LOTR trilogy last year, we both read The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum. I think it's the same text with a different title by a different publisher. Okay, I just compared the Table of Contents in both books and they're exactly the same.

 

We both loved the Norse myths. And Colum's retellings for children (like The Children's Homer and The Golden Fleece) seem appropriate for my ds (5th grade). I don't know which details were left out of The Children of Odin, as this was my introduction to Norse mythology. But I've recently been able to compare Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy with Colum's The Children's Homer: Colum's retelling is more old-fashioned (in terms of his sentence structure), and Sutcliff's seems to have a few more graphic details (from what I remember, mostly gory battle details that boys like but I don't). I love the language in Colum's retellings...great copywork material. E.g., "All in Asgard knew of the Dwarf and of the hoard he guarded. And there was thought amongst all that this hoard was not to be meddled with and that some evil was joined to it."

 

Ds11 has enjoyed rereading The Children of Odin a few times, too. You can see where Tolkien got some ideas/characters for LOTR.

 

One thing: There was one illustration I remember of a goddess; she's basically not wearing anything on top. These are line drawings and were done in an artistic way, so it'd probably remind you of those ancient Greek sculptures & other works of art with a lot of unclothed people. If kids have already seen artwork like that at museums or in books, then they probably won't think anything of it (mine didn't). I can't remember anything more revealing than that. BTW, the back cover of my copy says, "Ages 10 up."

 

HTH!

[Kfamily]

a nice copy of The Hobbit and also Nordic Gods and Heroes.

I will preread both books and take notes to better prepare me for teaching it.

 

I am wondering if I should have her read the norse myths before The Hobbit or if we should read them together?

 

Thanks again.

[karensk]

I am wondering if I should have her read the norse myths before The Hobbit or if we should read them together?

 

When we did it, LOTR was our primary text and the Norse myths were secondary. We first read LOTR. Shortly after we finished LOTR, I learned that Tolkien's writings were heavily influenced by Norse myths. So that's when I decided to do the additional reading. It ended up working really well for us.

 

But if you wanted the main text to be Norse myths, then it might be better to read that first. I think when you preread the books, you'll figure out your preference. The myths have a lot of characters that were sometimes hard for me to remember & keep up with the first time through (but I'm not a strong reader at all). It's been years--decades--since I've read The Hobbit, but I think it'd be easier to follow the main character there.