Patrick Sharpe

Mr. Palcsey

12/21/17

Odyssey Term Paper

An odyssey is a long wandering journey from place to place. The Odyssey, written by

Homer, is the original wandering journey that has inspired many literary and cinematic works. A

recent odyssey story is the Lord of the Rings, specifically The Hobbit. This story has been

interpreted in a book as well as films. In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins partakes on a journey to help

a group of dwarves reclaim their mountain home from the notorious dragon Smaug. The Hobbit

and The Odyssey share the same dynamic story of a hero facing many tasks and hardships to

reclaim what is rightfully theirs. For instance, Odysseus and Bilbo journey through mystical

lands facing numerous obstacles and monsters to trek back to a home that has been taken over by

an evil force such as the dragon or suitors. Each trek is a unique and personal story.

Odysseus left for the Trojan war and won the battle at Troy ending the war after ten years

of fighting. Without giving sacrifice to the Greek gods, Odysseus is sent off course on a

wandering journey for another ten years. During these wandering years, Odysseus faces many

obstacles that challenge both his mental and physical strength. Odysseus and his crew come

across a variety of monsters including Lotus Eaters, Cyclops, Laesrtygonians, and Sirens. These

monsters are the least of Odysseus’s worries, for the gods are upset with him and use their godly

powers to try to stop Odysseus from reaching his home of Ithaca. Eventually Odysseus reaches

his home and finds suitors courting his wife, Penelope, and ravenging his house. He slaughters

the suitors and reclaims his house and the throne of Ithaca. Similarly, Bilbo Baggins was
recruited by a company of dwarves, specifically Thorin Oakenshield, to recover their home and

the crown under the Lonely Mountain. Just like Odysseus, Bilbo faces treacherous tasks and

obstacles that test him along his journey. Some roadblocks in Bilbo’s adventure are trolls,

goblins, orcs, and the dragon, Smaug. Once returning to the Lonely Mountain the dragon is slain

and the dwarves must defend themselves from thousands of orcs trying to kill Thorin under the

order of the white orc, Azog. Slaughtering and dispersing the orcs, Thorin Oakenshield preveals

and is victorious but loses his life during battle.

The Odyssey and The Hobbit contain numerous obstacles and tests that the main

characters have to face. Each time Odysseus or Bilbo are challenged with a monster, they either

overpower the it or outsmart it. Examples of this occasion are prominent through each story.

Odysseus encounters the cyclops Polyphemus while scavenging for food on Polyphemus’s

island. The cyclops captures Odysseus in his cave, but Odysseus hatches a cunning plan to

escape. Calling himself “No-Man,” Odysseus begins conversing with Polyphemus drilling the

name No-Man into the cyclops’s head. The next morning Odysseus blinds the cyclops and

escapes by tying himself to the bottom of sheep as they leave the cave to graze in the fields.

Figuring out that “No-Man” has escaped the cyclops shouts to his fellow species saying, “No-

Man has blinded me!” Since “No-Man” has blinded Polyphemus the other cyclops do not get

involved fearing that a god had intervened. Comparably Bilbo uses this same type of tactic to

free himself and friends from being eaten by trolls. Bilbo comments that each dwarf has horrible

bugs living inside of them. Upon hearing this the trolls are grossed out and insist on boiling the

bugs out of the dwarves. Bilbo continues the bug game long enough for Gandalf the Grey to save

them from becoming the trolls’ dinner. These two monster encounters are almost the exactly the

same and dealt with in the same manner.

 More parallels are formed between The Odyssey and The Hobbit particularly in how the

heroes dispatch the evil that has overrun their homes. In The Odyssey, Odysseus returns home to

find his own home overflowing with unrighteous suitors trying to marry his wife, Penelope.

Odysseus eventually slaughters all of the suitors and is reunited with his wife and reclaims his

rightful spot in the Ithacan society again. Likewise, Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves fight and

drive out Smaug who is killed by Bard, a fellow hero seeking to reclaim his throne in Dale just

below the slopes of the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo and his company of dwarves are victorious and

take back the Lonely Mountain establishing dwarf power in Middle Earth once again. Taken that

these two stories are set in two different worlds and are thousands of years apart, The Hobbit has

adopted many ideas from The Odyssey. The original journey of Odysseus has been adapted to the

modern day audience. Set in the world of Middle Earth, The Hobbit transports readers to the

mystical land of dwarves, elves and orcs. This immersion entertains the reader and is a nod to the

original odyssey taken by godlike Odysseus.

Settings may vary creating entirely new worlds but there will always be a lasting

storyline in each unique dimension of reality and fiction. Origins can be traced back thousands of

years but a story can be repeated in different a context as seen in The Odyssey and The Hobbit. A

basic structure of a wandering journey, populated by obstacles, which lead to a heroic

homecoming is present in both storylines accomplishing equivalent tasks sharing the same

dynamic adventure. Not only do these odysseys provide entertainment and historical values but

they create a relation to the audience’s lives today.