The English Paper : A "Hobbit" FanFic.
*Disclaimer on all LOTR/Hobbit material belonging to Tolkien and movie lines from Peter Jackson*
I - Meet Pippa Ellingale
Every semester, English professor Cecila Angleton (or "Dr. A" as her students referred to her) had her classes read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit inside and out of her classes. She wanted her students to study characters and how they could be found in our world today. She wanted her students to almost feel as though they could be friends with Bilbo or look up to Gandalf and or sympathize with Thorin over grief of family drama. She strongly believed in having relationships with characters from literature. That being said, when the students finished the novel she would assign them a paper explaining a relationship they (the students) would have with one of the characters from the novel.
Little did she know, one of her (secretly) favorite pupils was about to get more than what she had them read.
Alone in the University of Cambridge's library on a rainy night, nineteen year old Philippa Ellingale, aka "Pippa" or simply "Pip", read The Hobbit with earbuds snug in her ear and her right cheek placed on the palm of her hand. Her eyes skimmed the page slowly as she listened to the voice in her head read along.
Although she was a huge Tolkien fan and had enjoyed The Hobbit, Dr. A's term paper was a different story.
Pippa, like many students, was a procrastinator. She always did projects, studied for quizzes and tests, and everything else the night before it was due. Term papers weren't any exceptions. Pippa hated writing papers, finding them useless and a waste of her time. That was the downside of her love of English class - reading was the best but writing was the enemy.
The only words written on the blank notebook paper were her name, English 908, and Dr. Cecilia Angelton. She knew it would be a long night and that she'd have to wind up leaving Univ to go back to her home tomorrow. That annoyed her greatly since that would dent her and her father's plans for a vacation of full-on archery competitions between the two.
Pippa's father was a great archer and shared his love of archery to his only daughter as a way to grieve over the loss of his wife when Pippa was three. He knew that even though he was no expert in a girl's journey into womanhood, he figured archery would help Pippa use it as a tool for stress and for fun. Pippa was decent as most of her arrows hit close to the target. Once in a while, the arrow would go straight to the target's red dot, but most of the time she was close. She never strived for perfection in it and it taught her that everything she would do in her life won't always be perfect but that she could work hard enough to at least be close to the target.
Pippa could picture it now. She and her dad against one another and finally making a habit of hitting the red target over and over and over again. The only thing stopping her was the damn paper.
She sighed and wished she could just drop the paper, but she knew she couldn't. She leaned back in the wooden chair and sighed to herself, when she felt a rap on her shoulder. She turned and jumped as she saw Dr. A standing behind her. Pippa took off her earbuds and Dr. A asked," Trouble with my paper I see."
Oh Jesus. Nice to see you too, Pippa thought to herself. Pippa sighed and Dr. A said," Pippa I would imagine your paper would be done already. You are a fan of Tolkien and you can write about how you would relate to one of the characters since you do archery."
Pippa wanted to scoff but she held it back, simply replying," Dr. A, with all due respect, just because I do archery doesn't mean one of the dwarves or elven and I would be BFFs and braid each other's hair and protect each other in combat against orcs."
Dr. A chuckled at her student's remark and replied," All I'm saying is that I would have thought that you would have had some good common ground with the characters of the novel. Couldn't you ever imagine being part of the company of dwarves?"
"Not unless I magically become a dwarf and get a beard," Pippa replied. She added," Dr. A, why is it so important for us to have a relationship with fictional characters? They're just characters written by someone made up off the top of their head."
Dr. A smiled at Pippa's question and replied," Sometimes, those 'fictional characters' can represent a side of us that we didn't know we had or or that had something happen to them that has happened to you. We tend to live vicariously through and with them and they become a lot of firsts for people like their first best friend or even first love. They are apart of our lives as we are in theirs. Couldn't you ever imagine yourself with Bilbo, the dwarves, and Gandalf on this quest?"
"I can't even imagine what I'm eating for breakfast tomorrow let alone if I'm at all," Pippa replied bluntly. "Besides, I don't think I could ever be friends with people like Bilbo or Thorin or Gandalf."
"What about Kili, Thorin's nephew?" Dr. A asked. "I think you two would be good friends. You seem like his type."
And you seem like a crazy-ass woman for thinking I could be some literary guy's dream girl, Pippa thought to herself.
"I thought this was a paper not a match site for humans and characters in story?" Pippa asked. Dr. A laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you say Miss Sassmouth," Dr. A replied with a shrug. She sighed and then added," Have a good Christmas and that paper will be on my desk by tomorrow afternoon. Carry along Miss Ellingale and I hope this little storm doesn't distract you form your paper."
That was the thing about Dr. A, for a middle-aged woman she could be one of the young adults but turn back into a strict professor in a heartbeat. Pippa watched Dr. A leave the library and then Pippa turned back to her desk, rolling her eyes and sticking the earbuds back in her ears.
"Like I would ever be in Middle Earth," Pippa scoffed to herself as she fixed her reading glasses.
As much as she loved all The Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit books and movies, she wasn't one of the fans who would wear the elven ears or speak dwarf or elven. She continued reading when she moved the book closer to her, knocking her notebook off the table.
"Shit," she mumbled to herself. She got the notebook and placed it back on the desk. She then went to turn back to her novel only to find a note and not the novel. Pippa picked up the note and it read:
Section SI-TO in Fantasy. Now.
She looked around the library and asked," Is anyone here? Hello?" She took out her earbuds and put them in her bag along with her notebook and her glasses. She stood up, grabbed her coat, swung her messenger bag over her shoulder, and walked to the SI-TO section. She looked around and called out," Ha, ha. Nice try whoever you are but give me my book back."
No one replied or showed. She began to get irritated and exclaimed," This isn't funny you prick! Give me my book back!"
She looked around when she heard a soft thump. She turned and saw hdf book on the ground. She looked around and picked up the book and put it in her bag. Creeped out, she decided to leave the library.
She walked out of the library and a storm brew in the night sky. Wind was everywhere and rain fell hard on the stone ground. Sure it was pouring before, but now it was bad.
Thunder crashed and Pippa looked up at the sky when the last thing she saw was a bolt of lightning and she felt the feeling of electricity of her body. After that, everything in her world became black.
Gandalf rode on his horse past the houses of the Shire in the small area known as Hobbiton. He was on his way to meet the company of dwarves for a meeting he held at Bilbo Baggins's house. He chuckled at how skittish Bilbo must have been by now to have dwarves who eat like pigs in his home. He held up his pipe when he saw something lying on the road.
He stopped his horse and got off to see what had been lying on the road. He prayed that it wasn't one of the dwarves on their way to Bilbo's and that they had been attacked.
He got closer and saw the body of what was a young girl. She looked asleep and soaked as if she had gotten out of a river.
"Well, well, well," Gandalf mutter to himself as he put his pipe in his mouth. He tilted his head and pondered what had happened to this girl and why she lying on the rode. He sighed and picked her up like an animal and lied her by her stomach on his horse. He took the reigns of his horse and walked to Bilbo's.
What was to happen to the girl he picked up was unknown, but hopefully she could wake up to give him the answers.
Bilbo was now overwhelmed with these visitors in his once quiet Hobbit home. They ate all the food in the pantry and toyed around with his items like small children. They laughed and yelled to one another and it made a mess in his house.
He looked around, not knowing what to do, or how to get them out when the door bell rang yet again.
"No! No more visitors! Please turn away!" Bilbo cried out. The door had opened and Gandalf appeared smiling. He had some young girl in his arms when he greeted Bibo with," Evening Mr. Baggins. I take it they came already?"
Bilbo's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open a bit. Did Gandalf send them here? He remembered his and Gandalf's strange exchange this morning and he asked," What is going on? Why are there dwarves in my home?!"
"We are having a meeting," Gandalf replied smiling. Bilbo made a face and the dwarves beamed and screamed in greetings when Gandalf appeared. Gandalf said," One moment gentleman, I found this young lady on the road and I wanted to set her down here before she wakes up."
Gandalf put her down on Bilbo's floor and Bilbo protested," No! Not on the floor!" The dwarves crowded around the body of the young girl Gandalf had set down.
"Wonder where she came from," Bofur said aloud to his fellow dwarves.
"Where'd you find her Gandalf?" Ori asked.
Suddenly, the body began to move and the dwarves drew out their swords just in case. Bilbo stepped back, unsure of what to do and Gandalf stood there with his pipe.
"Looks like we are about to find out," Gandalf announced.
Ok, so that was my first chapter. I know it's a little weird but this story will not be mainly focused on my OC Pippa, but she will have a decent part in it. This chapter was a little more focused on her because this is how she gets involved with the characters and I know it's unoriginal to have a human transferred to Middle Earth in FanFics nowadays but whatever.
This was also based on a conversation between my dad and I because my dad wrote a term paper on The Hobbit for a class in college!
Also, some of the information given on Pippa's life isn't meant to make her a Mary Sue at all. Like stated, she's not a great archer but she's worked and practiced for most of her life to be decent unlike the idea that she's a natural at it. Also, the exchange between her and Dr. A is something I have seen between teachers and students at my school and her being sarcastic to what Dr. A is saying is something that's just a part of her. It doesn't make her as "Oh, she's trying to be tough". Lastly, just because I put her mother isn't in her life doesn't mean I'm going to go make a sob-story for her to tell the company later on. I may or I may not have her tell them depending on her role in the story.
It's not that I'm trying to be defensive about the paragraph above but I'm just saying that just because some things are mentioned when a character is being described, it's not always determining their status as a Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu. It's just some info on the character because I've seen it happen with other stories and I wanted to make it clear before conclusions are drawn.
Other than that I hoped the first chapter was enjoyable for you all and feel free to review what you thought. Thank you!