Reddit reviews Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit

I was attending a small private Catholic high school when the LotR movies came out. My friends and I were already fans of LotR (I had already read it nearly ten times), but to us the surging popularity of LotR in addition to the strong Catholic identity of Tolkien and his mythos combined to make his work a really big deal among my group of friends.

I think that of all my friends, I was the most familiar with the broader lore of Middle-Earth. I gobbled up the Appendices, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales. I was fascinated by the detailed backstory and Tolkien's incredible attention to culture and especially the languages and alphabets. I can remember taking notes in class using the runes used in the Hobbit, and writing stuff in the Tengwar as well.

Our high school taught Latin as part of the curriculum. In my final year of high school, a friend and I started a project to translate the Hobbit into Latin. Our traslation sucked in hindsight, and we didn't get very far, but it was a lot of fun to work on. (We posted it online if anyone's interested).

I still love Tolkien's works, but my life doesn't revolve around them the way it did then. The recent release of Mark Walker's Hobbitus Ille was very exciting though!

Ok this is going on my list. I don't speak or read Latin, but I'm enough of a linguaphile that I have to have this!!

Edit: aaaaand it's pre-ordered. For those of us in the US!

Pre-order now; Shipping Sep 13th (source)

You can get it from [Amazon](Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit https://www.amazon.com/dp/0007445210/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_b5yAybNP5CS8Z)

> The second I got that textbook, I realized that the Latin I'd learned hadn't prepared me in any way whatsoever for what Latin actually is

I'm sure you're busy but can you please elaborate on this? If I am taking the wrong path with this, I definitely want to adjust. That being said, my goals for learning Latin are a little different than most, I think.

I write fiction and I love to read. Latin has always interested me as the basis (mostly) for the English language, but I was often too intimidated when I was younger to even attempt to learn it or, really, had no interest. I'm 28 now, and just a few weeks ago, it kind of clicked in my head that I wanted to learn what I could about Latin. I have much interest in ancient Rome and the writings of Iulius Caeser and the rest. However, my true desire is to write fiction in Latin in order to better help people--and myself--learn and understand the language, from real easy 1st and 2nd year ghost tales to real intricate pieces for advanced learners. I want to be able to provide ways for people to enjoy learning what is far too often referred to as a "dead language". In order to do this, I'd like to, not only understand how to read the classical works of ancient philosophers but, be able to read and write modern Latin literature.

I ordered Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, which is the Latin translated version of the first Harry Potter book. I plan on ordering Hobbitus Ille at some point, as well, which is The Hobbit transcribed in Latin. I desperately want to be able to read these and understand them. I can't yet really read through it as I haven't even touched past/future tenses.

So, with all of that, I have obtained Lingua Latina and the accompanying exercise booklet. I use that just a bit in combination with Rosetta Stone. I don't know if this is common practice with other learners, but I also write and speak, literally, every sentence I read in Latin in Rosetta Stone in an attempt to solidify it into my knowledge bank. I work with it every weekday morning, and have had a couple huge blocks on the weekends.

If my goal is to read modern Latin text, and create my own eventually, would it still be a good idea to drop Rosetta Stone? I am learning quite a bit from it, and it is fun and very useful--the methods in which RS teaches you. I also believe that conversations will be a part of not only what I write but what I read.

>Though its safe to say the owner isn't the subject, or else you would have used suus.

So, in the sentence maritus et uxor eius dormiunt, can you explain why it wouldn't be maritus et uxor suus dorimunt? I look at the sentence and I can already feel it's incorrectly used, but I can't grasp really why/when to use the bit of open endedness, unfortunately.

I think, however, your explanation is making much more sense.

By the way, thank you so much for detailed response. I think you may have cleared that one up for me, but I need to mull it over a bit. Too much bong resin in the brain. :)