More Clichés

A few weeks ago (or more...time goes by too fast, and I didn't look), I posted about clichés. Today, I came across another one.

We've all heard the phrase: "out of the frying pan and into the fire". We all know what it means, although if any of us are truly honest about it, we probably haven't really experienced it. For we live very comfortable lives in the US. Apparently it has been in use in some form or fashion since BC. Aesop made it famous in his fables. And, we Christian Reformers will be quite proud, Thomas More used it to describe William Tyndale during a pamphlet war. (And was quite right - literally.)

But perhaps the real phrase came into being as recorded thus:

"What shall we do! What shall we do!" he (Bilbo Baggins) cried. "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!" he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say 'out of the frying-pan into the fire' in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.  - J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit.

Bilbo could have gone on to say "Escaping wolves to escape spiders to escape dragons." For Tolkien had the art of each trial of his characters being worst than the last down to an art...

Yes, I am re-reading The Hobbit. In preparation for the movie which shall soon be upon us. After all, it's been 16 or 17 years since I have read it, and I'm discovering I have forgotten more than half the plot. Now I shall be quite ready to see how well the movie follows the book. (Well, over the next three years...) And, truly, it's well worth reading. I forgot how well Tolkien writes.

But in case you're wondering, as my roommate was, no I will NOT be re-reading Les Miserables before the movie premiers. I think spending hours several years ago wading through Waterloo and then wandering around 19th century Paris sewer systems are more than sufficient for one lifetime. Besides, I'd much rather just watch Hugh Jackman for a few hours!