Of course, you already knew this.

     When I read through The Hobbit for the first time, I was somewhere around the age of eleven or twelve and although I remember enjoying the plot immensely and being quite entertained by the dwarf's antics, I was to young - or to careless - to notice exactly how Tolkien told his story and what style he told it in. Now, however, I am old enough - and careful enough - to notice the smaller things that add up to this wonderful story we all love so dearly.
     One of Tolkien's quirks, I suppose, in the telling of The Hobbit  that we mentioned in class and that I myself noticed, was his use of the phrase "of course."  That particular phrase occurs quite frequently throughout the text, especially when Tolkien has just finished explaining or is about to explain something that is unique to the secondary world of Middle Earth. For example, within the first few pages of chapter one while Tolkien is first describing Mr. Baggins and his ancestry, Tolkien states:
     "It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."
     Obviously, we don't know that that this occurrence would be absurd, nor could we know. The story is fictional and is based in nothing resembling our primary world. However, I believe that Tolkien uses this phrase throughout his fantasy to reinforce the sense that an old friend is chatting with us instead of a stranger reading out loud. This phrase not only makes the narrator more personable, but also assists in make the secondary world more real. By insinuating that we already know some of the facts that pertain to the story, Tolkien makes The Hobbit more like a recounting of a familiar history of our primary world and less like an alien tale from fairyland.
     Personally, I love the appearance of the "of course" it makes me feel closer to the action and a sense of friendship with the author and despite my lack of knowledge of the story prior to reading it, the "of course" makes it seem as if I have always know the information and simply forgotten it. However, I could see how others could disagree and say that the "of course" distracts from the novel by taking the reader out of the text and forcing them to confront the fact that they didn't actually know this fact or that one. Any thoughts?