The Hobbit

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For other uses, see Hobbit (disambiguation) and There and Back Again (disambiguation).
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Cover to the 1937 first edition
Cover to the 1937 first edition
Author J. R. R. Tolkien
Cover artist J. R. R. Tolkien
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel, Children's literature
Publisher George Allen & Unwin (UK) & Houghton Mifflin Co. (U.S.)
Publication date 1937
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
ISBN NA
Followed by The Lord of the Rings
Middle-earth Portal

The Hobbit or There and Back Again is an award-winning children's fantasy novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. Tolkien wrote the story in the late 1920s to amuse his three sons. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. More recently, The Hobbit has been recognized as the "Most Important 20th-Century Novel (for Older Readers)" by the children's book magazine Books for Keeps.[1] The book has sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide since first publication.[2]

The Hobbit is set in a time "between the dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men",[3] and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the titular "Hobbit") to win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. His journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into darker, deeper territory,[4] meeting diverse denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and applying his wits and common sense, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.[5]

The story is told in the form of an episodic quest: most chapters introduce a specific creature, or type of creature, of Tolkien's Wilderland.[6] The prose adventure is interspersed with songs and poetry, many of which serve to lighten the tone of otherwise frightening or dramatic scenes. The final chapters deal with the climactic Battle of Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict. Critics have drawn parallels with Tolkien's own experiences and the themes of other writers who fought in World War I.[7]

A sequel was requested by his publishers, and as work on the The Lord of the Rings progressed, Tolkien made accommodations for it in one chapter of The Hobbit. These few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition. Further editions followed, correcting minor errors and reflecting Tolkien's changing concept of the world into which Bilbo stumbled.

The work has never been out of print since the paper shortages of the Second World War. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, and gaming, both board and video games. Some of these adaptations have received critical recognition of their own, including a video game that won the Golden Joystick Award, a scenario of a war game that won an Origins Award, and an animated picture nominated for a Hugo Award.

Contents

[edit] Characters

  • Bilbo Baggins, the titular protagonist, a respectable, comfort-loving, middle-aged hobbit. Bilbo often refers to the contents of his larder at home and wishes he had more food. Until he finds the magic ring, he takes on tasks Thorin sets out for him only reluctantly. Bilbo's manner is informal and his speech colloquial and modern. The story follows an arc of Bilbo's growing capability and independence.
  • Gandalf, an itinerant wizard who introduces Bilbo to a company of thirteen dwarves, later disappearing and re-appearing at key points in the story. While Gandalf is wise, his knowledge is limited, and he is out to serve his own purposes while only incidentally assisting the dwarves.
  • Thorin Oakenshield, bombastic head of the company of dwarves and heir to a dwarven kingdom under the Lonely Mountain. Thorin's leadership is inept, often relying on Gandalf or Bilbo to get him out of trouble, but he proves himself a mighty warrior. Thorin speaks deeply officiously, and the narrator comments on this.
  • Smaug, a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarven kingdom of Thorin's grandfather and sleeps upon the vast treasure. In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf, and Tolkien uses the episode to put into practice some the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Anglo-Saxon poem and the portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence rather than being of purely symbolic value.[8] Of all the creatures, Smaug's speech is the most modern, using idioms such as "Don't let your imagination run away with you!"

The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of the company; two types of elves, both puckish and more serious warrior types; men (humans); trolls with "cockney" accents; cave-dwelling goblins; forest-dwelling, giant spiders who speak; heroic eagles who also speak; evil wolves who are allied with the goblins; Elrond the sage; Gollum, a mysterious creature inhabiting an underground lake; Beorn, a man who can assume bear form; and Bard the Bowman, a heroic archer of Lake-town.

[edit] Synopsis

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin's band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the Dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.

The group travel into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell. While there, Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblin tunnels. Lost and disoriented, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles with deadly stakes. With the help of the ring, which confers invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, raising his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase and the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn, the skin-changer.

The company enter the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from Giant Spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition travel to the Mountain and find the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A noble thrush who overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability reports it to Bard the Bowman, who slays the Dragon.

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the prized Arkenstone gem and steals it. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the Mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the north, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable.

Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men, and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin, mortally wounded, lives long enough to part from Bilbo as a friend. The treasure is divided fairly, but, having no need or desire for it, Bilbo refuses most of his contracted share. Nevertheless, he returns home with enough to make himself a very wealthy hobbit.

[edit] Concept and creation

[edit] Writing

In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects that in the early 1930s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, he began The Hobbit when he was marking School Certificate papers. He found one blank page. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years he drew up Thrór's map, outlining the geography of the tale.[9] By late 1932 he had finished the story and gave it to C. S. Lewis to read.[10] It was eventually published when a family friend and student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths was lent the typescript of the story.[11] In 1936, when Griffiths was visited in Oxford by Susan Dagnall, a staff member of the publisher George Allen & Unwin, she is reported to have either lent Dagnall the book[11] or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien.[12] In any event, Miss Dagnall was impressed by it, and showed the book to Stanley Unwin, who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. After Rayner wrote a short but enthusiastic piece about the book, it was published by Allen & Unwin.[12]

[edit] Publication

Dustcover of the first edition of The Hobbit. This cover was taken from a design by Tolkien, as was the binding illustrated at the top of this article.
Dustcover of the first edition of The Hobbit. This cover was taken from a design by Tolkien, as was the binding illustrated at the top of this article.

George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of The Hobbit on 21 September 1937. It was illustrated with many black-and-white drawings by Tolkien, who also supplied a design for the dust jacket. As Tolkien's original effort would have required several print colours, increasing the expense, the publisher gave the artwork to an anonymous designer to redraw. The original printing numbered a mere 1,500 copies and sold out by December due to enthusiastic reviews.[13] Houghton Mifflin of Boston and New York prepared an American edition, to be released early in 1938, in which four of the illustrations would be colour plates. Allen & Unwin decided to incorporate the colour illustrations into their second printing, released at the end of 1937.[13] Despite the book's popularity, paper rationing brought on by wartime conditions and not ending until 1949 meant that the book was often unavailable in this period.[14]

The first printing of the first English-language edition can sell for between £6,000[15] and £20,000 at auction,[16] although the price for a signed first edition has reached over £60,000.[2]

Subsequent editions in English were published in 1951, 1966, 1978 and 1995. The novel has been reprinted frequently by many publishers.[17] In addition, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages; some languages have seen multiple translations.[18]

[edit] Revisions

In December 1937, The Hobbit's publisher, Stanley Unwin, asked Tolkien for a sequel. In response he provided drafts for The Silmarillion, but the editors rejected them, believing that the public wanted "more about hobbits".[19] Tolkien subsequently began work on what would become The Lord of the Rings,[19] a course that would not only change the context of the original story, but also lead to substantial changes to the character Gollum.

In the first edition of The Hobbit, Gollum willingly bets his magic ring on the outcome of the riddle-game, and he and Bilbo part amicably.[20] In order to reflect the new concept of the ring and its corrupting abilities, in the second edition edits Tolkien made Gollum more aggressive towards Bilbo and distraught at losing the ring. The encounter ends with Gollum's blood-curdling curse, "Thief! Thief, Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!", foreshadowing the nature of the character in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien sent this revised version of the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" to Unwin as an example of the kinds of changes needed to bring the book into conformance with The Lord of the Rings, but he heard nothing back for years. When he was sent galley proofs of a new edition, Tolkien was surprised to find the sample text incorporated.[19] In The Lord of the Rings, the original version of the riddle-game is explained as a "lie" made up by Bilbo, whereas the revised version contains the "true" account.[21] The revised text became the second edition, published in 1951 in both the UK and the USA.[13]

After an unauthorized paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings appeared from Ace Books in 1965, Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine requested Tolkien to refresh the text of The Hobbit in order to renew US copyright.[22] This text became the 1966 third edition. Tolkien took the chance to align the narrative even more closely to The Lord of the Rings and to developments in his still unpublished Quenta Silmarillion as it stood at that time.[23] These small edits included, for example, changing the phrase elves that are now called Gnomes from the first[24] and second[25] editions on page 63, to High Elves of the West, my kin in the third edition.[26]. Tolkien had used "gnome" in his earlier writing to refer to the second kindred of the High Elves—the Noldor (or "Deep Elves")—thinking "gnome", derived from the Greek gnosis (knowledge), was a good name for the wisest of the elves. However, because of its common denotation of a garden gnome, Tolkien ultimately abandoned the term.

In order to fit the tone of The Hobbit better to its sequel, Tolkien began a new version in 1966, removing the narrative asides. He abandoned the new revision at chapter three after he received criticism that it "just wasn't The Hobbit", implying it had lost much of its light-hearted tone and quick pace.[27]

[edit] Genre

The Hobbit takes cues from narrative models of children's literature, as shown by its omniscient narrator and characters that pre-adolescent children can identify with, such as the small, food-obsessed, and morally ambiguous Bilbo. The text emphasizes the relationship between time and narrative progress and it openly distinguishes "safe" from "dangerous" in its geography. Both are key elements of works intended for children.[28] While Tolkien claimed later to dislike the aspect of the narrative voice addressing the reader directly,[29] the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel, and the story is, therefore, often read aloud.[30]

The book is popularly referred to being (and often marketed as) a fantasy novel, but like Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, both of which influenced Tolkien and contain "fantasy" elements, it is generally identified as being children's literature.

[edit] Style

The basic form of the story is that of a quest,[31] told in episodes. For the most part of the book, each chapter introduces a different denizen of the Wilderland, some friendly towards the protagonists, and some threatening.

While many of the encounters are dangerous or threatening, the general tone is light-hearted, and interspersed with songs. One example of the use of song to maintain tone is when Thorin and Company are kidnapped by Goblins, who, when marching them into the underworld, sing:

“

Clap! Snap! the black crack!
Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down down to Goblin-town
You go, my lad!
...

 ”

This onomatopoeic singing undercuts the dangerous scene with a sense of humour. Tolkien achieves balance of humour and danger through other means as well, as seen in the foolishness and provincial speech of the trolls and in the drunken behaviour of the elven captors.[32] The general form—that of a journey into strange lands, told in a light-hearted mood and interspersed with songs—may be following the model of "The Icelandic Journals" by Tolkien's literary idol William Morris.[33]

The novel draws on Tolkien's knowledge of historical languages and early European texts. The names of Gandalf and all but one of the thirteen dwarves were taken directly from the Old Norse poem "Voluspa" from the Elder Edda.[34] Several of the author's illustrations (including the dwarven map, the frontispiece and the dust jacket) make use of Anglo-Saxon runes. The names of the dwarf-friendly ravens are also derived from the Old-Norse for raven and rook.[35] Tolkien, however, is not simply skimming historical sources for effect: linguistic styles, especially the relationship between the modern and ancient, has been seen to be one of the major themes explored by the story.[36]

[edit] Major themes

The central character, Bilbo, is a modern anachronism exploring an essentially antique world. Bilbo is able to negotiate and interact within this antique world because language and tradition make connections between the two worlds. For example, Gollum's riddles are taken from old historical sources, while those of Bilbo come from modern nursery books. It is the form of the riddle-game, familiar to both, which allows Gollum and Bilbo to understand each other, rather than the content of the riddles themselves. This idea of a superficial contrast between characters' individual linguistic style, tone and sphere of interest, leading to an understanding of the deeper unity between the ancient and modern, is a constant recurring theme throughout The Hobbit.[36]

The Hobbit can be seen as a creative exposition of Tolkien's theoretical and academic work. Themes found in early English literature, and specifically by the poem Beowulf, have heavy presence in defining the ancient world Bilbo stepped into. Tolkien is credited with being the first critic to expound on Beowulf as having literary value, rather than of purely historical interest, and his 1936 lecture "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics" is still required reading for students of Anglo-Saxon. The Beowulf poem contains several elements that Tolkien borrowed for The Hobbit, including a monstrous, intelligent dragon[8] and named blades of renown, adorned in runes. It is in the use of his elf-blade that we see Bilbo finally taking his first independent heroic action. By his naming the blade "Sting" we also see Bilbo's acceptance of the kinds of cultural and linguistic practices found in Beowulf, signifying his entrance into the ancient world in which he found himself.[37] This progression culminates in Bilbo stealing a cup from the dragon's hoard, rousing him to wrath—an incident directly mirroring Beowulf, and an action entirely determined by traditional narrative patterns. As Tolkien wrote, "...The episode of the theft arose naturally (and almost inevitably) from the circumstances. It is difficult to think of any other way of conducting the story at this point. I fancy the author of Beowulf would say much the same."[38]

Another theme developed in The Hobbit is that of animism. An important concept in anthropology and child development, animism is the idea that all things—including inanimate objects and natural events, such as storms or purses, as well as living things like animals and plants—possess human-like intelligence. Donald Anderson in the History of the Hobbit calls this the "Doctor Dolittle Theme", and notes as evidence of the theme the multitude of talking animals, including Smaug himself, alongside the talking, anthropomorphic goblins and elves. Patrick Curry notes that animism is also found in Tolkien's other works, and mentions the "roots of mountains" and "feet of trees" in The Hobbit as a shift in level from the inanimate to animate.[39] Tolkien saw the idea of animism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth: "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them the whole of creation was "myth-woven and elf-patterned".'[40]

Just as Tolkien's literary theories have been seen to influence the tale, so have Tolkien's experiences. The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of the Great War, where the hero is plucked from his rural home and thrown into a far off war where traditional types of heroism are shown to be futile.[41] The tale as such explores the theme of heroism. As Jane Croft notes, Tolkien's literary reaction to war at this time differed from most post-war writers by eschewing irony as a method for distancing events and instead using mythology to mediate his experiences.[42] Similarities to the works of other writers who faced the Great War are seen in The Hobbit, including portraying warfare as anti-pastoral: in "The Desolation of Smaug", both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for "The Battle of the Five Armies" later are described as barren, damaged landscapes.[7] The Hobbit makes a warning against repeating the tragedies of the Great War,[43] and Tolkien's attitude as a veteran may well be summed up by Bilbo's comment:[42]

“ Victory after all, I suppose! Well, it seems a very gloomy business. ”

The Jungian concept of individuation is reflected through the theme of growing maturity and capability, with the author contrasting Bilbo's personal growth against the arrested development of the dwarves.[5] The theme of a character entering into enclosed spaces (such as the various hills, caves, dungeons) has a Freudian dimension, while the analogue of the "underworld" and the hero returning from it with a boon (such as the ring, or elvish blades) that benefits his society is seen to fit the mythic archetypes regarding initiation and male coming-of-age as described by Joseph Campbell.[32]

Greed plays a central role in the novel, with many of the episodes stemming from one or more of the characters' simple desire for food (be it trolls eating dwarves or dwarves eating Wood-elf fare) or a desire for beautiful objects, such as gold and jewels.[44] It is only through the Arkenstone's influence upon Thorin that greed, and its attendant vices "coveting" and "malignancy" come fully to the fore in the story, and provides the moral crux of the tale. Bilbo steals this most ancient relic from the dwarves and attempts to use it to bargain with Thorin. However, Thorin turns on the hobbit as a traitor, disregarding all the promises and "at your services" he had previously bestowed.[45] The theme of jewels that inspire intense greed which corrupts those that covet them is also explored in the Silmarillion, and there are connections between the words Arkenstone and Silmaril in Tolkien's invented etymologies.[46]

[edit] Reception and legacy

On first publication, The Hobbit was met with almost unanimously favourable reviews from publications both in the UK and the USA, including The Times (written by C.S. Lewis), Catholic World and The New York Post.[47] It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction of the year (1938). More recently, The Hobbit has been recognized as "Most Important 20th-Century Novel (for Older Readers)" in the Children's Books of the Century poll in Books for Keeps.[1]

While The Hobbit has been adapted and elaborated upon in many ways, its sequel The Lord of the Rings is often claimed to be its greatest legacy. The plots share basic elements, but Tolkien wrote the later story in much less humorous tones and infused it with more complex moral and philosophical themes. The differences between the two stories can cause difficulties when readers, expecting them to be similar, find that they are not.[48] Some differences are in details; for example, goblins are more often referred to as Orcs in The Lord of the Rings.[49] Many of the thematic differences arose because Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children, and The Lord of the Rings for the same audience who had subsequently grown up since its publication. Further, Tolkien's concept of Middle-earth was to continually change and slowly evolve throughout his life and writings.[50]

[edit] Adaptations

See also: Adaptations of The Hobbit

March 1953 saw the first authorized adaptation, a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh.[51] The Hobbit has since been adapted for other media many times.

The BBC Radio 4 series The Hobbit radio drama was an adaptation by Michael Kilgarriff, broadcast in eight parts (four total hours) from September to November 1968. It starred Anthony Jackson as narrator, Paul Daneman as Bilbo and Heron Carvic as Gandalf. The series was released on audio cassette in 1988 and on CD in 1997.[52]

The Hobbit, an animated version of the story produced by Rankin/Bass, debuted as a television movie in the United States in 1977. In 1978, Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for his teleplay for The Hobbit. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to Star Wars. The adaptation has been called "excruciable"[53] and confusing for those not already familiar with the plot.[54]

A live-action film version was announced on 18 December 2007, to be co-produced by MGM and New Line Cinema, and produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.[55] A date of 2011 has been proposed for its release. It is to be shot simultaneously with a second prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Guillermo Del Toro quoted as saying: "I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits—I've never been into that ... I hate all that stuff." [56] in 2006 signed on to direct the double-bill in 2008. Shortly after signing up, he was recorded by Weta saying "re-reading The Hobbit just recently I was quite moved by discovering, through Bilbo's eyes the illusory nature of possession, the sins of hoarding and the banality of war - whether in the Western Front or at a Valley in Middle Earth. Lonely is the mountain indeed." [57] [58] The heirs of Tolkien, including his son Christopher Tolkien, are currently suing New Line Cinema (as of February 2008) for non-payment of profits, and the rights to veto any further exploitation of Tolkien's literary works, including The Hobbit.[59][60]

Middle-earth Strategic Gaming (formerly Middle-earth Play-by-Mail), which has won several Origin Awards, uses the Battle of Five Armies as an introductory scenario to the full game and includes characters and armies from the book.[61]

Cover of the award-winning computer game
Cover of the award-winning computer game

Several computer and video games, both licensed and unlicensed, have been based on the story. One of the most successful was The Hobbit, an award-winning computer game developed in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House with compatibility for most computers available at the time. A copy of the novel was included in each game package in order to encourage players to engage the text, since ideas for gameplay could be found therein.[62] Likewise, it can be seen that the game is not attempting to re-tell the story, but rather sits along-side it, using the narrative to both structure and motivate gameplay.[63] The game won the Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year in 1983[64] and was responsible for popularizing the phrase, "Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold."[65]

[edit] See also

Middle-earth Portal

In May and June 2007, HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin published The History of The Hobbit in the United Kingdom. The work examines, in two volumes, previously unpublished original drafts of The Hobbit with extensive commentary by John Rateliff.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Tolkien Society FAQ: Did Tolkien win any awards for his books?
  2. ^ a b Tolkien's Hobbit fetches £60,000. bbc.co.uk (18/03/08). Retrieved on 06/06/2008.
  3. ^ Eaton, Anne T.. "A Delightfully Imaginative Journey", The New York Times, 1938-03-13. 
  4. ^ Langford, David (2001). "Lord of the Royalties". SFX magazine. 
  5. ^ a b Matthews, Dorothy. "The Psychological Journey of Bilbo Baggins", A Tolkien Compass, 27–40. 
  6. ^ Rateliff, John D The History of the Hobbit. Part 1: Mr. Baggins
  7. ^ a b Croft, Janet Brennan (9 2002). "The Great War and Tolkien's Memory, an examination of World War I themes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings". Mythlore (84). 
  8. ^ a b Hall, Mark F. (9 2006). "Dreaming of dragons: Tolkien's impact on Heaney's Beowulf". Mythlore. 
  9. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, #163, ISBN 0-395-31555-7 
  10. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977), Tolkien: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 181, ISBN 0-04-928037-6 
  11. ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, #294, ISBN 0-395-31555-7 
  12. ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey (1977), Tolkien: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 184, ISBN 0-04-928037-6 
  13. ^ a b c Hammond, Wayne; Douglas A. Anderson (1993). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 15,18,21,48,54. ISBN 0-938768-42-5. 
  14. ^ Anderson, Douglas A., ed.The Annotated Hobbit. Revised Edition. Harper Collins. London, 2003. ISBN 0-00-713726-3. pp. 22
  15. ^ The Hobbit sells for £6,000, bbc.co.uk, 26/11/04[1]
  16. ^ Walne, Toby. How to make a killing from first editions Daily Telegraph 21/11/2007[2]
  17. ^ Anderson, Douglas A., ed.The Annotated Hobbit. Revised Edition. Harper Collins. London, 2003. ISBN 0-00-713726-3. pp. 384–386
  18. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit p. 23
  19. ^ a b c Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 3046822. 
  20. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit (1988)
  21. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (April 1, 1987), The Fellowship of the Ring, vol. 1, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Prologue, ISBN 0-395-08254-4 
  22. ^ Rateliff, John D The History of the Hobbit. Part 2: Return to Bag-End p765
  23. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit (1988), Flies and Spiders, note 23
  24. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 63. 
  25. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1951). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 63. 
  26. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1966). The Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 62. 
  27. ^ Rateliff, John D. The History of the Hobbit. Part 2: Return to Bag End. p781
  28. ^ Jaume Alberdo Poveda Narrative Models in Tolkien's Stories of Middle Earth,Journal of English Studies, vol. 4, 2003-2004
  29. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977), Tolkien: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-04-928037-6 
  30. ^ The Hobbit Major Themes, Cliff Notes, retrieved (30/01/08)[3]
  31. ^ Auden, W.H. (2004). "The Quest Hero", in Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaaca,: Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism. Houghton Mifflin, 31-51. ISBN ISBN 0-618-42251-x. 
  32. ^ a b Helms, Randel (1976). Myth, Magic and Meaning in Tolkien's World. Granada. ISBN 0415921503. 
  33. ^ Amison, Anne (7 2006). "An unexpected Guest. influence of William Morris on J. R. R. Tolkien's works". Mythlore (98). 
  34. ^ Tolkien's Middle-earth: Lesson Plans, Unit Two. Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  35. ^ Fisher, Jason (3 2008). "The History of the Hobbit (review)". Mythlore (101/102). 
  36. ^ a b Shippey, Tom: Tolkien: Author of the Century, HarperCollins, 2000, p.41
  37. ^ McDonald, R. Andrew (9 2006). ""In the hilt is fame": resonances of medieval swords and sword-lore in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings". Mythlore (96). 
  38. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 31, ISBN 0-395-31555-7 
  39. ^ Curry, Patrick (2004). Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity. Mariner Books, 98. ISBN 061847885X. 
  40. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1979). The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends, 43. ISBN 0-395-27628-4. 
  41. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (23). Review: Cover book: Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth. The Times Online. Retrieved on 25, 2008. Retrieved on 05 2008.
  42. ^ a b Croft, Janet Brennan (6 2003). ""The young perish and the old linger, withering": J.R.R. Tolkien on World War II". Mythlore (89). 
  43. ^ Zipes, Jack David (8 1999). When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. Routledge, 24. ISBN 0415921503. 
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  65. ^ Campbell, Stuart. Top 100 Speccy Games. Your Sinclair Magazine, #72 DEC 1991 pp.28

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