The Hobbit

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
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 a story for children^[1][2][3] written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. Tolkien wrote the story in the late 1920s initially to amuse his three sons. It was first published on September 21, 1937 to wide critical acclaim.

The Hobbit is set in a time "between the dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Men",^[4] 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,^[5] meeting various denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and utilizing both his wits and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.^[6]

The story is an episodic quest: each chapter in the larger part of the work introduces a specific creature, or type of creature, of Tolkien's Wilderland.^[7] 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.^[8]

As work on the longer sequel 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 Tolkiens changing ideas. The work has never been out of print since the paper shortages of the Second World War.

The ongoing legacy of The Hobbit encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, board-games, computer and video games. Accolades for these adaptations include a Golden Joystick Award winning video game, a scenario of an Origins Awards winning wargame, and a Hugo Award nominated animation.

[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 reappearing at key points in the story. While Gandalf is wise, his knowledge is limited, and he is out to serve his own purposes whilst 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. ^[9] 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); "cockney" accented trolls; cave dwelling goblins; forest dwelling, talking giant spiders; talking heroic eagles; evil wolves who are friends 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. Though 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 travels to the Mountain and finds 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 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.^[10] By late 1932 he had finished the story and gave it to C. S. Lewis to read.^[11] It was eventually published when a family friend and student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths was lent the typescript of the story.^[12] 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^[12] or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien.^[13] 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.^[13]

[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.

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. The original printing numbered a mere 1,500 copies and sold out by December due to enthusiastic reviews.^[14] 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.^[14] 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.^[15]

The first printing of the first English language edition can sell for between £6,000^[16] and £20,000 at auction,^[17] although the price has occasionally reached over £40,000.^[18]

Following the original publication of The Hobbit in 1937, new editions in English were published in 1951, 1966, 1978 and 1995 and the novel has been reprinted frequently by various publishers.^[19] In addition, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages. Some languages have seen multiple translations.^[20]

[edit] Revisions

In December 1937, Tolkien's publisher Stanley Unwin asked for a sequel. The editors rejected Tolkien's drafts for the Silmarillion, believing that the public wanted "more about hobbits."^[21] Tolkien subsequently began work on what would become The Lord of the Rings,^[21] 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.^[22] In order to reflect the new concept of the ring and its corrupting abilities, Tolkien made Gollum more aggressive towards Bilbo and distraught at losing the ring, ending with the 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.

This revised version of the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" was sent to his publishers as an example of what may be needed to changed to conform with The Lord of the Rings, but heard nothing further for years. When he was sent galley proofs of a new edition, Tolkien was surprised to learn the new text had been incorporated.^[21] In The Lord of the Rings, the original version of the riddle-game is explained as a "lie" made up by Bilbo, and the revised versions of The Hobbit contain this "true" version of events.^[23] This became the second edition, published in 1951 in both the UK and America.^[14]

After an illegal paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings was published by Ace Books in 1965, Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine requested Tolkien provide a new authorized text of The Hobbit in order to re-assert US copyright control.^[24] This text became the 1966 third edition. Tolkien took the opportunity to further adjust the narrative to conform with The Lord of the Rings and to developments in his still unpublished Quenta Silmarillion as it stood at that time.^[25] These minor changes included, for example, that the phrase elves that are now called Gnomes, which appeared in the first^[26] and second^[27] editions on page 63, was changed to High Elves of the West, my kin in the third edition.^[28]. 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, with its common denotation of a garden gnome, Tolkien ultimately decided to abandon the term.

In order to make a better tonal fit with its sequel, Tolkien began a new version in 1966, removing the narrative asides. This new revision was abandoned at chapter three after Tolkien received criticism that it "just wasn't The Hobbit" implying it had lost much of its light-hearted tone and quick pace.^[29]

[edit] Genre

The Hobbit displays a close correlation with the narrative models of children's literature, including an omniscient narrator, characters that pre-adolescent children can identify with, such as the small, food-obsessed and morally ambiguous Bilbo. There is also a strong emphasis on the relationship between time and narrative progress, and a geography which clearly separates notions of "safe" and "dangerous" both of which are key features of works intended for children.^[30] While Tolkien claimed later to dislike the aspect of the narrative voice addressing the reader directly,^[31] the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel, and the story is, therefore, often read aloud.^[32]

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,^[33] 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 lighthearted, 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:

This onomatopoeic singing undercuts the dramatic or dangerous scene with a sense of humour. The balance of humor and danger is not always achieved through song, and can also be seen in the foolishness (and comedy accents) of the Trolls and drunken behavior of the elven captors.^[34] The general form - 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,^[35]

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.^[36] and several of the authors illustrations (the Dwarven map, the frontise piece make use of Anglo-Saxon runes. The names of the Dwarf-friendly ravens are also derived from the Old-Norse for raven and rook. ^[37] Tolkien, however, is not simply skimming historical sources for effect, and linguistic styles, especially the relationship between the modern and ancient has been seen to be one of the major themes explored by the story.

[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, whilst 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.^[38]

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^[39] and 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.^[40] Similarities to the works of other writers who faced the Great War include portraying warfare as anti-pastoral is seen in The Hobbit; 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.^[8]The Hobbit makes a warning against repeating the tragedies of the Great War,^[41] and Tolkien's attitude as a veteran may well be summed up by Bilbo's comment^[40]:

The Jungian concept of individuation is reflected through the theme of growing maturity and capability, with the author seen to be contrasting Bilbo's personal growth against the same stunted development in the dwarves.^[6] The theme of a character entering into enclosed spaces (such as the various hills, caves, dungeons) has a Freudian dimension, with the additional analogue of the "underworld" and the hero returning with a boon (such as the ring, or Elvish blades) which benefits his society is seen to fit the mythic archetypes regarding initiation and male coming of age as described by Joseph Campbell.^[34]

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.^[42]

[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.^[43] 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.^[44]

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 they are not.^[45] Some differences are in details; for example, goblins are more often referred to as Orcs in The Lord of the Rings.^[46] 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.^[47]

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Dramatisations

March 1953 saw the first authorized adaptation, a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh.^[48] The Hobbit has since been adapted for other media many times.

The BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Hobbit radio drama was adapted by Michael Kilgarriff, in eight parts (four total hours) from September to November 1968, starring Anthony Jackson as narrator, Paul Daneman as Bilbo and Heron Carvic as Gandalf; it was released on audio cassette in 1988 and CD in 1997.^[49]

In 1968 J.R.R. Tolkien authorized Pauline Gray's adaptation for the stage. This dramatization takes liberties with the original plot missing out key sections and giving Thorin the role of dragon-slayer amongst other deviations.^[50] Many productions of this version have been performed up to the present day.

Cover of the cassette edition of Nicol Williamsons dramatisation of The Hobbit featuring the illustration Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raftelves by J.R.R. Tolkien

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"^[52] and confusing for those not already familiar with the plot.^[53]

The American radio theatre company The Mind's Eye produced an audio adaptation of The Hobbit which was released on six one-hour audio cassettes in 1979.^[49]

The BBC children's television series Jackanory presented an adaptation of The Hobbit in 1979.^[54] Unusually for the programme, the adaptation had multiple storytellers. According to David Wood, one of the narrators, the release of the production on video has been repeatedly stopped by the Tolkien Estate.^[55]

Robert Inglis adapted and performed a one-man theatre play of The Hobbit.^[56] This performance led to him being asked to record the unabridged audiobook for The Lord of the Rings in 1990 and, a year later, he read the unabridged version of The Hobbit.^[57]

The Manitoba Theatre for Young People commissioned Kim Selody to adapt The Hobbit and his version premiered there in 1999. The play is only licensed to be performed in Canada.^[58] Various productions have been reviewed as being "Whimsical, wild and not too scary"^[59] and "not really that exciting."^[60]

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.^[61] A date of 2011 has been proposed for its release, and shot simultaneously with a different prequel. Guillermo Del Toro has been signed on to direct the double-bill.^[62] In 2006 Del Toro was 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." ^[63] 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 work, including The Hobbit.^[64]

[edit] Graphic media

Gollum in The Hobbit comic adaptation (1989). Art by David Wenzel.

A three-part comic book adaptation with script by Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel was published by Eclipse Comics in 1989. In 1990 a one-volume edition was released Unwin Paperbacks. The cover was artwork by the original illustrator David Wenzel. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books in 2001, and its cover, illustrated by Donato Giancola, was awarded the Association of Science Fiction Artists Award for Best Cover Illustration in 2002.^[65]

A commemorative postage stamp, illustrated by Peter Malone, was issued in 1998 by the Royal Mail of Great Britain in a series entitled Magical Worlds: Fantasy Books for Children.^[66]

[edit] Music

Leonard Nimoy sang a condensed version of the story of The Hobbit to a jaunty beat titled The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. The recording originally appeared on the album The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy released in 1968. A music video featuring sand-dunes and dancing girls was also produced.^[67]

In 2001, Marjo Kuusela produced a ballet Hobitti (The Hobbit in Finnish) with music by Aulis Sallinen for the Finnish National Opera.^[68]

Dean Burry was commissioned by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus to write an operatic version of the story for piano and choir to be performed in 2004.^[69] The performance rights were subsequently locked up by Tolkien Enterprises before being released in 2006. The Sarasota Youth Opera then requested full orchestration. With that and some revisions by the composer, the second version premiered on May 9 and 10, 2008.^[70]

[edit] Board, war and roleplaying games

The Hobbit has been the subject of several board games.

TSR, Inc. released two editions of a war-game based on The Battle of Five Armies, designed by Larry Smith in the 1970s using cardboard tokens and a map of the area around the Lonely Mountain as a game area. The game was criticized for a lack of clearness in the rules, and praised for evoking the onslaught of the Warg and goblin army.^[71]

The Lonely Mountain, produced in 1985 by Iron Crown Enterprises,^[72] was designed by Coleman Charlton and features groups of adventurers entering Smaug's Lair to capture his treasure before he awakens. The same year, the same publisher also released their version of The Battle of Five Armies ^[72] developed by Richard H. Britton, Coleman Charlton, and John Crowell, again taking the theme of a wargame and using card counters and a paper map.

The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame was the last game from Iron Crown based directly on The Hobbit. They continued to publish the Middle-earth Role Playing Game, a game licensed on both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings properties, combining elements from both works.^[73]

The multi-Origin Award-winning Middle-earth Strategic Gaming (formerly Middle-earth Play-by-Mail) uses the Battle of Five Armies as an introductory scenario to the full game and includes characters and armies from the book.^[74]

In 2005, Games Workshop released a Battle of Five Armies tabletop wargame, designed by Rick Priestley using highly detailed 10 mm figures sculpted by Mark Harrison, based on Games Workshop's Warmaster rules and designed to be played in a small space suitable for the home gamer.^[75][76]

[edit] Video games

Cover of the award winning computer game

Sierra Entertainment published a platform game with action-RPG elements titled The Hobbit in 2003 for Windows PCs, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube.^[81] A version, based on the same character design and story, but using a 2D isometric platform and using 3D characters which were pre-rendered using models from the console version, was also published for the Game Boy Advance.^[82]

[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.

• English-language editions of The Hobbit
• Early American editions of The Hobbit
• Translations of The Hobbit
• The Quest of Erebor, Tolkien's retconned backstory for the novel in Unfinished Tales

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Hobbit

• The official Tolkien website.
• collection of edition covers, 1937 – 2007
• Every UK edition of The Hobbit
• Every Dutch edition of The Hobbit
• The Hobbit covers around the globe - gallery