Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident a book called "The Hobbit", which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication. When it was published a year later, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.
"The Hobbit"
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Hobbit"
The Hobbit, The Children of Húrin "The Silmarillion", "The Hobbit", etc. "The Hobbit" "The Hobbit"
where is sauron during the lord of the rings
user
He rules the land of Mordor
assistant
where is this land?
user
It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood.
assistant
where does this character and place make a mention?
user
The Lord of the Rings
assistant
what is this?
user
An epic high fantasy novel
assistant
can you explain the physical appearance of the ruler mentioned above?
user
Sauron took the form of a werewolf. Then he assumed a serpent-like form, and finally changed back "from monster to his own accustomed [human-like] form".
assistant
who has written the above mentioned novel?
user
J. R. R. Tolkien.
assistant
what was her view on religion?
user
He was a Roman Catholic and had a  special devotion to the blessed sacrament; he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion to his son
assistant
where was he from?
user
England
assistant
can you name some other novels by him?
user
Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident a book called "The Hobbit", which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication. When it was published a year later, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Hobbit"
He commented in 1965, while editing "The Hobbit" for a third edition, that he would have preferred to rewrite the book completely because of the style of its prose.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "Unfinished Tales" and "The History of Middle-earth"
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. 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. The book remains popular and is recognized as a classic in children's literature. "The Hobbit" is set within Tolkien's fictional universe and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure guarded by Smaug the dragon. Bilbo's journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory.
The Hobbit | Introduction
There and Back Again is the subtitle to "The Hobbit", a 1937 novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. There and Back Again may also refer to:
There and Back Again (disambiguation) | Introduction
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as The Inklings.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Introduction
The term "hobbit" however has real antecedents in modern English. One is a fact that Tolkien admitted: the title of Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel "Babbitt", about a "complacent American businessman" who goes through a journey of some kind of self-discovery, facing "near-disgrace"; the critic Tom Shippey observes that there are some parallels here with Bilbo's own journey. According to a letter from Tolkien to W. H. Auden, one "probably .. unconscious" inspiration was Edward Wyke Smith's 1927 children's book "The Marvellous Land of Snergs". Tolkien described the Snergs as "a race of people only slightly taller than the average table but broad in the shoulders and [who] have the strength of ten men." Another possible origin emerged in 1977 when the "Oxford English Dictionary" announced that it had found the source that it supposed Tolkien to have used: James Hardy wrote in his 1895 "The Denham Tracts, Volume 2": "The whole earth was overrun with ghosts, boggles ...
Hobbit | In English literature
A small selection of books about Tolkien and his works:
J. R. R. Tolkien | Further reading
R. R. Tolkien including hobbits and balrogs. These references have disappeared in subsequent editions for reasons of copyright. Thus, "C&S" has less of a modern literary influence than "D&D" which was influenced by Tolkien but also by other authors such as Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp and Michael Moorcock.
Chivalry &amp; Sorcery | First edition (C&S1)
Though a direct sequel to "The Hobbit", it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense backstory of Beleriand that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in "The Silmarillion" and other volumes. Tolkien's influence weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew up after the success of "The Lord of the Rings". "The Lord of the Rings" became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, "The Lord of the Rings" was found to be the UK's "Best-loved Novel".
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Lord of the Rings"
On February 27, 2015 Texas A&M University Libraries added its five millionth volume. George R.R. Martin, author of "A Game of Thrones", contributed a rare first edition of "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Texas A&amp;M University Libraries | 5 Millionth Volume
Sayer had been a student of Lewis, and became his biographer, and together with them Tolkien would walk the Malvern Hills. Recordings of Tolkien reading excerpts from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" were made in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer. The recordings were later issued on long-playing gramophone records. In the liner notes for "J.R.R Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Rings", George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor.
Malvern, Worcestershire | Literature
He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent, Lickey and Malvern Hills, which would later inspire scenes in his books, along with nearby towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester, and Alvechurch and places such as his aunt Jane's farm Bag End, the name of which he used in his fiction.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Childhood
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, written by Humphrey Carpenter, was first published in 1977. It is called the "authorized biography" of J. R. R. Tolkien, creator of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" It was first published in London by George Allen & Unwin, then in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Company. It has been reprinted many times since.
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography | Introduction
In addition to his mythopoeic compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as "The Father Christmas Letters"). Other works included "Mr. Bliss" and "Roverandom" (for children), and "Leaf by Niggle" (part of "Tree and Leaf"), "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", "Smith of Wootton Major" and "Farmer Giles of Ham". "Roverandom" and "Smith of Wootton Major", like "The Hobbit", borrowed ideas from his "legendarium".
J. R. R. Tolkien | Children's books and other short works
One of the greatest influences on Tolkien was the Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris. Tolkien wished to imitate Morris's prose and poetry romances, from which he took hints for the names of features such as the Dead Marshes in "The Lord of the Rings" and Mirkwood, along with some general aspects of approach. Edward Wyke-Smith's "The Marvellous Land of Snergs", with its "table-high" title characters, strongly influenced the incidents, themes, and depiction of Bilbo's race in "The Hobbit". Tolkien mentioned H. Rider Haggard's novel "She": "I suppose as a boy "She" interested me as much as anything—like the Greek shard of Amyntas [Amenartas], which was the kind of machine by which everything got moving." A supposed facsimile of this potsherd appeared in Haggard's first edition, and the ancient inscription it bore, once translated, led the English characters to She's ancient kingdom.
J. R. R. Tolkien | British adventure stories
On 16 January 1938, shortly after the original release of "The Hobbit" a letter by a "Habit" in the English paper "The Observer" asked if Tolkien's Hobbits were modelled after "'little furry men' seen in Africa by natives and … at least one scientist", and also referenced an old fairy tale called "The Hobbit" from 1904, but Tolkien denied using these sources as inspiration, and no trace of the African Hobbits or the fairy tale collection was ever found. Tolkien replied to this letter with: Tolkien also acknowledged the possible unconscious connection to others' writings, particularly those of Sinclair Lewis, who wrote the novel "Babbitt" in 1922.
Hobbit (word) | Tolkien's statements
Critics have compared this device to the "Testament of Isildur" in "The Lord of the Rings" and to Tolkien's efforts to produce a facsimile page from the "Book of Mazarbul". Critics starting with Edwin Muir have found resemblances between Haggard's romances and Tolkien's. Tolkien wrote of being impressed as a boy by S. R. Crockett's historical novel "The Black Douglas" and of basing the battle with the wargs in "The Fellowship of the Ring" partly on an incident in it. Critics have noted the similarity in style of incidents in both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" to the novel, and have suggested that it was influential.
J. R. R. Tolkien | British adventure stories
R. R. Tolkien. Excerpts from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" were recorded in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer. The recordings were later issued on long-playing gramophone records. In the liner notes for "J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Ring", George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor.
George Sayer | Career
He translated "Sir Gawain", "Pearl", and "Sir Orfeo". In 1925, he returned to Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, with a fellowship at Pembroke College. In mid-1919, he began to tutor undergraduates privately, most importantly those of Lady Margaret Hall and St Hugh's College, given that the women's colleges were in great need of good teachers in their early years, and Tolkien as a married professor (then still not common) was considered suitable, as a bachelor don would not have been. During his time at Pembroke College Tolkien wrote "The Hobbit" and the first two volumes of "The Lord of the Rings", while living at 20 Northmoor Road in North Oxford (where a blue plaque was placed in 2002).
J. R. R. Tolkien | Academic and writing career
Humphrey Carpenter has written "" (1977) and edited "The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien", the latter assisted by Christopher Tolkien (1981). John Garth has published "Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth" (2003).
Tolkien research | Biography and letters
This list contains only complete, printed English-language editions of "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is not for derived or unprinted works such as screenplays, graphic novels, or audio books.
English-language editions of The Hobbit | Introduction
The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is an edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" with a commentary by Douglas A. Anderson. It was first published in 1988 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first American publication of "The Hobbit", and by Unwin Hyman of London.
The Annotated Hobbit | Introduction
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", have become extremely popular, and have exerted considerable influence since their publication. A culture of fandom sprang up in the 1960s, leading to many popular votes in favour of the books, but acceptance by the establishment of literary criticism has been slower. Nevertheless, academic studies on Tolkien's works have been appearing at an increasing pace since the mid-1980s, prompting a measure of literary re-evaluation of his work.
Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien | Introduction
Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien's childhood in rural Warwickshire, where from 1896 he first lived near Sarehole Mill, and later in Birmingham near Edgbaston Reservoir. There are also hints of the nearby industrial Black Country; he stated that he had based the description of Saruman's industrialization of Isengard and The Shire on that of England. The name of Bilbo's Hobbit-hole, "Bag End", was the real name of the Worcestershire home of Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave in Dormston.
J. R. R. Tolkien's influences | Childhood
It has been noted that "Tolkien has been accorded formal taxonomic commemoration like no other author." In the field of taxonomy, over 80 taxa (genera and species) have been given scientific names honouring, or deriving from, characters or other fictional elements from "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit", and other works set in Middle-earth. Several taxa have been named after the character Gollum (also known as Sméagol), as well as for various hobbits, the small humanlike creatures such as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Various elves, dwarves, and other creatures that appear in his writings as well as Tolkien himself have been honoured in the names of several species, including the amphipod "Leucothoe tolkieni", and the wasp "Shireplitis tolkieni".
List of things named after J. R. R. Tolkien and his works | Taxonomy
Shippey begins with a chapter-length "Foreword", introducing the fantasy genre, Tolkien's life, and the "Author of the Century" claim. He notes Tolkien's high ratings in the polls, and his effective creation of a new genre. The book examines in turn "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Silmarillion", and Tolkien's shorter works. On "The Hobbit", Shippey tells how Tolkien came to start to write; its connection to his First World War experience; the possible origins of the word hobbit, and its parallels with "rabbit"; Bilbo's riddle-contest with Gollum; its links with Old English and Norse literature; and the Ring.
J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century | Synopsis
O'Neill is married to Eufrona O'Neill and they live in Alexandria, Virginia. His book "The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien, and the Archetypes of Middle-Earth" is a critical study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Timothy O'Neill (camoufleur) | Personal life
In the early 1930s Tolkien was pursuing an academic career at Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, with a fellowship at Pembroke College. Several of his poems had been published in magazines and small collections, including "Goblin Feet" and "The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked", a reworking of the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle". His creative endeavours at this time also included letters from Father Christmas to his children—illustrated manuscripts that featured warring gnomes and goblins, and a helpful polar bear—alongside the creation of elven languages and an attendant mythology, including the Book of Lost Tales, which he had been creating since 1917.
The Hobbit | Background
Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including "The Silmarillion". These, together with "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term "legendarium" to the larger part of these writings.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Introduction
In 2004, the extinct hominid "Homo floresiensis" was described, and quickly earned the nickname "hobbit" due to its small size. In 1978, paleontologist Leigh Van Valen named over 20 taxa of extinct mammals after Tolkien lore in a single paper. In 1999, entomologist Lauri Kaila described 48 new species of "Elachista" moths and named 37 of them after Tolkien mythology. The entomologist Karl-Johan Hedqvist, also a fan of Tolkien, named several wasp genera after Tolkien's characters.
List of things named after J. R. R. Tolkien and his works | Taxonomy
The best-known early to mid 20th century novelist associated with Birmingham was J. R. R. Tolkien, whose books "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" are two of the world's four best-selling books of all time, with over 100 million and over 150 million copies in print respectively. Although Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in South Africa, he later called this a "fallacious fact" claiming that he "happened to be born there by accident". Both of his parents were from Birmingham and he was brought up in the city from the age of three, living in Sarehole – an area of Hall Green then on the semi-rural southern edge of the city – and in Moseley, Kings Heath, Edgbaston and Rednal.
Literature of Birmingham | Early 20th century novelists
In "The Hobbit", Tolkien writes of the protagonist and title character Bilbo Baggins composing his memoirs. Bilbo thinks of calling his work "There and Back Again, A Hobbit's Holiday". In fact the author's preferred title for "The Hobbit" was "The Hobbit or There and Back Again". In "The Lord of the Rings", this record is said to be written in his red leather-bound diary. Bilbo says to Gandalf that his intended ending would be him living "happily ever after to the end of his days." This is in fact a rephrased line from the final chapter of "The Hobbit", originally conveyed through third-person narrative voice.
Red Book of Westmarch | "There and Back Again"
The recordings were later issued on long-playing gramophone records. In the liner notes for "J.R.R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Ring", George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor.
Malvern Hills | Literature
The recordings were later issued on long-playing gramophone records. In the liner notes for "J.R.R Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Rings", George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor.
Great Malvern | Literature
The following is a list of notable characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. The list is for characters from Tolkien's writings only. Hobbits are listed by their family names, not given names (for example, Frodo Baggins is under Baggins, Frodo).
List of Middle-earth characters | Introduction
J.R.R. Tolkien in "The Lord of the Rings" presents that story and "The Hobbit" as translated from the fictional "Red Book of Westmarch" written by characters within the novels. A similar device was used by various other writers of popular fiction.
Pseudepigrapha | As literary device
The request for a sequel prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic novel "The Lord of the Rings" (originally published in three volumes 1954–1955). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for "The Lord of the Rings", during which time he received the constant support of the Inklings, in particular his closest friend C. S. Lewis, the author of "The Chronicles of Narnia". Both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" are set against the background of "The Silmarillion", but in a time long after it. Tolkien at first intended "The Lord of the Rings" to be a children's tale in the style of "The Hobbit", but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Lord of the Rings"
Tolkien wrote that stories about "Red Indians" were his favourites as a boy. Shippey mentions Tolkien's interest in the primeval forests and people of North America, and speculates that the romantic descriptions of characters in James Fenimore Cooper might have influenced his descriptions of Aragorn and Éomer. When interviewed, the only book Tolkien named as a favourite was Rider Haggard's adventure novel "She": "I suppose as a boy "She" interested me as much as anything—like the Greek shard of Amyntas [Amenartas], which was the kind of machine by which everything got moving." A supposed facsimile of this potsherd appeared in Haggard's first edition, and the ancient inscription it bore, once translated, led the English characters to "She"s ancient kingdom, perhaps influencing the "Testament of Isildur" in "The Lord of the Rings" and Tolkien's efforts to produce a realistic-looking page from the "Book of Mazarbul".
J. R. R. Tolkien's influences | Modern literature
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings about Middle-earth, especially "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", have become extremely popular, and have exerted considerable influence since their publication, but acceptance by the establishment of literary criticism has been slower. Nevertheless, academic studies on Tolkien's works have been appearing at an increasing pace since the mid-1980s, prompting a measure of literary re-evaluation of his work. Brian Rosebury is a lecturer in the humanities at the University of Central Lancashire. He has specialised in Tolkien, in literary aesthetics, and later in moral and political philosophy.
Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon | Context
In 1904, J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", moved to Rednal with his mother, who had been ill and was convalescing. The hills became a favourite haunt and are thought to be an inspiration for the mythical Shire, where the hobbits lived in his books. John Henry, Cardinal Newman lived and was buried in the area. The author Jonathan Coe was born in Lickey in 1961.
Lickey Hills Country Park | Notable people
In his view, it was just as well that Tolkien abandoned the attempt. He was more critical of Rateliffe's essays, which he found generally but not uniformly illuminating and erudite. All the same, the book was in his view ambitious, brilliant, and indispensable.
The History of The Hobbit | Reception
He has studied trolls and dragons at first hand and describes them with that fidelity that is worth oceans of glib "originality." Lewis compares the book to "Alice in Wonderland" in that both children and adults may find different things to enjoy in it, and places it alongside "Flatland", "Phantastes", and "The Wind in the Willows". W. H. Auden, in his review of the sequel "The Fellowship of the Ring" calls "The Hobbit" "one of the best children's stories of this century". Auden was later to correspond with Tolkien, and they became friends. "The Hobbit" was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the "New York Herald Tribune" for best juvenile fiction of the year (1938).
The Hobbit | Reception
A Hobbit is a fictional creature created by J. R. R. Tolkien. Hobbit or The Hobbit may also refer to:
Hobbit (disambiguation) | Introduction
"The Lord of the Rings" was adapted as a [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|trilogy of films]] (2001–2003), directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. "The Hobbit" was adapted as a [[The Hobbit (film series)|trilogy]] (2012–14), with some elements adapted from "The Return of the King"'s Appendices, resulting in noticeable divergences with the novel.
Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien | Film
From around 1936, Tolkien began to extend this framework to include the tale of "The Fall of Númenor", which was inspired by the legend of Atlantis. Tolkien had appointed his son Christopher to be his literary executor, and he (with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, later a well-known fantasy author in his own right) organized some of this material into a single coherent volume, published as "The Silmarillion" in 1977. It received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy novel in 1978.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Silmarillion"
The book was first published in hardback in 2000 by HarperCollins in London and Houghton Mifflin in Boston. Both publishers brought out paperback editions in 2001. A Spanish edition was published by Minotauro in Barcelona in 2003. A Polish edition was produced by Zysk i S-ka Wydawnictwo in Poznań in 2004.
J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century | Publication history
Unlike other authors of the genre, Tolkien never favoured signing his works. Owing to his popularity, handsigned copies of his letters or of the first editions of his individual writings have however achieved high values at auctions, and forged autographs may occur on the market. For example, the signed first hardback edition of "The Hobbit" from 1937 has reportedly been offered for $85,000. Collectibles also include non-fiction books with hand-written annotations from Tolkien's private library.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Autographs
[[Category:Adaptations of works by J. R. R. Tolkien| ]] [[Category:Works based on Middle-earth]]
Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien | External links
The literary estate of J.R.R. Tolkien has declared that "There and Back Again" is an infringement upon their rights to "The Hobbit"; Murphy has stated that, although she disagrees, and considers it to be a transformative work of feminist commentary, the book's publication has been discontinued so as to obviate further dispute.
There and Back Again (novel) | Legal issues
He was born in Valparaiso, Indiana. His first published book was "The Annotated Hobbit" (1988), which grew out of a study of the revisions made by Tolkien to the various editions of "The Hobbit" following the publication of "The Lord of the Rings". "The Annotated Hobbit" won the Mythopoeic Award for scholarship. A revised edition was published in 2002.
Douglas A. Anderson | Early life
For my part, I cannot recall any conversation with him on the subject until very near the end of his life, when he spoke of them to me, and tried unsuccessfully to find them."
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún"
C. S. Lewis's 1945 novel "That Hideous Strength" makes reference to "Numinor and the True West", which Lewis credits as a then-unpublished creation of J. R. R. Tolkien; they were friends and colleagues at Oxford University, and members of The Inklings literary discussion group. The misspelling came from Lewis's only hearing Tolkien say the name in one of his readings.
Númenor | Other authors
The novel "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by Lewis later used that image as the characters enter the realm of Narnia. J.R.R. Tolkien found inspiration in the Malvern landscape which he had viewed from his childhood home in Birmingham and his brother Hilary's home near Evesham. He was introduced to the area by C. S. Lewis, who had brought him here to meet George Sayer, the Head of English at Malvern College. Sayer had been a student of Lewis, and became his biographer, and together with them Tolkien would walk the Malvern Hills. Recordings of Tolkien reading excerpts from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" were made in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer.
Great Malvern | Literature
"The Quest of Erebor" is a work of fantasy fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien, posthumously published by his son Christopher Tolkien in "Unfinished Tales" (1980). This work explains how and why Gandalf arranged for the retaking of the Lonely Mountain ("Erebor" in Sindarin), an adventure recounted from the perspective of the eponymous Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, many years before, in Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
The Quest of Erebor | Introduction
This is a list of original characters found in Peter Jackson's film adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
List of original characters in The Hobbit film series | Introduction
Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit".
Tetramorium smaug | Introduction
hobbits, hobgoblins." The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that the list was, however, of ghostly creatures without bodies, nothing like Tolkien's solid flesh-and-blood hobbits.
Hobbit | In English literature
J. R. R. Tolkien was a Fellow of Pembroke from 1925 to 1945, and wrote "The Hobbit" and the first two volumes of "The Lord of the Rings" during his time there. Since 2013 the college has held an annual lecture on fantasy literature in his honour. Robin G. Collingwood, historian, philosopher, and author of "The Idea of History", was a fellow of the college between the Great War and the Second World War.
Pembroke College, Oxford | Fellows
One of the greatest influences on Tolkien was the 19th-century Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris. Tolkien wished to imitate Morris's prose and poetry romances, following the general style and approach of the work. The Desolation of Smaug as portraying dragons as detrimental to landscape, has been noted as an explicit motif borrowed from Morris. Tolkien wrote also of being impressed as a boy by Samuel Rutherford Crockett's historical novel "The Black Douglas" and of basing the Necromancer—Sauron—on its villain, Gilles de Retz. Incidents in both "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" are similar in narrative and style to the novel, and its overall style and imagery have been suggested as having had an influence on Tolkien.
The Hobbit | Influences
This article describes all named characters appearing in J. R. R. Tolkien's book "The Hobbit". Creatures as collectives are not included. Characters are categorized by race. Spelling and point of view are given as from "The Hobbit"; details from sources outside "The Hobbit" are given only where important to understanding the character within the tale, and with the source noted.
List of The Hobbit characters | Introduction
The Soddit "or Let's Cash in Again" is a 2003 parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", written by A.R.R.R. Roberts. The book jacket states: "Following on (inevitably, some might say) from the frankly unlikely success of "Bored of the Rings" comes a new book from an entirely different author that Tolkien's other (and undoubtedly shorter) masterpiece." The book consists of primarily slapstick-style jokes, with characters of slightly different names from the original ones (for example, Bingo as opposed to Bilbo) and a slightly altered main storyline. As the book progresses, the story departs further and further from the original storyline that it parodies.
The Soddit | Introduction
Tolkien has King Théoden of Rohan say "the Halflings, that some among us call the Holbytlan". Tolkien set out a fictional etymology for the word "hobbit" in an appendix to "The Lord of the Rings", that it was derived from "holbytla" (plural "holbytlan"), meaning "hole-builder". This was Tolkien's own new construction from Old English "hol", "a hole or hollow", and "bytlan", "to build".
Hobbit | Fictional etymology
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English philologist, writer and professor of Oxford University. He was a devout Roman Catholic. Much of Tolkien's published fiction is a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth (derived from the Old English word "middangeard", the lands inhabitable by humans) in particular, loosely identified as an "alternative" remote past of our own world. Tolkien applied the word "legendarium" to the totality of these writings. Most of the "legendarium" was edited and posthumously published by his son Christopher.
Tolkien family | J. R. R. Tolkien
In any event, Dagnall was impressed by it, and showed the book to Stanley Unwin, who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. Rayner's favourable comments settled Allen & Unwin's decision to publish Tolkien's book.
The Hobbit | Background
S. Lewis but had never completed, was discovered at the Bodleian Library.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Manuscript locations
With "The History of The Hobbit", published in two parts in 2007, John D. Rateliff provides the full text of the earliest and intermediary drafts of the book, alongside commentary that shows relationships to Tolkien's scholarly and creative works, both contemporary and later. Rateliff provides the abandoned 1960s retelling and previously unpublished illustrations by Tolkien. The book separates commentary from Tolkien's text, allowing the reader to read the original drafts as self-contained stories.
The Hobbit | Posthumous editions
[[Dennis L. McKiernan]]'s Silver Call duology was intended to be a direct sequel to "The Lord of the Rings" but had to be altered. The "[[The Iron Tower|Iron Tower]]" trilogy, highly influenced by Tolkien's books, was then written as backstory. Throughout the next two decades, the term "[[fantasy]]" became synonymous with the general aspects of Tolkien's work: multiple races including dwarves and elves, a quest to destroy a magical artifact, and an evil that seeks to control the world. The plot of Novelist [[Pat Murphy (writer)|Pat Murphy]]'s "[[There and Back Again (novel)|There and Back Again]]" intentionally mirrors that of "The Hobbit", but is transposed into a science-fiction setting involving space travel.
Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien | Fantasy
Hobbits or Halflings are a fictional human-like race in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien, about half the height of humans. They live barefooted, and live in underground houses which have windows, as they are typically built into the sides of hills. Hobbits first appeared in the 1937 children's novel "The Hobbit", whose titular hobbit is the protagonist Bilbo Baggins, who is thrown into an unexpected adventure involving a dragon. In its sequel, "The Lord of the Rings", the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck are primary characters. Hobbits are briefly mentioned in "The Silmarillion" and "Unfinished Tales", which are set in the same fictional world, Middle-earth.
Hobbit | Introduction
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 William Morris, an important literary influence on Tolkien.
The Hobbit | Style
In J. R. R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth, wargs are a malevolent wolflike race. They are usually in league with the Orcs whom they permit to ride on their backs into battle, sharing any spoils. In "The Hobbit", they can speak: they plan their part in "a great goblin-raid" on the woodmen's villages. Tolkien's wargs influenced the ten-year-old Rayner Unwin to write a positive review of "The Hobbit", with the words "Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who lived in his hobbit hole and "never" went for adventures, at last Gandalf the wizard and his dwarves persuaded him to go. He had a very exiting [sic] time fighting goblins and wargs." The review led his father, Stanley Unwin, to publish the book, still doubting its likely commercial success.
Warg | J. R. R. Tolkien
R. R. Tolkien.
List of Warhammer Fantasy novels | Introduction
The American edition had in addition four of his watercolour paintings.
J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork | "The Hobbit"
Fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of being impressed as a boy by "The Black Douglas". He said he based the battle with the wargs in "The Lord of the Rings" on the battle with werewolves. However Tolkien said that he hadn't read the novel as an adult. Scholar Douglas A. Anderson has drawn parallels with the attack of the wargs in "The Hobbit". In addition, in his opinion, the ending of the chapter "The Battle of the Werewolves" in "The Black Douglas" is similar to the end of "The Siege of Gondor" in "The Lord of the Rings". Jared Lobdell has suggested "The Black Douglas"'s overall style and imagery had an influence on Tolkien, and that De Retz inspired Tolkien's character, Sauron.
The Black Douglas (novel) | Legacy
During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien received steadily increasing public attention and literary fame. In 1961, his friend C. S. Lewis even nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The sales of his books were so profitable that he regretted that he had not chosen early retirement. In a 1972 letter, he deplored having become a cult-figure, but admitted that "even the nose of a very modest idol ... cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!" Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory, and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth, which was then a seaside resort patronized by the British upper middle class.
J. R. R. Tolkien | Retirement and later years
More recently, in 2007, "The Children of Húrin" was published by HarperCollins (in the UK and Canada) and Houghton Mifflin (in the US). The novel tells the story of Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor, children of Húrin Thalion. The material was compiled by Christopher Tolkien from "The Silmarillion", "Unfinished Tales", "The History of Middle-earth", and unpublished manuscripts.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "The Children of Húrin"
H. Auden in 1955, "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)."
J. R. R. Tolkien | Linguistic career
Several adjustments to "The Hobbit" only increased the discrepancies; and in the 1960s, Tolkien began rewriting "The Hobbit" more in the style and tone of "The Lord of the Rings", adjusting the journey and landmarks to fit the later story, but ultimately abandoned the effort.
Middle-earth canon | "The Lord of the Rings"
In "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, Dáin II Ironfoot is a Dwarvish King who helps his cousin Thorin Oakenshield in the Battle of the Five Armies.
Dáinn (Norse dwarf) | J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit is a 1968 BBC Radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel of the same name. The series was adapted by Michael Kilgarriff and produced by John Powell in eight half-hour mono episodes for BBC Radio 4 broadcast from September 29 to November 17 at 8.30pm.
The Hobbit (radio series) | Introduction
As a memoir and history, the contents of the "Red Book" correspond to Tolkien's work as follows: However, according to Tolkien scholar Vladimir Brljak, readers are probably not intended to imagine Tolkien's published works as direct translations from the fictitious Red Book, but rather as Tolkien's own scholarly and literary adaptations of this supposed source material. Some events and details concerning Gollum and the magic ring in the first edition of "The Hobbit" were rewritten for "The Lord of the Rings". "The Hobbit" was later revised for consistency. Tolkien explains the discrepancies as Bilbo's lies (influenced by the ring, now the sinister One Ring).
Red Book of Westmarch | Relationship to Tolkien's Middle-earth books
Letters 29 and 30 show that a German translation of "The Hobbit" was being negotiated in 1938. The German firm enquired whether Tolkien was of "Arisch" (Aryan) origin. Tolkien was infuriated by this, and wrote two drafts of possible replies for his publisher to choose. The first one is not present – in it Tolkien is assumed to have refused to give any declaration whatsoever of his racial origins. The second, surviving, draft included:
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien | Nazi racial politics
In 1980, Christopher Tolkien published a collection of more fragmentary material, under the title "Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth". In subsequent years (1983–1996), he published a large amount of the remaining unpublished materials, together with notes and extensive commentary, in a series of twelve volumes called "The History of Middle-earth". They contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative, and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress for Tolkien and he only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not complete consistency between "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit", the two most closely related works, because Tolkien never fully integrated all their traditions into each other.
J. R. R. Tolkien | "Unfinished Tales" and "The History of Middle-earth"
Ballantine, under the direction of editor [[Lin Carter]], published public domain and relatively obscure works under the banner of the [[Ballantine Adult Fantasy series]], aimed at adult readers who enjoyed Tolkien's works. [[Lester Del Rey]], however, sought for new books that would mirror Tolkien's work, and published [[Terry Brooks]]' "[[The Sword of Shannara]]", [[David Eddings]]'s "[[Belgariad]]", and [[Stephen R. Donaldson]]'s "[[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever]]". [[Guy Gavriel Kay]], who had assisted [[Christopher Tolkien]] with the editing of "The Silmarillion", later wrote his own Tolkien-influenced fantasy trilogy, "[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]". Russian writer [[Nikolai Perumov|Nick Perumov]] was able to publish several fantasy novels set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth after the events of "The Lord of the Rings" (due to a loophole in Russian copyright law).
Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien | Fantasy
The same plot point was used by the Russian writer [[Vladimir Berezin (writer)|Vladimir Berezin]] in his novel "Road Signs" (from the [[Universe of Metro 2033]]). Another Russian writer, [[Kirill Eskov]], wrote "[[The Last Ringbearer]]", about the events in "Lord of the Rings" from the perspective of Sauron. [[Stephen King]], best known for horror novels, has acknowledged Tolkien's influence on his novel "[[The Stand]]" as well as his fantasy series "[[The Dark Tower (series)|The Dark Tower]]". Several other prominent fantasy writers, including [[George R. R. Martin]], [[Michael Swanwick]], [[Raymond E. Feist]], [[Poul Anderson]], [[Karen Haber]], [[Harry Turtledove]], [[Charles De Lint]], and [[Orson Scott Card]], have all acknowledged Tolkien's work as an inspiration for their own fantasy work.
Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien | Fantasy
These works all saw posthumous publication. In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects that he began work on "The Hobbit" one day early in the 1930s, when he was marking School Certificate papers. He found a blank page. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." By late 1932 he had finished the story and then lent the manuscript to several friends, including C. S. Lewis and a student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths. 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 or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien.
The Hobbit | Background
The Oxford plaque commemorates the residence where Tolkien wrote "The Hobbit" and most of "The Lord of the Rings". Another two plaques marking buildings associated with Tolkien are:-
J. R. R. Tolkien | Commemorative plaques
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was a famous British author and philologist, best known for "The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien is the surname of: Tolkien may also refer to:
Tolkien (disambiguation) | Introduction
This minor planet was named in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), an English writer, philologist, and Merton professor of English language at the University of Oxford. He is best known as the author of the fantasy novels "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien also had a lifelong interest in astronomy. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 December 1982 ().
2675 Tolkien | Naming
This is a list of the published works of the English writer and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien.
J. R. R. Tolkien bibliography | Introduction
J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" has been translated into many languages. Known translations, with the first date of publishing, are:
Translations of The Hobbit | Introduction
The British author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) and the names of fictional characters and places he invented for his legendarium have become the namesake of various things around the world, including street names, mountains, companies, species of animals and plants, and other notable objects.
List of things named after J. R. R. Tolkien and his works | Introduction
Tolkien's correspondence and publisher's records show that he was involved in the design and illustration of the entire book. All elements were the subject of considerable correspondence and fussing over by Tolkien. Rayner Unwin, in his publishing memoir, comments: "In 1937 alone Tolkien wrote 26 letters to George Allen & Unwin... detailed, fluent, often pungent, but infinitely polite and exasperatingly precise... I doubt any author today, however famous, would get such scrupulous attention." Even the maps, of which Tolkien originally proposed five, were considered and debated. He wished "Thror's Map" to be tipped in (that is, glued in after the book has been bound) at first mention in the text, and with the "moon letter" Cirth on the reverse so they could be seen when held up to the light.
The Hobbit | Illustration and design
The History of The Hobbit is a two-volume study of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". It was published by HarperCollins in May and June 2007 in the United Kingdom, with both volumes released in the United States by Houghton Mifflin on 21 September 2007; a boxed set combining "The Hobbit" with "The History of" The Hobbit was released on 26 October 2007. A single volume edition was released on 27 October 2011. The two-volume work contains Tolkien's unpublished drafts of the novel, with commentary by John D. Rateliff. It also details Tolkien's various revisions to "The Hobbit", including abandoned revisions for the unpublished third edition of the work, intended for 1960, as well as previously unpublished original maps and illustrations drawn by Tolkien himself.
The History of The Hobbit | Introduction
Hamilton, and John Varley. Author appearances in 2010-2011 included Seanan McGuire, Clare Bell, Anne Harris, Richard Kadrey, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Claude Lalumière, Cecelia Holland, and Brian and Wendy Froud. The store has a large collection of author signatures from over the years of appearances.
The Other Change of Hobbit | Author appearances
By Tolkien's own account, the coining of the name "hobbit" was a spontaneous flash of intuition. When he was busy grading examination papers, the word popped into his mind, not in isolation but as part of an entire sentence, which was to become the incipit of "The Hobbit", "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Tolkien etymologized the name "hobbit" as the regular Modern English outcome of a hypothetical Old English "*hol-bytla" "hole builder". Within the linguistic fiction of "The Lord of the Rings", the English etymology of Old English "hol-bytlan" → Modern English "hobbit" is the supposed translation of an "original" etymology of Rohirric "kud-dukan" → Westron "kuduk".
Hobbit (word) | Proposed etymology
More recently, the book 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".
The Hobbit | Reception
His name is taken from that of Edward Pococke (1604-91), seventeenth century Regius Professor of Hebrew (1648-91), after whom the Pococke Tree (the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky) and the Pococke Garden in Christ Church are named. Fantasy writer and Oxford don J. R. R. Tolkien appears (or is remembered) as the elderly "Professor J. B. Timbermill" in all the novels. The character of Arnold Lempriere, an ancient and semi-retired history don at the College, is based on the eccentric Christ Church Censor R. H. Dundas. Tony Mumford's title "Marchpayne" is obviously both a nod to the Marquess of Marchmain, a character in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (another novel partly set in Christ Church, Oxford), but also a joke on "marchpane", an old name for marzipan.
A Staircase in Surrey | Background
The Other Change of Hobbit (sometimes abbreviated TOCOH) is a science fiction and fantasy bookstore, formerly located in Berkeley, California and then El Cerrito; it no longer has a physical location. It was founded in 1977, the same weekend that "Star Wars" opened. It has been the site of numerous author appearances. The founding partners were science fiction fans Dave Nee, Debbie Notkin, and Tom Whitmore. The store is named after the Hobbits from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings". The store database has over 20,000 titles.
The Other Change of Hobbit | Introduction
There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell is a 1999 science fiction novel by Pat Murphy, retelling J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" as a space opera, combined with Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". It was published by Tor Books. Murphy has described it as "both an enormous joke and a serious meta-fictional experiment", with "Max Merriwell" being a science-fiction author who exists in an alternate reality, and whose writing is different from Murphy's own; the book is the first in a series of three novels which are all purportedly written by "Merriwell" under various pseudonyms.
There and Back Again (novel) | Introduction
Douglas Anderson shows that in "The Hobbit", Tolkien again includes both the more serious 'medieval' type of elves, such as Elrond and the Wood-elf king, and frivolous elves, such as the elvish guards at Rivendell.
Elf (Middle-earth) | "The Hobbit" (c. 1930–1937)