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The Hobbit

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This article is about the book. For other uses, see Hobbit (disambiguation)
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Cover to the 1937 first edition
Cover to the 1937 first edition
AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien
Cover artistJ. R. R. Tolkien
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy novel, Children's literature
PublisherGeorge Allen & Unwin (UK) & Houghton Mifflin Co. (U.S.)
Publication date
1937
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
ISBNNA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byThe Silmarillion 
Followed byThe Lord of the Rings 

Template: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, and draws on much of the author's professional knowledge of languages, especially Old English and its associated literature. It was first published on September 21, 1937 to wide 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 "Hobbit" of the title) as he leaves his comedic-rustic village and moves into darker, deeper territory[5] along with the thirteen dwarves and the wizard Gandalf. Bilbo encounters various denizens of the Wilderland, in order to reach and win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. By accepting his "Tookish" characteristics (the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his family) and utilizing both his wits and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.[6]

The Hobbit stands in its own right as a complete, self-contained story and it is also the precursor to Tolkien's second, longer novel The Lord of the Rings. The publisher requested a sequel due to the success of The Hobbit', though Lord or the Rings was not to be finished and published until 17 years after the original. The Hobbit and has been republished and adapted many times since its first edition.

Characters

  • Bilbo Baggins, the titular protagonist, a respectable, comfort-loving, middle-aged hobbit.
  • Gandalf, an itinerant wizard who introduces Bilbo to a company of thirteen dwarves and then disappears and reappears at key points in the story.
  • Thorin Oakenshield, bombastic head of the company of dwarves and heir to a dwarven kingdom under the Lonely Mountain.
  • Smaug, a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarven kingdom of Thorin's grandfather.

The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of the company; elves; men (humans); trolls; goblins; giant spiders; eagles; Wargs (evil wolves); 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.

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 travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell. 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. Groping along lost, he finds a 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. The goblins and Wargs give chase and the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of the shape-shifter Beorn.

The company enter the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. There 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 hides 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 is the Battle of Five Armies won. 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.

Concept and creation

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.[7] By late 1932 he had finished the story and gave it to C. S. Lewis to read.[8] It was eventually published when a family friend and student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths was lent the typescript of the story.[9] When Griffiths was visited in Oxford by Susan Dagnall in 1936, a staffmember of the publisher George Allen & Unwin, she either lent Dagnall the book[9] or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien[10] (the sources differ). In any event, Miss Dagnall, impressed by it, showed the book to Stanley Unwin, who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. Rayner wrote such an enthusiastic review of the book that it was published by Allen & Unwin.[10]

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 September 21, 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.[11] 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.[11] Despite the book's popularity, wartime conditions forced the London publisher to print small runs of the remaining two printings of the first edition.[citation needed]

The first printing of the first English language edition can sell for between £6,000[12] and £20,000 at auction,[13] although the price has occasionally reached over £40,000.[14]

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. [15] In addition, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages. Some languages have seen multiple translations.[16]

Revisions

In December 1937, Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, asked for a sequel and rejected his drafts for the Silmarillion, believing that the public wanted 'more about hobbits' the author began work on what would become The Lord of the Rings[17] a sequence of events 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.[18] In order to reflect the new concept of the ring and its powerful hold on Gollum Tolkien decided a rewrite of the Gollum encounter in The Hobbit was in order, and he sent a revised version to his publishers. He heard nothing further for years. When he was sent galley proofs of a new edition he learned to his surprise the new chapter had been incorporated as the result of a misunderstanding.[17] In The Lord of the Rings the original version of the riddle-game is explained as a "lie" made up by Bilbo, and that the revised versions of The Hobbit contain the "true" version of events.[19] This became the second edition, published in 1951 in both the UK and America.[11]

After an unauthorized paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings was published by Ace in 1965, Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine requested Tolkien to provide a new authorized text of The Hobbit, in order to re-assert US copyright control.[20] 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.[21] These minor changes included, for example, that the phrase elves that are now called Gnomes appears in the first[22] and second[23] editions on page 63. Tolkien had used "Gnome" in his earlier writing to refer to the second kindred of the High Elves – the Noldor (or "Deep Elves"). Tolkien thought that "gnome", being derived from the Greek gnosis (knowledge), was a good name for the wisest of the Elves, but with its common denotation of a garden gnome, Tolkien ultimately replaced the phrase with High Elves of the West, my kin in the third edition.[24]

In its current revision, The Hobbit still retains many differences in tone from The Lord of the Rings. For example, goblins are more often referred to as Orcs in The Lord of the Rings.[25] Many of the inconsistencies arose because Tolkien wrote the Hobbit as a children's story, the published version having only a loose relationship to his mythological writing, only later strengthening the connections through revisions and through its sequel.[17] Moreover, his concept of Middle-earth was to change and evolve throughout his life and writings.[26]

Publication of early drafts

In May and June 2007, HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin published The History of The Hobbit in the United Kingdom. Much like The History of Middle-earth, The History of The Hobbit examines in two volumes previously unpublished original drafts of The Hobbit with extensive commentary by John Rateliff. In celebration and recognition of the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit, The History was published in the United States on 21 September 2007, exactly 70 years after the initial publication of Tolkien's work.[citation needed]

Style

The basic form of the story is that of a quest,[27] told in episodes. Tolkien fills the story with a wealth of incidental detail regarding minor characters and distant events, which gives his imaginary world more depth. The narrative voice often addresses the reader directly, a device which the author himself came to dislike. [28] Nonetheless the direct narrative voice remained when he began to rewrite The Hobbit in 1966 in order to make a better tonal fit with its sequel. The revision was abandoned at chapter three after Tolkien received criticism that it 'just wasn't The Hobbit'. [29] The narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel, and lends it to being read aloud.[30]

The novel draws on Tolkien's knowledge of historical languages and early European texts (for example, 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)[31] and the illustrations (provided by the author) make use of Anglo-Saxon runes. The story is enhanced with information on calendars and moon phases and detailed geographical descriptions that fit well with the accompanying maps — attention to detail that is also found in Tolkien's later work.[citation needed]

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.[32]

The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of the First World 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[33] and as such explores the theme of heroism.

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 lack of that of the dwarves.[6]

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.[34]

Literary significance and reception

The Hobbit in literary criticism

Jaume Albero Pavedo contends that "Tolkien's fiction is built on the foundations of highly stereotyped and traditional narrative forms, far removed from the literary movements of the twentieth century that searched for personal and innovative fantasies" (7).

Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

March 1953 saw the first authorized adaptation — a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh.[35] Since then The Hobbit has been adapted for other media many times.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Hobbit radio drama, adapted by Michael Kilgarriff, in eight parts (4 hours) from September to November 1968, which starred Anthony Jackson as narrator, Paul Daneman as Bilbo and Heron Carvic as Gandalf.

Nicol Williamson's abridged reading of the book was released on four LP records in 1974 by Argo Records.

The Hobbit, an animated version of the story, produced by Rankin/Bass, debuted as a television movie in the United States in 1977. The adaptation has been called "excruciable"[36] and confusing for those not already familiar with the plot.[37]

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.

The BBC children's television series Jackanory presented an adaptation of The Hobbit in 1979.[38] Unusually for the programme, the adaptation had multiple storytellers. According to one of the narrators David Wood, the release of the production on video has been repeatedly stopped by the Tolkien Estate.[39]

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. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books in 2001.

Robert Inglis adapted and performed a one-man theatre play of The Hobbit. This performance led to him being asked to read/perform the unabridged audiobook for The Lord of the Rings for Recorded Books in 1990 and a year later he read the unabridged version of The Hobbit for the same company.[40][41]

In 2001, Marjo Kuusela produced a ballet Hobitti (The Hobbit in Finnish) with music by Aulis Sallinen for the Finnish National Opera.[42]

In 2004 an operatic version of the story was written and had its world premiere in Canada. The score is currently being revised and will have its American premiere in the Spring of 2008 at the Sarasota Opera in Sarasota, Florida.

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[43]. It will be released in 2010, and shot simultaneously with another prequel. Guillermo Del Toro will be directing the double-bill. [44] (See also The Lord of the Rings film trilogy: Prequels)

Games

The Hobbit has been the subject of several board games:

TSR released 2 editions of a wargame based on The Battle of Five Armies, designed by Larry Smith in 1976/1977 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.[45]

The Lonely Mountain (1984, ICE),[46] designed by Coleman Charlton, features groups of adventurers entering Smaug's Lair to capture his treasure before he awakens. The same year, the same publisher also published their version of The Battle of Five Armies [47] developed by Richard H. Britton, Coleman Charlton, and John Crowell, again a wargame using card counters and a paper map.

"The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame" (1997) was the last game from ICE based directly 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 which combined elements from both works, between 1982 and 1999.

Games Workshop released a Battle of Five Armies (2005) tabletop wargame, designed by Rick Priestley using 10mm figures sculpted by Mark Harrison and based on Games Workshops Warmaster rules.[48]

Several computer and video games, both official and unofficial, have been based on the story. One of the most successful was The Hobbit, an award winning (Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year 1983)[49] computer game developed in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House for most computers available at the time. By arrangement with publishers, a copy of the novel was included with each game sold.

Sierra Entertainment published a platform game titled The Hobbit in 2003 for Windows PCs, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube. A version, based on the same character design and story, but a 2D isometric platform, was also published for the Game Boy Advance.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Houghton Mifflin - Children's Books". Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  2. ^ Auden, W.H (1954-10-31). "The Hero is a Hobbit". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  3. ^ "Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature". Retrieved 2007-09-29. [...] honors books for younger readers (from "Young Adults" to picture books for beginning readers), in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia.
  4. ^ Eaton, Anne T. (1938-03-13). "A Delightfully Imaginative Journey". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Langford, David (2001). "Lord of the Royalties". SFX magazine. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  6. ^ a b Matthews, Dorothy. "The Psychological Journey of Bilbo Baggins". A Tolkien Compass. pp. 27–40.
  7. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. #163. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
  8. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
  9. ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. #294. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
  10. ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
  11. ^ a b c Hammond, Wayne (1993). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. pp. 15, 18, 21, 48, 54. ISBN 0-938768-42-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ The Hobbit sells for £6,000, bbc.co.uk, 26/11/04[1]
  13. ^ Walne, Toby. How to make a killing from first editions Daily Telegraph 21/11/2007[2]
  14. ^ The Hobbit breaks records at auction bbc.co.uk, 12/07/02[3]
  15. ^ Anderson, Douglas A., ed.The Annotated Hobbit. Revised Edition. Harper Collins. London, 2003. ISBN 0-00-713726-3. pp. 384-386
  16. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit p. 23
  17. ^ a b c Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 3046822.
  18. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit (1988)
  19. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a). The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Prologue. OCLC 9552942.
  20. ^ Rateliff, John D The History of the Hobbit. Part 2: Return to Bag-End p765
  21. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit (1988), Flies and Spiders, note 23
  22. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 63.
  23. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1951). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 63.
  24. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1966). The Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 62. ISBN 0-395-07122-4.
  25. ^ Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit (1988)
  26. ^ Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth
  27. ^ W. H. Auden, "The Quest Hero," in Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaaca, eds., Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, 2004. 31-51. ISBN 0-618-42251-x.
  28. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
  29. ^ Rateliff, John D. The History of the Hobbit. Part 2: Return to Bag End. p781
  30. ^ The Hobbit Major Themes, Cliff Notes, retrieved (30/01/08)[[4]]
  31. ^ "Tolkien's Middle-earth: Lesson Plans, Unit Two". Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  32. ^ Shippey, Tom: Tolkien: Author of the Century, HarperCollins, 2000, p.41
  33. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey: Tolkien and the Great War, Review, The Times 2003 Tolkien and the Great War, Review, The Times 2003
  34. ^ The Hobbit on Bookrags
  35. ^ Anderson, Douglas, The Annotated Hobbit, p.23
  36. ^ Anderson. Donald A. The Annotated Hobbit
  37. ^ Kask, TJ, NBC's The Hobbit, Dragon (Magazine) Dragon MagazineDecember, 1977
  38. ^ "The Hobbit". Jackanory. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help) Internet Movie Database: Jackanory, "The Hobbit" (1979)
  39. ^ David Woods, website [5]
  40. ^ Audiofile Magazine [6] (retrieved 19/01/08)
  41. ^ Photos of a performance during book-week in a school [7](retrieved 19/01/08)
  42. ^ "The Hobbit ('Hobitti'), Op.78, Aulis Sallinen". ChesterNovello. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  43. ^ "Peter Jackson to produce The Hobbit". CNN. Retrieved 2007-12-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  44. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2250245,00.html
  45. ^ Easterbrook, Martin, Open Box Review White Dwarf (magazine) #3,Oct/Nov 1977 p 15
  46. ^ Newsboard, Fellowship Follows, White Dwarf (magazine) #57, September, 1984 p45
  47. ^ Newsboard, Fellowship Follows, White Dwarf (magazine) #57, September, 1984 p45
  48. ^ More information can be found at: [Games Workshop's Specialist Games site]
  49. ^ CRASH (magazine) #4, p. 43 [[8]]
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988). The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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