The Hobbit
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- For other uses, see Hobbit (disambiguation).
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The story, subtitled There and Back Again, follows the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he travels across the lands of Middle-earth with a band of Dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf on a quest to restore a dwarven kingdom and a great treasure stolen by the dragon, Smaug.
The novel
In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects in the late 1920s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, he began The Hobbit when he was marking School Certificate papers. On the back of one of the papers, 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 Thror's map, outlining the geography of the tale. The tale itself he wrote in the early 1930s, and it was eventually published because he lent it to the Reverend Mother of Cherwell Edge when she was sick with the flu; while the Reverend Mother was in possession of the manuscript, it was seen by the 10-year old son of Sir Stanley Unwin, Rayner Unwin, who wrote such an enthusiastic review of the book that it was published by Allen & Unwin.Tolkien introduced or mentioned characters and places that figured prominently in his legendarium, specifically Elrond and Gondolin, along with elements from Germanic legend. But the decision that the events of The Hobbit could belong to the same universe as The Silmarillion was made only after successful publication, when the publisher asked for a sequel. Accordingly, The Hobbit serves both as an introduction to Middle-earth and as a link between earlier and later events described in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, respectively. It has been suggested that The Hobbit can be read as a Bildungsroman in which Bilbo matures from an initially insular, superficial, and rather ineffectual person to one who is versatile, brave, self-sufficient, and relied-upon by others when they are in need of assistance. Some have compared his development to the theories of Joseph Campbell on myth and, in particular, the journey of the epic hero. However, Tolkien himself probably did not intend the book to be read in this way. In the foreword to The Lord of the Rings he writes, "I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence." He further claimed that The Lord of the Rings is "neither allegorical nor topical", and it seems safe to assume that The Hobbit was written with the same caveats. The judgement of Bilbo as "superficial" and "ineffectual" seems harsh since he was, according to Tolkien, rather typical of hobbits in general. Although a fairytale, the novel is both complex and sophisticated: it contains many names and words derived from Norse mythology, and central plot elements from the Beowulf epic, it makes use of Anglo-Saxon runes, information on calendars and moon phases, and detailed geographical descriptions that fit well with the accompanying maps. Near the end, the tale takes on epic proportions.
Synopsis
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, is smoking in his porchway one day when Gandalf the Wizard visits him. After a lengthy discussion, during which Bilbo uses the phrase "Good Morning" several times, in several different ways, Bilbo, finding himself flustered, invites Gandalf to tea, and goes back inside his hobbit hole with a final "Good Morning". Gandalf scratches a secret mark on Bilbo's front door, which translated means 'Burglar wants a good job, plenty of excitement and reasonable reward'. Thirteen Dwarves (Thorin Oakenshield, Óin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Fíli and Kíli, Dori, Nori, and Ori) show up and begin excitedly discussing their planned treasure hunt while the hapless Bilbo provides the obligatory hospitality. After the dwarves clean up their mess, a map is produced and Gandalf arranges for Bilbo to get the burglary job—as well as to break the unlucky number 13. The company's quest: kill Smaug, the dragon who seized the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) from the Dwarves' forefathers, and, using a secret door into the mountain, recapture it, dividing the riches within its halls.
The next morning, after oversleeping and nearly missing the start of the journey, Bilbo goes off with the Dwarves. They are nearly eaten by three trolls, but Gandalf tricks the trolls into staying up all night whereupon they are turned into stone by the first light of dawn. (The stone trolls appear later in The Lord of the Rings.) In the troll's cave they find some swords. Bilbo acquires Sting, which glows blue in the presence of goblins.
The party travels to Rivendell where they enjoy the hospitality of the Elves, then proceed eastwards towards the Misty Mountains. There they are ambushed by goblins, and carried under the mountain. They run away, and during the escape Bilbo loses the Dwarves. Alone in the dark after running away from the goblins, Bilbo finds a ring on the floor of a cave passage and puts it into his pocket.
Continuing down, he finds himself at the shore of an underground lake. Gollum quietly paddles up in his boat, and the two enact the Riddle Game, under the condition that if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out, but if he loses, Gollum will eat Bilbo. After several riddles, which each manages to answer, Bilbo, whilst fiddling in his pocket unable to think of a riddle, asks himself aloud "What have I got in my pocket?" Gollum thinks this is supposed to be the next riddle, and as it doesn't comply with the rules of the riddle game, demands three guesses; but he cheats and takes two chances—thus getting 4 guesses. Still, in the end he fails to guess the answer. Bilbo demands his reward, but Gollum refuses and paddles off in his boat to an island in the lake, upon which he lives. After searching around for a while asking aloud "where is it? where's my precious!?" to which Bilbo replies, "I don't know and I don't care, I just want to get out of here", Gollum becomes suspicious, gets in his boat, and starts paddling back across the lake towards Bilbo. Gollum is unable to find the one weapon he could use to betray and kill Bilbo, a magic ring that makes its wearer invisible; driven by rage, Gollum starts to realize the real answer to Bilbo's previous question "What have I got in my pocket?". Bilbo realizes his life is in mortal danger and makes his escape down the maze of pitch black tunnels, and Gollum gives chase. Bilbo trips, and finds the ring on his finger. Realising he has no chance to escape his pursuer, he stays where he is and prepares to meet his fate, but Gollum runs right over him. Bilbo realizes the ring makes him invisible. He manages to escape past Gollum, who has gone to guard the only exit, and finds his way to the surface where he rejoins the Dwarves.
Descending from the Misty Mountains, they survive an encounter with Wargs (wild wolf creatures) by climbing trees. Giant eagles rescue them. Then they meet Beorn, a man who can transform into a bear. They depart, having rested for several days. Gandalf leaves soon on an errand. The party traverses the great forest Mirkwood, eventually running out of supplies. Gandalf has warned them not to leave the path, but they see fire and hear singing, so, hopeless, they leave the path to beg food from Wood-elves, only to get lost. They are captured by giant spiders, but Bilbo rescues the Dwarves by becoming invisible and killing many spiders with Sting. Elves then capture the Dwarves and imprison them, but Bilbo manages to sneak into the Elvenking's palace unnoticed using the ring; he then helps the Dwarves escape in barrels floated down the river.
After staying for a short period of time at Laketown, the treasure-seekers proceed to the Lonely Mountain. Finding themselves unable to locate the secret door, the company sit down disconsolate on a cliff. Hearing a thrush knocking on a stone, Bilbo looks up just in time to see the last rays of the Sun of Durin's Day, shining on the cliff wall, to magically reveal the secret door (as was foretold by moon letters upon a map that the company was in possession of). Bilbo is sent down to encounter Smaug. The dragon, realising the Company received help from the people of Laketown, sets out to destroy it. However, the thrush that had been knocking on the stone was no ordinary bird but of an ancient race with whom the men of the lake could communicate, and it had heard Bilbo's report to the Dwarves that Smaug had a bare patch on his belly that could be used to slaughter him, if only you could get close enough. It conveyed this message to one Bard the Bowman, who seeing the bare patch in the belly of Smaug, dispatched the dragon with his last arrow, thus allowing the party of Dwarves to take possession of the treasure.
The citizens of Laketown arrive to make historical claims and demand compensation for the help they had rendered, as well as reparations for the damage Smaug inflicted during his attack. They're joined by the Elves, who also demand a share based on historical claims. The Dwarves refuse all negotiations and in turn summon kin from the north to strengthen their position. Seeing no other way to avert a war, Bilbo uses the ring to steal the prized Arkenstone from the Dwarves, which he uses to broker peace.
Just as a grudging truce is agreed to, the three armies at the Lonely Mountain (Elves, Men and Dwarves) are attacked by Goblins and Wargs from the Misty Mountains. A bitter battle ensues, named the Battle of Five Armies. Though suffering heavy losses, Elves, Men and Dwarves, with the help of Beorn and the eagles, prevail. The treasure is apportioned. Bilbo refuses most of the riches, realising he has no way to bring them back home; he nevertheless takes enough with him to make himself a wealthy hobbit and live happily thereafter, unaware of the dangerous nature of his ring.
Alternative version
In the first edition, Gollum willingly bets his magic ring on the outcome of the riddle game. During the writing of The Lord of the Rings Tolkien saw the need to revise this passage, in order to reflect the concept of the One Ring and its powerful hold on Gollum. Tolkien tried many different passages in the chapter that would become chapter 2 of the Lord of the Rings, "The Shadow of the Past". Eventually Tolkien decided a rewrite of The Hobbit was in order, and he sent a sample chapter of this rewrite ("Riddles in the Dark") to his publishers. Initially he heard nothing further, but 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.
In the introduction of The Lord of the Rings, as well as inside "The Shadow of the Past", the differences of the first edition are explained as a "lie" that Bilbo made up because of the One Ring's influence on him, and which he originally wrote down in his book. Inside The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo finally confesses the true story at the Council of Elrond, although Gandalf had deduced the truth earlier. As Tolkien presented himself as the translator of the supposedly historic Red Book of Westmarch, where Bilbo and Frodo's stories were recorded, he further explained the two differing stories in The Hobbit by stating he had originally used Bilbo's original story, but later retranslated the work with the "true story" recorded by Frodo.
This first edition also uses the word "gnome", which Tolkien in his earlier writing had used to refer to the second kindred of the High Elves – the Ñoldor (or "Deep Elves"). Tolkien thought that "gnome", being derived from the Greek gnosis (knowledge), was a good name for the Ñoldor he created to be the wisest of the other Elves. But with its English connotations of a small, secretive, and unattractive creature (see garden gnome) Tolkien removed it from later editions.
He made other minor changes in order to conform the narrative to events in The Lord of the Rings and in the ideas he was developing for the Quenta Silmarillion.
Differences and inconsistencies
However, even when revised, The Hobbit still does not fit seamlessly with the rest of Tolkien's world; it is so different in tone that it sometimes seems to belong in another universe from other Middle-earth works. Examples include the following:
- Bilbo has a clock, which turns out to be an anachronism in The Lord of the Rings. Many artists like John Howe prefer to omit it from their paintings. Bilbo is also mentioned to have matches for his pipe. In the world of The Lord of the Rings, matches are not mentioned and have not yet been invented, since all use flints.
- Like fairy-tale characters, the three trolls have English first names (Tom, Bert and Bill), and Bill has the English last name Huggins. Also, they speak fluent though vulgar English, while trolls in Tolkien's later works do not speak any English. This may be explained in-universe by treating the English text of The Lord of the Rings and other Middle-earth writings as translated from the original Westron, the "Common Speech" used in many parts of Middle-earth, used by Bilbo and others in the Red Book of Westmarch. The trolls' vulgar English may be an attempt to preserve their crude Westron.
- There is lighthearted use of "magic"; Gandalf is said to have given the Old Took a pair of diamond studs that "fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered", and when Bilbo tries to steal a purse from the trolls, the purse shouts.
- Elves appear either as silly and mischievous, singing light-hearted songs like Tra-la-la-lally (Rivendell) or hostile (to strangers) (Mirkwood). However, they are also shown to be fierce warriors, both in the past and in the present.
- There are some references to the "Necromancer" of Mirkwood who captured Thorin's father Thrain, and whom a "council of white wizards" drive out by the end of the story. The Necromancer is in fact Sauron, and the council is the White Council, which only included one White Wizard.
- Addressing the reader, the narrator says that the history of Gollum is a mystery to him; he does not know "who he is or where he came from". Gollum was revealed to be a Stoor hobbit in The Lord of the Rings. Of the One Ring, he only mentions that it was a "ring of power" that made the wearer invisible, except for a shaky and faint shadow when in full sunlight. Also, there was a "Master who ruled them", who is revealed to be Sauron in The Lord of the Rings.
- Orcs are still called goblins, and are portrayed in a lighter tone, singing evil songs.
- Gandalf mentions that Radagast is his cousin. (Then again, both Gandalf and Radagast are angelic Maiar spirits, and thus in a sense are "related", both being children of the thought of God.) Their respective titles of "the Grey" and "the Brown" are also not mentioned.
- There is a comical allusion to Vita Sackville-West, who had been involved in a sensational court case over an English estate in the decade before The Hobbit was written.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- There are extensive mentions (and a brief appearance) of giants. Giants were never developed in Tolkien's other works, and they are not specifically mentioned again, although they may be alluded to in the Fellowship of the Ring as the Fellowship tries to cross the Redhorn Pass.
The "real-world" explanation for these inconsistencies is most likely that Tolkien originally wrote the book as a much more light-hearted story, before The Lord of the Rings was ever conceived, and it was more of a children's book.
Some of the differences in tone can be internally explained by accepting Bilbo as the author of the work: Bilbo wrote the story of his journeys to recount them to the children of Hobbiton and therefore changed the story somewhat. Apparent major differences such as the different perception of the Ring can also be explained by Bilbo's lacking knowledge of these matters.
As told in "The Quest of Erebor" in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien later had Gandalf say that Bilbo's account would have been very different, if he had written it instead.
Similarities to Beowulf
During his time as a professor at the University of Oxford Tolkien studied Anglo-Saxon. One of the Anglo-Saxon pieces of literature he studied is the poem Beowulf, about which he wrote essays such as The Monsters and the Critics. Interesting parallels can be found between The Hobbit and Beowulf.
The plots of the two stories are very similar. In both of them a party of 13 sets out to seek satisfaction for a crime committed by a dragon. Both parties contain a thief, which in The Hobbit is Bilbo, who steals a cup from the sleeping dragon's hoard by using a secret passage. Both dragons then awake from their deep slumber and cause terror and destruction. Both dragons are well protected by their armour, a natural one in Beowulf and one made of gold and diamonds in The Hobbit, but finally they are killed. Both the Hobbit and Beowulf use mead as a drink of celebration.
But not only the plots share similarities, both main characters, Bilbo and Beowulf, share characteristics. Both heroes defy their enemies with their supernatural power, which in Bilbo's case is the ring and in Beowulf's case is his supernatural strength.
Additionally some elements of Anglo-Saxon culture can be found. In both books a king, which in Anglo-Saxon sometimes is called ring- or gold-giver, rewards his warriors with treasure and war gear. In Anglo-Saxon culture, poems are important, as they contain the people's history and they are sung by scops. Two such songs are found in Beowulf and more in The Hobbit. Tolkien's dwarves mirror Anglo-Saxon society, both in their warrior nature and in their desire for jewelry and war gear (albeit in an exaggerated way). The dwarven writing system as illustrated uses the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabets.
Editions
George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of The Hobbit in September 1937. It was illustrated with many black-and-white drawings by Tolkien himself. The original printing numbered a mere 1,500 copies and sold out by December due to enthusiastic reviews. 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. Despite the book's popularity, wartime conditions forced the London publisher to print small runs of the remaining two printings of the first edition.
As remarked above, Tolkien substantially revised The Hobbit's text describing Bilbo's dealings with Gollum in order to blend the story better into what The Lord of the Rings had become. This revision became the second edition, published in 1951 in both UK and American editions. Slight corrections to the text have appeared in the third (1966) and fourth editions (1978).
New English-language editions of The Hobbit spring up often, despite the book's age, with at least fifty editions having been published to date. Each comes from a different publisher or bears distinctive cover art, internal art, or substantial changes in format. The text of each generally adheres to the Allen & Unwin edition extant at the time it is published.
The remarkable and enduring popularity of The Hobbit expresses itself in the collectors' market. The first printing of the first English language edition rarely sells for under $10,000 US dollars in any whole condition, and clean copies in original dust jackets signed by the author are routinely advertised for over $100,000. Online auction site eBay tends to define the market value for those who collect The Hobbit.
Translations
The Hobbit has been translated into many languages. Known languages, with the first date of publishing, are:
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- Four Israeli combat pilots, held as prisoners of war in Egypt between 1970 and 1973, whiled away their time of captivity by translating "The Hobbit" to Hebrew from a book sent to one of them by family members, via the Red Cross. The pilots' translation was published in Tel-Aviv following their return, and many Israeli critics still consider it the best of several Hebrew translations.
Influences and adaptations
Influences
Middle-earth has been featured in songs notably by Enya and the Brobdingnagian Bards. Led Zeppelin's song "Misty Mountain Hop" contains references to The Hobbit, whilst other songs are thought to be influenced by The Lord of the Rings. "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins", performed by Leonard Nimoy as part of his 1968 Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy album, is the most pertinent because it recounts the book's storyline in its two minutes. The ballad's music video became a minor Internet phenomenon in the early 2000s when The Lord of the Rings movies were released. Another well-known reference is Blind Guardian's The Bard's Song: The Hobbit. A trance track was released in 1995 by Dynamix Maniax, featuring the title "Calling Middle Earth," containing a muffled sample from the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit.
Adaptations
The Hobbit has been adapted for other media.
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 Long Playing records in 1974 by Argo Record Co.
Robert Inglis adapted and performed a one-man theater play of The Hobbit, whose performance led to him being asked to read it for the unabridged HarperCollins AudioBooks.
An animated version of the story debuted as a television movie in the United States in 1977. Peter Jackson, the director of the highly successful 'The Lord of the Rings' movie adaptations, has previously mentioned that he wishes to adapt 'The Hobbit' similarly into another major movie.
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.
The Hobbit has been the subject of several board games, including "The Lonely Mountain" (1984) and "The Battle of Five Armies" (1984) and the almost eponymous "The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame" 1997 from Iron Crown Enterprises.
Several computer and video games, both official and unofficial, have been based on the story. One of the first was The Hobbit, an award winning (Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year 1983) computer game developed in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House for most computers available at the time, from the more popular computers such as the ZX Spectrum, and the Commodore 64, through to such esoteric computers as the Dragon 32 and Oric computers. By arrangement with publishers, a copy of the novel was included with each game sold.
Sierra Entertainment published The Hobbit in 2003 for Windows PCs, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube. It is a platform game and is seen as more child-oriented than the contemporary Lord of the Rings games: less brutal, fewer enemies and more simplistic graphics. A similar version of this game was also published for the Game Boy Advance.
See also
External links
There is also a Pub in Southampton called The Hobbit http://southampton-pubs.co.uk/hobbit/index.htm
- [The official Tolkien website.]
- [collection of edition covers, 1937–2005]
- [Every UK edition of The Hobbit]
- [Every Dutch edition of The Hobbit]
- [Let the Hobbit Happen]
| J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium | |
| Published during his lifetime: | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Adventures of Tom Bombadil | The Road Goes Ever On |
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| Posthumous publications: | The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales | The History of Middle-earth (12 volumes) | Bilbo's Last Song |
| Lists of articles: | by category | by name | writings | characters | peoples | rivers | realms | ages |
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