The Hobbit

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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a story for children 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 critical acclaim. It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal that year and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction the year after. More recently The Hobbit has been recognised as "Most Important 20th-Century Novel (for Older Readers)" in the Children's Books of the Century poll in Books for Keeps.

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

While The Hobbit stands in its own right as a complete, self-contained story 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 The Lord of the Rings was not to be finished and published until 17 years after the original. The Hobbit 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. By late 1932 he had finished the story and gave it to C. S. Lewis to read. It was eventually published when a family friend and student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths was lent the typescript of the story. 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 or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien (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.

Publication

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. 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.

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

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

Revisions

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

In the first edition of The Hobbit, Gollum willingly bets his magic ring on the outcome of the riddle-game, and he and Bilbo part amicably. 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. 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. This became the second edition, published in 1951 in both the UK and America.

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. 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. These minor changes included, for example, that the phrase elves that are now called Gnomes appears in the first and second 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.

In order to make a better tonal fit with its sequel Tolkien began a new version in 1966, removing the narrative asides. The revision was abandoned at chapter three after Tolkien received criticism that it 'just wasn't The Hobbit'.

In its current published form, 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. Many of the inconsistencies arose because Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children, and The Lord of the Rings for the same audience who had subsequently grown up. Moreover, his concept of Middle-earth was to change and evolve throughout his life and writings.

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.

Style

The basic form of the story is that of a quest, told in episodes, a traditional narrative form far removed from the literary movements of the 20th Century. The general tone is lighthearted, possibly following the model of "The Icelandic Journals" by Tolkien's literary idol William Morris, and interspersed with songs. The dramatic or dangerous scenes are undercut with a sense of humour, such as the foolishness of the Trolls or the onomatopoeic singing of the Goblins. It displays a close correlation with the narrative models of children's literature, including an omniscient narrator, characters that pre-adolescent children can identify with, an emphasis on the relationship between time and narrative progress, and a geography which separates notions of 'safe' and 'dangerous'. While Tolkien claimed later to dislike the aspect of the narrative voice addressing the reader directly the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel, and lends it to being read aloud.

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) and the illustrations (provided by the author) make use of Anglo-Saxon runes.

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.

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 and as such explores the theme of heroism. The theme of war portrayed in literature as an anti-pastoral is also seen in The Hobbit where the "Desolation of Smaug" both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for the "Battle of the Five Armies" after, is described as a barren, damaged landscape.

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. The theme of a character entering into enclosed spaces (such as the various hills, caves, dungeons) has a Freudian dimension, with the additional analogue of the 'underworld' with the hero returning with a boon (such as the ring, or Gondorian blades) which benefits his society is seen to fit the mythic archetypes regarding initiation and male coming of age as described by Joseph Campbell.

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.

Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

March 1953 saw the first authorized adaptation — a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh. 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, it was released on audio cassette in 1988 and CD in 1997.

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 and confusing for those not already familiar with the plot.

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. 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.

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, and it's cover by Donato Giancola was awarded the Association of Science Fiction Artists Award for Best Cover Illustration in 2002.

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.

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

Dean Burry was commissioned by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus to write an operatic version of the story, for piano and choir, they performed the world premiere in 2004. The performance rights were subsequently locked up by Tolkien Enterprises before being released in 2006. The Sarasota Youth Opera requested full orchestration be prepared and their version will have its premiere in May 2008.

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. It will be released in 2011, and shot simultaneously with another prequel. Guillermo Del Toro will be directing the double-bill. (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.

The Lonely Mountain (1984, ICE), 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 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 on The Hobbit they continued to publish the Middle-earth Role Playing Game a game licensed on both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings properties which combined elements from both works, between 1982 and 1999.

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

Games Workshop released a Battle of Five Armies (2005) tabletop wargame, designed by Rick Priestley using highly detailed 10 mm figures sculpted by Mark Harrison, based on Games Workshop's Warmaster rules and designed for the home player.

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 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 as it was said that clues to solve the game were to be found in the book, encouraging engagement with the text. The game won the Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year in 1983 and was responsible for popularising the phrase "Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold".

Sierra Entertainment published a platform game with action-RPG elements 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.

References

Tolkien, J. R. R.; Douglas A. Anderson (1988). The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

External links

The Hobbit is an extraordinary exciting tale

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 15:56:25 PDT (GMT -0700)
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