This document provides a summary of J.R.R. Tolkien's life and work with a focus on the 80th anniversary of The Hobbit. It discusses Tolkien growing up in South Africa and England, his academic career studying languages, and his involvement in World War I which influenced his writing. It describes how he began telling the story of The Hobbit to his children in the 1930s and published it in 1937. The document also summarizes the origins and influences for The Hobbit, its writing process, themes and legacy, as well as its connection to Tolkien's later work The Lord of the Rings.

1. “There and Back Again”:
Celebrating The Hobbit’s
Eightieth Anniversary
David D. Oberhelman
W.P. Wood Professor of Library Service
Oklahoma State University Library

2. Life and Work of JRRT

3. JRRT in 1930s

4. JRRT Chronology
1892 – JRRT born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now South Africa), to Arthur and Mabel Tolkien, younger brother Hilary
1896 – Arthur dies, Mabel and boys move to Sarehole Mill outside of Birmingham, England
1900 – JRRT attends King Edward’s School, Birmingham
1904 – Mabel dies of diabetes, JRRT and Hilary become wards of Father Morgan, priest at Birmingham Oratory
1911 – JRRT begins studying language (Old English, Old Norse) at Exeter College, Oxford University; TCBS group formed
1914 – JRRT writes “Middle-earth” poem, “The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star”
1916 – JRRT and Edith marry; JRRT becomes Battalion Signaling Officer in World War I; Battle of the Somme; catches trench
fever and convalesces in hospital where he writes first lengthy Middle-earth MS; returns to Oxford and starts family
1920 – Begins work as Reader in English Language at Leeds University where he publishes academic works
1925 – Appointed Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford
1930s – Tells story of The Hobbit to his four children and writes/types it up intermittently
1932/33 – Inklings established; JRRT continues to write his Middle-earth narratives and ties Hobbit to his legendarium

5. JRRT Chronology, cont.
1936 –“Beowulf the Monsters, and the Critics” lecture
1937 –The Hobbit is published; Stanley Unwin convinces JRRT to begin a “Hobbit sequel” which becomes The
Lord of the Rings
1945 – JRRT becomes Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford; writing
writing LotR and showing drafts to Inklings and son Christopher
1954 – The Fellowship of the Ring published, then The Two Towers, and finally The Return of the King (1955)
1965 – After pirated American paperback, 2nd ed. of LotR comes out in paperback and “hippies” fall in love with
hobbits
1971 – Edith dies
1973 – JRRT dies
1977 – Christopher publishes The Silmarillion and goes on to publish many of his father’s drafts and early
versions of his legends (last one 2017).

6. JRRT in 1970s

7. The Hobbit Book

8. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

9. “All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting
School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task
forced on impecunious academics with children. On the blank leaf I
scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do
not know why.”
— Letter to W.H. Auden

10. Origins of “hobbit”
• Some suggested “hobgoblin” or “Hobberdy Dick”
• JRRT asserts he invented the word and the only English word that
influenced it was “hole”
• JRRT’s invented etymology: Holbytla or “hole-dwellers” (from Old
English)
• OED:
• “hobbet”/”hobbit” – a seed-basked, a local measure = 2½ bushels”
• “In the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973): one of an imaginary people, a small
variety of the human race, that gave themselves this name (meaning ‘hole-dweller’)
but were called by others halflings, since they were half the height of normal men.”

11. Victorian/Edwardian Sources of The Hobbit
• George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (and other
works)
• Fairy/Faerie tales such as Andrew Lang, Brothers Grimm
• Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows
• J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
• Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
• Edward Wyke Smith, The Marvellous Land of the Snergs

12. Norse/Germanic and Anglo-Saxon mythology
• Gandalf as the Norse god Odin
• Dwarves – dangerous and grand as in myth and tales of Brothers Grimm
(and unlike the cute dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
• Dwarf names (from the Norse poem Völuspá)
• Dragon with hoard (Fafnir in Volsung saga, Niebelungenlied)
• Riddle game in Old English myth
• Beowulf – Bilbo as an alternative to Beowulfian hero, Gollum as a Grendel
monster, Beorn as beo-wulf [bear], fighting the dragon and monsters

13. Writing of The Hobbit
• Several starts and stops (with the eagle’s, Durin’s Day)
• JRRT never seriously intended to publish the book as his previous
publications had all been very academic works aside from few poems
• Susan Dagnell from the Unwin & Allen publishing company urged him to
finish and showed MS to editor Stanley Unwin
• Stanley Unwin gave MS to his 10 year-old son Raynor for a review, and
accepted it for publication along with line drawing and watercolor
illustrations by the author
• JRRT began work on “sequel” after pressure from Stanley Unwin (later
Raynor)
• US edition published by Houghton Mifflin in 1938

14. Rainer Unwin Review

15. Tone of The Hobbit
“I think that The Hobbit can be seen to begin in what might be called a
more ‘whimsy’ mode, and in places even more facetious, and move
more steadily to a more serious or significant, and more consistent and
historical…But I regret much of it all the same”
—Letter to New Statesman Magazine

16. Tone of The Hobbit
“Tolkien doesn’t play with the kind of whimsy a lot of American fantasy
writers, such as E.B. White, did. . . . What Tolkien does in that book is
create a sense of learning in the characters. You have a character arc in
Bilbo that’s tied to the experience of a strange world, which was quite
new.”
—Farah Mendlesohn

17. Themes of The Hobbit
• Joseph Campbell: the hero’s journey – the departure, initiation (trials, “innermost
cave”/ordeal, and rewards), and the return
• Bilbo an unconventional hero who succeeds with “wits, as well as luck and a
magic ring”
• Bilbo leaving his comfort zone and discovering his inner adventurous (“Tookish”)
side
• William Howard Green: the mythic story of “dragon slaying” is a Jungian
archetype of the human journey to consciousness and individuation – “a journey
into maturity” for Bilbo

18. Themes of The Hobbit
• Desire to regain a lost homeland
• Pity (Bilbo with Gollum) and doing the right thing (Bilbo taking the
Arkenstone to break the stalement)
• Greed vs. benevolence: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song
above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world” (Thorin)

19. The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings
• Second edition published in 1951 with changes to make consistent
with LotR
• Bilbo’s magic ring becomes the key to the sequel, becomes the One
Ring of Sauron that must be destroyed in Mount Doom
• Bilbo’s heir Frodo becomes the focus of the story
• A new quest with a “Fellowship” of 9 vs. the 13 Dwarves and Bilbo
• 1951 Second edition changes to make The Hobbit consistent with LotR
• “Riddles in the Dark” changed so that Gollum does not offer up the ring.
• Conceit that the original account was Bilbo’s false story to show effects of the
One Ring upon him

20. The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings
• Elves become grander and Elrond assumes greater status
• Dwarves in search of other lost realms (Moria)
• Necromancer becomes Sauron
• LofR appendices include story of Gandalf meeting Thorin
• JRRT gives fuller account of the history and culture of hobbits and the
geography of the Shire (Hobbiton, etc.)
• Hobbits take on greater role as heroes

21. Before and After The Hobbit
• Other tales he told his children/books for children
• Father Christmas Letters
• Roverandom
• Mr Bliss
• Farmer Giles of Ham
• Smith of Wootton Major
• Bilbo appearances
• The Lord of the Rings
• “Bilbo’s Last Song” (poem)
• Other works edited by Christopher Tolkien
• The Silmarillion
• Unfinished Tales; History of Middle Earth series (12 vols.!)
• The Children of Hurin; Beren and Luthien

22. Legacy of The Hobbit
• Become the standard for children’s fantasy literature (as LotR for adult
fantasy)
• Influenced C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia
• Books with wizards and unlikely heroes: Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea
books; J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series; others (Christopher Paolini, etc.)
• Science fiction/fantasy films (Star Wars)
• Helped promote interest in Anglo-Saxon, Norse myth and literature in
popular culture (comics, writers such as Neil Gaiman)
• Added “hobbit” to the popular culture lexicon

23. Further Reading
• Anderson, Douglas A.. ed. The Annotated Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin,
2002.
• Croft, Janet Brennan. “Beyond The Hobbit.” World Literature Today
78.1 (2004): 67-70.
• Green, William Howard. The Hobbit: A Journey into Maturity.
Twayne Publishers, 1995
• Olsen, Cory. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2013.
• Rateliff, John. The History of the Hobbit. HarperCollins/Houghton
Mifflin, 2007. 2 volumes.

24. The Hobbit Illustrated

25. 1937 UK Dust Jacket – JRRT Artwork

26. Map of Wilderland

27. Thrór's Map

28. The Hill

29. Rivendell

30. Bilbo and the Eagles

31. Barrels out of Bond

32. Bilbo and Smaug

33. Trolls

34. Misty Mountains

35. Lake Town

36. Bag-End

37. 1942 UK Dust Jacket

38. Bilbo & Gandalf - Brothers Hildebrant (1970s)

39. Bilbo and Gollum – Alan Lee (1997)

40. Mirkwood– Alan Lee (1997)

41. The Hobbit on Film

42. The Hobbit Animated Film (1966)

43. Leonard Nimoy “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” (1967)

44. Rankin Bass Animated Hobbit (1977)

45. Peter Jackson Hobbit Trilogy (2012-2014)

46. “Far over the Misty Mountains” 1977 & 2012

47. My Hobbit & Tolkien Collection

48. “Thag you very buch!”