The History of The Hobbit

2007 nonfiction book about The Hobbit

The History of The Hobbit

* [[HarperCollins]]+(UK)
* [[Houghton+Mifflin]]+(US)

&rft.pages=905&rft.series=''The+History+of+The+Hobbit''">

First editions (UK)

Editor| John D. Rateliff
Author| J. R. R. Tolkien & John D. Rateliff
Illustrator| J. R. R. Tolkien
Cover artist| J. R. R. Tolkien
Language| English
Series| The History of The Hobbit
Genre| Literary studies
Publisher|

* HarperCollins (UK)
* Houghton Mifflin (US)

Publication date

| 2007
Media type| Print
Pages| 905

The History of The Hobbit is a two-volume study of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel The Hobbit. It was first published by HarperCollins in 2007. It contains Tolkien's unpublished drafts of the novel, with commentary by John D. Rateliff.[1] It details Tolkien's various revisions to The Hobbit, including abandoned revisions for the unpublished third edition of the work, intended for 1960, as well as previously unpublished original maps and illustrations drawn by Tolkien.[2]

The work provides the same sort of literary analysis of The Hobbit that Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume The History of Middle-earth provides for The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. In Rateliff's view, the work is complementary to Douglas A. Anderson's 1988 work The Annotated Hobbit, which presents and comments upon a single text of the novel.

## Content

[edit]

A page from Thorin's letter to Bilbo, detailing the contractual terms and conditions, handwritten in Tolkien's invented Tengwar script. The illustration is one of many in Rateliff's book that Tolkien had created to support his narrative.[3]

### Texts

[edit]

The History of The Hobbit consists of a collection of Tolkien's draft versions of The Hobbit, together with John Rateliff's commentary upon them. Rateliff organises the material into five phases of writing.

Phase 1 contains "The Pryftan Fragment" (6 pages, named for its early name for Smaug the dragon, representing the second half of Chapter 1) and "The Bladorthin Typescript" (12 pages, named for its early name for Gandalf the wizard, representing the first half of Chapter 1, and overlapping with the Fragment).[3]

Most of the book is filled with a composite text of the manuscripts of phases 2 and 3 of J.R.R. Tolkien's drafting of The Hobbit, phase 2 being a nearly complete draft (continuing from the Typescript) and phase 3 being mainly a fair copy of that.[3] Phase 3 consists of two typed versions (the incomplete "First Typescript" made by Tolkien, and the complete "Second Typescript" made by his son Michael after he had injured one of his hands) of Chapters 1 to 12 and a piece of Chapter 14, all based on the phase 2 manuscript. Tolkien found his son's typescript inaccurate and returned to the "First Typescript", correcting it in manuscript and sending it to the printers.[3]

Phase 4 is Tolkien's rewritten version of the novel, ten years after its publication, in 1947. Phase 5 is his 1960 rewriting of Chapters 1 and 2, attempting to explain Gandalf's selection of Bilbo as the story's burglar.[3]

### Other materials

[edit]

The book has numerous illustrations, including both materials that Tolkien intended to use to support the text (maps, Bilbo's contract written in Tengwar and supposedly preserved after being left by Thorin on the mantelpiece in Bag End, paintings), and images of Tolkien's manuscripts and letters.[3] Rateliff has added detailed notes and appendices.[3]

## Relationship to other literary studies

[edit]

### The History of Middle-earth

[edit]

Navigable diagram of Tolkien's legendarium. The History of The Hobbit stands alongside Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume The History of Middle-earth.

When Christopher Tolkien began publishing The History of Middle-earth, a 12-volume series documenting his father's writing process in the creation of Middle-earth, with texts dating from the 1910s to the 1970s, he made a conscious decision not to issue a volume detailing the creation of The Hobbit. Instead, it focuses on Tolkien's legendarium, spanning the stories of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.[4]

The task of creating a history of The Hobbit was given to Taum Santoski in the 1980s. Santoski had connections to the Marquette University collection of Tolkien material, which is where the original manuscripts reside. He died in 1991, and ultimately the task passed to the Inklings scholar John D. Rateliff. The History of The Hobbit is in a similar vein to the "literary archaeology" of Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth.[5]

### The Annotated Hobbit

[edit]

Rateliff states in the introduction that The History of The Hobbit is intended to complement Douglas A. Anderson's 1988 The Annotated Hobbit. That book is a single text of Tolkien's novel, accompanied by Anderson's marginal notes, with over 150 illustrations by Tolkien and other artists. In contrast, Rateliff's book has three goals: to present and explicate the earliest manuscript of Tolkien's novel; to document the novel's close connection to The Silmarillion legendarium; and to explain what Tolkien was doing in the 1947 and 1960 revisions, the latter abortively seeking to harmonise the novel with The Lord of the Rings.[6]

## Reception

[edit]

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey welcomed the book, noting that until its appearance, the best-known history of The Hobbit was contained in Humphrey Carpenter's 1977 biography of Tolkien, which was clear, famous, and left several questions unanswered. Rateliff's account goes into much greater detail. Shippey commented that the two volumes "lead us into the very engine-room of [Tolkien's] creation."[3] He was surprised to discover that Tolkien was initially "rather unconcerned about names"; for instance, Thorin's grandfather, who made the map of the Lonely Mountain, was initially called "Fimbulfambi" rather than "the appropriately dwarvish name Thror". "Fimbulfambi" is Eddic, but it means "great fool, a person who cannot make conversation".[3] Shippey discussed whether the text of The Hobbit could now be described as final, given all the variants that Rateliff documents, and noting Tolkien's struggles with the mistaken corrections made by proof-readers and copy-editors; he concluded that it was possibly now time to leave the text alone. He added that they "will take a great deal of digesting", providing "vital primary evidence for scholarship" and "great entertainment" for Tolkien fans.[3]

Jason Fisher, reviewing the book for Mythlore, said it was worth the very long wait (from 1991), describing the account as "riveting". The book had three purposes: to present the earliest manuscript version; to show that it was, pace Christopher Tolkien, connected to the tradition of The Silmarillion; and to examine both Tolkien's revision of 1947 giving the familiar text, and his abandoned 1960 rewrite, which would have refashioned the whole book "to bring it into greater harmony with the mood, language, and geography of The Lord of the Rings." Fisher describes the books' layout as "meticulously systematic" and comparable to Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-earth. He finds the book rich in "wonderful surprises", among them that Thorin Oakenshield would have been Gandalf the Dwarf, while the Wizard of that name would have been called Bladorthin; and Tolkien considered having Bilbo Baggins the hobbit navigate Mirkwood using a ball of rolled-up spider silk "like Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth". He enjoyed, too, the appendices with previously unpublished illustrations, including a facsimile of the Dwarves' letter which Bilbo found under the clock on his mantelpiece. For Fisher, however, the most interesting addition was the unfinished 1960 rewrite of the first three chapters, adding detail of passing through Bree, for example, but losing much of the humour. In his view, it was just as well that Tolkien abandoned the attempt. He was more critical of Rateliff'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.[6]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Bertenstam, Åke (1 September 2002) [1996]. "A chronological bibliography of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien".
2. ^ "History of the Hobbit: An essential resource book for the forthcoming movie adaptation of The Hobbit" (Press release). Tolkien Library. 13 October 2006.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shippey, Tom (2008). "The History of The Hobbit (review)". Tolkien Studies. 5 (1): 214–221\. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0027. S2CID 171012230.
4. ^ Olsen, Corey. "The History of Middle-earth". The Tolkien Professor. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
5. ^ "Books by J.R.R.Tolkien - The History of Middle-earth". Tolkien Library. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
6. ^ a b Fisher, Jason (2008). "Review (The History of The Hobbit. Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-End by John D. Rateliff)". Mythlore. 26 (3/4 (101/102)): 206–212\. JSTOR 26814596.

## External links

[edit]

* Interview with John D. Rateliff at Tolkien Library

* v
* t
* e

J. R. R. Tolkien

* Bibliography
* Letters

Poetry
and songs|

* Songs for the Philologists (1936)
* "Bagme Bloma"
* The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953)
* "A Walking Song" (1954)
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
* "Errantry"
* "Fastitocalon"
* "The Sea-Bell"
* "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
* The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
* Bilbo's Last Song (1974)
* The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009)
* The Fall of Arthur (2013)
* The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien (2024)
* List of Tolkien's alliterative verse

Fiction|

* The Hobbit (1937)
* "Leaf by Niggle" (1947)
* The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945)
* Farmer Giles of Ham (1949)
* The Lord of the Rings:
* The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
* The Two Towers (1954)
* The Return of the King (1955)
* Tree and Leaf (1964)
* The Tolkien Reader (1966)
* Smith of Wootton Major (1967)

Posthumous
fiction|

* The Father Christmas Letters (1976)
* The Silmarillion (1977)
* Unfinished Tales (1980)
* Mr. Bliss (1982)
* The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996)
* The Book of Lost Tales
* The Lays of Beleriand
* The Shaping of Middle-earth
* The Lost Road and Other Writings
* The History of The Lord of the Rings
* Morgoth's Ring
* The War of the Jewels
* The Peoples of Middle-earth
* Roverandom (1998)
* The Children of Húrin (2007)
* The History of The Hobbit (2007)
* The Story of Kullervo (2015)
* Beren and Lúthien (2017)
* The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
* The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)
* The Fall of Númenor (2022)

Academic
works|

* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925)
* "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925)
* "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929)
* "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34)
* "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
* "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)
* "On Fairy-Stories" (1939)
* Eucatastrophe
* "On Translating Beowulf" (1940)
* Sir Orfeo (1944)
* Ancrene Wisse (1962)
* "English and Welsh" (1963)
* Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)

Posthumous
academic|

* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975)
* Exodus (1981)
* Finn and Hengest (1982)
* The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983)
* Beowulf and the Critics (2002)
* Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014)
* A Secret Vice (2016)

Scholars
(works)|

| Biographers|

* Humphrey Carpenter
* J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977, authorized biography)
* John Garth
* Tolkien and the Great War
* The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
* Catherine McIlwaine
* Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
* Charles Moseley

|

Christian|

* Stratford Caldecott
* Matthew T. Dickerson
* Colin Duriez
* Peter Kreeft
* Holly Ordway
* Joseph Pearce
* Fleming Rutledge
* Ralph C. Wood

Literary
critics|

* Douglas A. Anderson
* Nicholas Birns
* Bradley J. Birzer
* Janice Bogstad & Philip Kaveny
* Picturing Tolkien
* David Bratman
* Janet Brennan Croft
* Tolkien on Film
* Patrick Curry
* Bradford Lee Eden
* Dimitra Fimi
* Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
* Jason Fisher
* Verlyn Flieger
* Interrupted Music
* A Question of Time
* Splintered Light
* Michael Foster
* Nick Groom
* Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull
* J. R. R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography
* The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
* J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
* The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
* Randel Helms
* Thomas Honegger
* Charles A. Huttar
* Paul H. Kocher
* Master of Middle-Earth
* Stuart D. Lee
* The Keys of Middle-earth
* Jared Lobdell
* A Tolkien Compass
* John D. Rateliff
* Robin Anne Reid
* Brian Rosebury
* Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon
* Amy H. Sturgis
* Anna Vaninskaya
* Richard C. West
* Elizabeth Whittingham
* Rose Zimbardo
* Understanding The Lord of the Rings

Linguists|

* Anthony Appleyard
* Helge Fauskanger
* Carl F. Hostetter
* Tom Loback
* David Salo
* Arden R. Smith
* Allan Turner

Medievalists,
Classicists|

* Marjorie Burns
* Perilous Realms
* Jane Chance
* Tolkien and the Invention of Myth
* Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'
* Michael D. C. Drout
* J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
* Jonathan Evans
* Vincent Ferré
* Gergely Nagy
* Tom Shippey
* J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
* The Road to Middle-Earth
* Elizabeth Solopova
* Sandra Ballif Straubhaar
* Hamish Williams
* Tolkien and the Classical World

Popular|

* Lin Carter
* Robert Foster
* Glen GoodKnight
* Michael Martinez
* Charles Noad
* J. E. A. Tyler

Related|

* Family
* Francis Xavier Morgan
* Influences
* Artwork
* Languages constructed by Tolkien
* Impact of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings
* Inklings
* Milton Waldman
* Mythopoeic Society
* Elvish Linguistic Fellowship
* Tolkien's impact on fantasy
* Tolkien and the modernists
* Tolkien Estate
* Tolkien fandom
* Tolkien fan fiction
* Tolkien Gateway
* The Tolkien Society
* Awards
* Memorials
* Reception
* Tolkien research
* Mythlore
* Tolkien Studies
* Works inspired by Tolkien
* Tolkien (biographical film)
* Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album)
* Language and Human Nature
* The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary

* v
* t
* e

Middle-earth

* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Bibliography
* Canon
* Legendarium
* Outline

Works|

| In Tolkien's
lifetime|

* The Hobbit (1937)
* The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)
* The Fellowship of the Ring
* "The Shadow of the Past"
* "The Council of Elrond"
* The Two Towers
* The Return of the King
* "The Scouring of the Shire"
* "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)

|

Posthumous|

* The Silmarillion (1977)
* "Ainulindalë"
* Unfinished Tales (1980)
* The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
* Bilbo's Last Song (1990)
* The three "Great Tales"
* The Children of Húrin (2007)
* Beren and Lúthien (2017)
* The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
* The Fall of Númenor (2022)

History of
composition|

| History of
Middle-earth|

* [1–2] The Book of Lost Tales (1983–84)
* Ælfwine
* [3] The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
* [4] The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
* [5] The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
* The Etymologies
* Lhammas
* [6–9] The History of The Lord of the Rings (1988–92)
* The Notion Club Papers
* [10] Morgoth's Ring (1993)
* [11] The War of the Jewels (1994)
* [12] The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)

|

Others|

* John D. Rateliff
* The History of The Hobbit (2007)
* Carl F. Hostetter
* The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Fictional
universe|

| Peoples,
monsters|

* Ainur
* Maiar
* Balrogs
* Wizards
* Valar
* Dragons
* Ancalagon
* Smaug
* Dwarves
* Eagles
* Elves
* Half-elven
* Noldor
* Sundering
* Ents
* Hobbits
* Men
* Beornings
* Drúedain
* Dúnedain
* Orcs
* Trolls

|

Characters|

* First and Second Ages
* Celebrimbor
* Eärendil and Elwing
* Elendil
* Fëanor
* Fingolfin
* Finwë and Míriel
* Gil-galad
* Húrin
* Isildur
* Lúthien and Beren
* Melian
* Morgoth
* Thingol
* Tuor and Idril
* Túrin Turambar
* Ungoliant
* Third Age
* Elrond
* Galadriel
* Gandalf
* Glorfindel
* Goldberry
* Gollum
* Saruman
* Sauron
* Tom Bombadil

Places|

* First and Second Ages
* Beleriand
* Númenor
* Valinor
* Third Age
* Bree
* Esgaroth
* Gondor
* Harad
* Isengard
* Lonely Mountain
* Lothlórien
* Mirkwood
* Mordor
* Moria
* Rivendell
* Rohan
* The Shire
* Bag End

Objects|

* Mithril
* Palantír
* Red Book of Westmarch
* Rings of Power
* One Ring
* Silmarils
* Two Trees of Valinor
* List of weapons and armour

Analysis|

| Elements|

* Artwork
* Family trees
* Heraldry
* Languages
* Adûnaic
* Black Speech
* Elvish
* Quenya
* Sindarin
* Khuzdul
* Valarin
* Westron
* Maps
* Tolkien's poetry
* Scripts
* Cirth
* Sarati
* Tengwar

|

Themes|

* Anachronism
* Ancestry as guide to character
* Architecture
* Christianity
* Cosmology
* Round World dilemma
* Death and immortality
* Decline and fall
* Dreams and visions
* Economy
* England
* Environmentalism
* Evil
* First World War
* Forests
* Frame stories
* Hell
* Heroism
* Light
* Luck and fate
* Magic
* Mental illness
* Modernism
* Moral dilemma
* Music
* Naming of weapons
* Northern courage
* Old Straight Road
* Paganism
* Plants
* Psychological journeys
* Quests
* Sound and language
* Time
* Trees

Literary|

* Tolkien's impact on fantasy
* Influences
* Beowulf
* Celtic
* Classical world
* Finnish language and literature
* Medieval
* Modern
* William Morris
* Norse
* Philology
* Shakespeare
* Prose style
* Ambiguity
* A mythology for England

Geographic|

* The Atlas of Middle-earth
* Journeys of Frodo
* A Map of Middle-earth

Adaptations,
legacy|

| Artists|

* Pauline Baynes
* Cor Blok
* Anke Eißmann
* Brothers Hildebrandt
* Jenny Dolfen
* Mary Fairburn
* Donato Giancola
* John Howe
* Tove Jansson
* Alexander Korotich
* Alan Lee
* Tom Loback
* Margrethe II of Denmark
* Ted Nasmith

|

Composers|

* Bo Hansson
* Johan de Meij
* Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings
* Howard Shore
* Music of The Lord of the Rings film series
* Music of The Hobbit film series
* Music of The Rings of Power TV series
* Blind Guardian
* Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Settings|

* Donald Swann
* The Road Goes Ever On
* Poems and Songs of Middle Earth
* The Tolkien Ensemble
* An Evening in Rivendell
* A Night in Rivendell
* At Dawn in Rivendell
* Leaving Rivendell

Other media|

* Impact
* Middle-earth Enterprises
* Works inspired by Tolkien
* Fan fiction
* Film
* Calendars
* Video games
* Things named after Tolkien and his works

Literary
criticism|

* The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
* A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
* Interrupted Music
* Master of Middle-Earth
* Picturing Tolkien
* A Question of Time
* J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
* The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
* J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
* The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
* Perilous Realms
* The Road to Middle-Earth
* Splintered Light
* Tolkien and the Invention of Myth
* Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'
* Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings
* A Tolkien Compass
* Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
* Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
* Tolkien's Legendarium
* Tolkien and the Great War
* The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
* The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary

* v
* t
* e

The Hobbit

* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Hobbit (word)
* Legendarium
* frame stories
* Middle-earth
* artwork
* Beowulf
* maps
* naming of weapons
* psychological journeys
* runes

Editions|

* English-language editions
* The Annotated Hobbit
* Translations

Characters|

* Bilbo Baggins
* Wizards
* Gandalf
* Radagast
* Dwarves
* Thorin Oakenshield
* Balin
* Goblins
* Trolls
* Gollum
* Eagles
* Beorn
* Elves
* Elrond
* the Elvenking
* Smaug
* Bard the Bowman
* The Necromancer
* Wargs

Places|

* Eriador
* The Shire
* Rivendell
* Rhovanion
* Mirkwood
* Esgaroth
* Lonely Mountain

Related works|

* The History of The Hobbit
* Bilbo's Last Song
* There and Back Again (novel)
* The Hobbit pinball machine
* The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game
* "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"

Adaptations|

| Radio|

* The Hobbit (1968)

|

Film|

* Gene Deitch's The Hobbit (1967)
* Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit (1977)
* Soviet The Hobbit (1985)
* Peter Jackson's series
* An Unexpected Journey (2012)
* The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
* The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
* original characters

Music|

* An Unexpected Journey (soundtrack) (2012)
* The Desolation of Smaug (soundtrack) (2013)
* The Battle of the Five Armies (soundtrack) (2014)

Video games|

* The Hobbit (1982)
* The Hobbit (2003)
* Lego The Hobbit (2014)

* Category

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