The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again

by Tolkien, J. R. R.

• ISBN13: 9780618134700
• ISBN10: 0618134700
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-09
• Publisher: Houghton Miff

Summary

For readers throughout the world, The Hobbit serves as an introduction to the enchanting world of Middle-earth, home of elves, wizards, dwarves, goblins, dragons, orcs and a host of other creatures depicted in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion -- tales that sprang from the mind of the most beloved author of all time, J.R.R. Tolkien. Newly expanded and completely redesigned, Douglas A. Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit is the definitive explication of the sources, characters, places, and things of J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless classic. Integrated with Anderson's notes and placed alongside the fully restored and corrected text of the original story are more than 150 illustrations showing visual interpretations of The Hobbit specific to many of the cultures that have come to know and love Tolkien's Middle-earth. Tolkien's original line drawings, maps and color paintings are also included, making this the most lavishly informative edition of The Hobbit available. The Annotated Hobbit shows how Tolkien worked as a writer, what his influences and interests were, and how these relate to the invented world of Middle-earth. It gives a valuable overview of Tolkien's life and the publishing history of The Hobbit, and explains how every feature of The Hobbit fits within the rest of Tolkien's invented world. Here we learn how Gollum's character was revised to accommodate the true nature of the One Ring, and we can read the full text of The Quest of Erebor, Gandalf's explanation of how he came to send Bilbo Baggins on his journey with the dwarves. Anderson also makes meaningful and often surprising connections to our own world and literary history -- from Beowulf to The Marvellous Land of Snergs, from the Brothers Grimm to C. S. Lewis.

Author Biography

J.R.R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892. After serving in World War I, he embarked on a distinguished career as a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. A fellow of Pembroke College from 1925 to 1945, a professor of English language and literature, and a fellow of Merton College from 1945 until his retirement, he became known as one of the finest philologists in the world. He is the beloved creator of Middle-earth and the author of the great modern classic The Hobbit, the prelude to his epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Other works set in Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien include The Silmarillion. Tolkien died in 1973, at the age of eighty-one.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	xi
Introduction	1	(28)
An Unexpected Party	29	(31)
Roast Mutton	60	(27)
A short Rest	87	(13)
Over Hill and Under Hill	100	(15)
Riddles in the Dark	115	(22)
Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire	137	(24)
Queer Lodgings	161	(30)
Flies and Spiders	191	(31)
Barrels out of Bond	222	(19)
A Warm Welcome	241	(14)
On the Doorstep	255	(12)
Inside Information	267	(22)
Not at Home	289	(13)
Fire and Water	302	(12)
The Gathering of the Clouds	314	(12)
A Thief in the Night	326	(7)
The Clouds Burst	333	(13)
The Return Journey	346	(9)
The Last Stage	355	(12)
Appendix A. The Quest of Erebor	367	(11)
Appendix B. The Runes	378	(2)
Bibliography	380	(19)
Map of Wilderland	399

Excerpts

Introduction Tolkien once said that his typical response upon reading a medieval work was not to want to embark on a critical or philological study of it, but instead to write a modern work in the same tradition. And similarly, to an interviewer in 1965, Tolkien said that he "hardly got through any fairy-stories without wanting to write one [himself]." These statements, in a broad sense, serve as a good entry point in studying Tolkien and his works. For with an understanding of Tolkien"s background and his literary interests there follows a greater appreciation of what he achieved in his best-known works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, the son of Arthur Reuel Tolkien, a bank manager, and Mabel Suffield. Both of his parents were from the Birmingham area in the Midlands of England. Arthur had proposed to Mabel while they both still lived in England, but soon afterward he obtained a post with the Bank of Africa, and their wedding took place in Cape Town. J.R.R. Tolkien, known as Ronald, was their first child; a second son, Hilary Arthur Reuel, was born two years after Ronald. In 1895, Mabel Tolkien returned to England with her two children, ostensibly for a short visit, but also because of concerns over young Ron- ald"s health. Arthur Tolkien, who had remained in South Africa, became ill in late 1895, and died soon afterward. Mabel stayed in England, raising her children near her own family in the Birmingham area. In 1900, Mabel converted to Roman Catholicism, much to the consternation of her Protestant relatives, who withdrew their support. Mabel struggled on her own, instructing her children in the Catholic religion. Her health faltered, and after she died in 1904, Father Francis Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory became the guardian of the two Tolkien boys. The boys were educated at King Edward"s School in Birmingham, where Ronald won a scholarship in 1903. Around 1910, Ronald met another orphan, a young woman named Edith Bratt who had rooms at the same boarding house where the Tolkien boys lived. A secret relationship developed between Ronald and Edith, but once it was discovered by their guardians, Ronald was forbidden to see or to speak to Edith until he reached the age of twenty-one. Tolkien went up to Exeter College, Oxford, in the autumn of 1911. He first read classics but soon found his interests leading him to study Comparative Philology as well as other languages, like Finnish, and to begin creating a personal language that he would later call Quenya or Elvish. In 1913, on his twenty-first birthday, Tolkien resumed his relationship with Edith Bratt. He took a Second Class in Honour Moderations, and owing to his bent for philology he achieved a First Class in English Language and Literature in June 1915. Immediately afterward he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers and trained as a soldier. Ronald and Edith were married on March 22, 1916, before Tolkien was sent to the front in France that summer. Tolkien spent some months in the trenches of the Somme, experiencing firsthand the horrors of World War I. Eventually he contracted trench fever, and he was returned to England, where he spent most of the remainder of the war. Ronald and Edith Tolkien"s first child, John Francis Reuel, was born in 1917. Near the end of the war Tolkien accepted a position on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary, then being compiled in Oxford. In 1920 he was appointed Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds, and the family moved north. A second son, Michael Hilary Reuel, was born in 1920. Tolkien"s first major professional publication, A Middle English Vocabulary, appeared in 1922. It was designed for use with Kenneth Sisam