159-600: Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien . About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, they live barefooted, and traditionally dwell in homely underground houses which have windows, built into the sides of hills, though others live in houses. Their feet have naturally tough leathery soles (so they do not need shoes) and are covered on top with curly hair. Hobbits first appeared in
318-405: A Bildungsroman rather than a traditional quest. The Jungian concept of individuation is also reflected through this theme of growing maturity and capability, with the author contrasting Bilbo's personal growth against the arrested development of the dwarves. Thus, while Gandalf exerts a parental influence over Bilbo early on, it is Bilbo who gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact
477-533: A Warwickshire village of about the period of the Diamond Jubilee [of Queen Victoria, in 1897] ". Shippey described hobbit culture, complete with tobacco and potatoes, as a "creative anachronism" on Tolkien's part. In his view, anachronism is the "essential function" of hobbits, enabling Tolkien to "bridge the gap" by mediating between readers' lives in the modern world and the dangerous ancient world of Middle-earth. Fimi comments that this applies both to
636-507: A eucatastrophe . The screenwriter Brad Johnson, writing in Script , argues that this last deus ex machina instance is a complete surprise to the audience, and undesirable as the sudden appearance of the Eagles "takes the audience out of the scene emotionally". Tolkien was aware of this problem, recognising the risky nature of the mechanism; in one of his letters , he wrote: The Eagles are
795-462: A leap year , to ensure that the calendar remained in time with the seasons. Hobbits traditionally live in "hobbit-holes", or smials , underground homes found in hillsides, downs, and banks, though others lived in houses. It has been suggested that the soil or ground of the Shire consists of loess and that this facilitates the construction of hobbit-holes. Loess is a yellow soil, which would explain
954-459: A 1955 letter to W. H. Auden , Tolkien recollects that he began The Hobbit one day early in the 1930s. While he was marking School Certificate papers, he found a blank page. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." By late 1932 he had finished the story and then lent the manuscript to several friends, including C. S. Lewis and a student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths. In 1936, when Griffiths
1113-483: A background of forest and distant mountains. He dies with the work incomplete, undone by his imperfectly generous heart: "it made him uncomfortable more often than it made him do anything". After discipline in Purgatory , however, Niggle finds himself in the very landscape depicted by his painting which he is now able to finish with the assistance of a neighbour who obstructed him during life. The picture complete, Niggle
1272-481: A binding, but Tolkien objected to several elements. Through several iterations, the final design ended up as mostly the author's. The spine shows runes: two " þ " ( Thráin and Thrór) runes and one " d " (door). The front and back covers were mirror images of each other, with an elongated dragon characteristic of Tolkien's style stamped along the lower edge, and with a sketch of the Misty Mountains stamped along
1431-478: A blank piece of paper: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". The term "hobbit", however, has real antecedents in modern English. One is a fact that Tolkien admitted: the title of Sinclair Lewis 's 1922 novel Babbitt , about a "complacent American businessman" who goes through a journey of some kind of self-discovery, facing "near-disgrace"; the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey observes that there are some parallels here with Bilbo's own journey. According to
1590-519: A boy by Samuel Rutherford Crockett 's historical novel The Black Douglas and of basing the Necromancer— Sauron —on its villain, Gilles de Retz . Incidents in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are similar in narrative and style to the novel, and its overall style and imagery have been suggested as having had an influence on Tolkien. The Tolkien scholar Mark T. Hooker has catalogued
1749-747: A century after the Harfoots did, and settled in the pre-existing Harfoot villages of the Bree-land. Never very numerous, the Fallohides intermixed with and were largely absorbed by the Harfoots during this time, though several prominent families such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland had a substantial Fallohide descent, unlike many of the people that they led. After about four centuries, a large expedition of hobbits migrated westward from Bree-land led by
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#17327805321111908-535: A company of thirteen dwarves . Thorin Oakenshield is the proud, pompous head of the company of dwarves and heir to the destroyed dwarvish kingdom under the Lonely Mountain . Smaug is a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarvish kingdom of Thorin's grandfather and sleeps upon the vast treasure. The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of
2067-421: A cup from the dragon's hoard, rousing him to wrath—an incident directly mirroring Beowulf and an action entirely determined by traditional narrative patterns. As Tolkien wrote, "The episode of the theft arose naturally (and almost inevitably) from the circumstances. It is difficult to think of any other way of conducting the story at this point. I fancy the author of Beowulf would say much the same." The name of
2226-554: A dangerous 'machine'. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G[andalf] by Saruman incredible, and spoils the account of his escape". Shippey notes that throughout The Lord of the Rings Tolkien carefully avoided direct reference to Christianity, so as not to make
2385-597: A field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much. In their earliest folk tales , hobbits appear to have lived in Rhovanion , in the Valley of Anduin , between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains . According to The Lord of the Rings , they had lost the genealogical details of how they are related to
2544-462: A gap in the ancient dragon's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruders, flies off to destroy the town. A thrush overhears Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and tells Lake-town resident Bard. Smaug wreaks havoc on the town, until Bard shoots an arrow into the chink in Smaug's armour , killing the dragon. When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds
2703-513: A half centuries before the founding of the Shire in Third Age 1601). Tolkien coined the term "Harfoot" as analogous to "hairfoot". The Fallohides were the least numerous, and the second group to enter Eriador. They were generally fair-haired, and taller and slimmer than other Hobbits. While the other two types of hobbit were on average about three and a half feet tall, Fallohides were closer on average to four feet. They were more adventurous than
2862-511: A handful of children's books that have been accepted into mainstream literature, alongside Jostein Gaarder 's Sophie's World (1991) and J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series (1997–2007). Tolkien intended The Hobbit as a "fairy-story" and wrote it in a tone suited to addressing children; he said later that the book was not specifically written for children, but had rather been created out of his interest in mythology and legend. Many of
3021-651: A lengthy series of parallels between The Hobbit and Jules Verne 's 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth . These include, among other things, a hidden runic message and a celestial alignment that direct the adventurers to the goals of their quests. Tolkien's portrayal of goblins in The Hobbit was particularly influenced by George MacDonald 's The Princess and the Goblin . However, MacDonald's influence on Tolkien
3180-565: A letter from Tolkien to W. H. Auden , one "probably ... unconscious" inspiration was Edward Wyke Smith 's 1927 children's book The Marvellous Land of Snergs . Tolkien described the Snergs as "a race of people only slightly taller than the average table but broad in the shoulders and [who] have the strength of ten men." Another possible origin emerged in 1977 when the Oxford English Dictionary announced that it had found
3339-496: A linguistic shifting in level from the inanimate to animate. Tolkien saw the idea of animism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth: "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them the whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'." As in plot and setting, Tolkien brings his literary theories to bear in forming characters and their interactions. He portrays Bilbo as
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#17327805321113498-485: A list of ghostly beings in The Denham Tracts (1895), though these bear no similarity to Tolkien's Hobbits. Scholars have noted Tolkien's denial of a relationship with the word " rabbit ", pointing to several lines of evidence to the contrary. Hobbits are modern, unlike the heroic ancient-style cultures of Gondor and Rohan , with familiar things like umbrellas, matches, and clocks. As such they mediate between
3657-453: A man who can assume bear form; and Bard the Bowman , a grim but honourable archer of Lake-town . Gandalf tricks Bilbo Baggins into hosting a party for Thorin Oakenshield and his band of twelve dwarves (Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur), who go over their plans to reclaim their ancient home, Lonely Mountain , and its vast treasure from
3816-441: 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, while 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 engage each other, rather than
3975-527: A new type of monster or threat as Bilbo progresses through the landscape. Bilbo gains a new level of maturity, competence, and wisdom by accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey, and adventurous sides of his nature and applying his wits and common sense. The story reaches its climax in the Battle of Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict. Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of
4134-645: A painting by the Scottish ornithological artist Archibald Thorburn of an immature golden eagle , which Christopher found for him in Thomas Coward 's 1919 book The Birds of the British Isles and Their Eggs . The Great Eagles appeared in "The Fall of Gondolin", the first tale about Middle-earth that Tolkien wrote in the late 1910s. In Tolkien's early writings, the eagles were distinguished from other birds: common birds could keep aloft only within
4293-438: A part. The publisher was encouraged by the book's critical and financial success and, therefore, requested a sequel. As Tolkien's work progressed on its successor , The Lord of the Rings , he made retrospective accommodations for it in The Hobbit . These few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition. Further editions followed with minor emendations, including those reflecting Tolkien's changing concept of
4452-556: A party of Dwarves seeks to recover an ancient treasure from the hoard of a dragon. They are again central to The Lord of the Rings , an altogether darker tale, where Bilbo's younger cousin Frodo sets out from the Shire to destroy the Ring that Bilbo had brought home. The Tolkien critic Paul H. Kocher notes that Tolkien's literary techniques require readers to view hobbits as like humans, especially when placed under moral pressure to survive
4611-668: A sense of humour. Tolkien achieves balance of humour and danger through other means as well, as seen in the foolishness and Cockney dialect of the trolls and in the drunkenness of the elven captors. The general form—that of a journey into strange lands, told in a light-hearted mood and interspersed with songs—may be following the model of The Icelandic Journals by William Morris , an important literary influence on Tolkien. Tolkien's works show many influences from Norse mythology , reflecting his lifelong passion for those stories and his academic interest in Germanic philology . The Hobbit
4770-581: A small town called Hobbiton, which in The Lord of the Rings is identified as being part of a larger rural region called the Shire , the homeland of the hobbits in the northwest of Middle-earth. Some also live in a region east of the Shire, Bree-land , where they co-exist with Men . The origins of the name and idea of "Hobbits" have been debated; literary antecedents include Sinclair Lewis 's 1922 novel Babbitt , and Edward Wyke Smith's 1927 The Marvellous Land of Snergs . The word "hobbit" also appears in
4929-695: A veteran may well be summed up by Bilbo's comment: "Victory after all, I suppose! Well, it seems a very gloomy business." On its publication in October 1937, The Hobbit was met with almost unanimously favourable reviews from publications both in the UK and the US, including The Times , Catholic World and New York Post . C. S. Lewis , friend of Tolkien (and later author of The Chronicles of Narnia between 1949 and 1954), writing in The Times reports: The truth
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5088-399: A war that threatens to devastate their land. Frodo becomes in some ways the symbolic representation of the conscience of hobbits, a point made explicitly in the story " Leaf by Niggle " which Tolkien wrote at the same time as the first nine chapters of The Lord of the Rings . Niggle is a painter struggling against the summons of death to complete his one great canvas, a picture of a tree with
5247-432: Is "ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men" in an unnamed fantasy world . The world is shown on the endpaper map as "Western Lands" westward and " Wilderland " as the east. Originally this world was self-contained, but as Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings , he decided these stories could fit into the legendarium he had been working on privately for decades. The Hobbit and The Lord of
5406-613: Is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien . It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book is recognized as a classic in children's literature and is one of the best-selling books of all time , with over 100 million copies sold. The Hobbit
5565-477: Is a motif explicitly borrowed from Morris. The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns writes that Bilbo's character and adventures match many details of Morris's expedition in Iceland. She comments, for instance, that the humorous drawings of Morris riding through the wilds of Iceland by his friend the artist Edward Burne-Jones can serve well as models for Bilbo on his adventures. Tolkien wrote of being impressed as
5724-412: Is best known for his novels about his invented Middle-earth , The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , and for the posthumously published The Silmarillion which provides a more mythical narrative about earlier ages. He invented several peoples for Middle-earth, including Elves , Dwarves , Hobbits , Orcs , Trolls , and Eagles, among others. A devout Roman Catholic , he described The Lord of
5883-511: Is free to journey to the distant mountains which represent the highest stage of his spiritual development. Thus, upon recovery from the wound inflicted by the Witch-King of Angmar on Weathertop , Gandalf speculates that the hobbit Frodo "may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can". Similarly, as Frodo nears Mount Doom he casts aside weapons and refuses to fight others with physical force: "For him struggles for
6042-576: Is illustrated with many black-and-white drawings taken from translations of the story into some 25 languages. Tolkien's use of runes, both as decorative devices and as magical signs within the story, has been cited as a major cause for the popularization of runes within " New Age " and esoteric literature, stemming from Tolkien's popularity with the elements of counter-culture in the 1970s. The Hobbit takes cues from narrative models of children's literature , as shown by its omniscient narrator and characters that young children can relate to, such as
6201-581: Is no exception to this; the work shows influences from northern European literature, myths and languages, especially from the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda . Examples include the names of the dwarves, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Dwalin, Balin , Dain, Nain, and Thorin Oakenshield, along with Gandalf which was a dwarf-name in the Norse. But while their names are Norse,
6360-435: Is precisely what the eagles do bring them for supper". In Norse mythology , eagles were associated with the god Odin ; for example, he escapes from Jotunheim back to Asgard as an eagle. Burns remarks the similarity with Gandalf, who repeatedly escapes by riding on an eagle. She comments that Tolkien's Eagles, like his Dwarves, Dragons, and Trolls, all signal Norse influence on his stories. Burns notes that Tolkien uses
6519-640: Is reminiscent of the god Odin in Norse mythology . Others have seen Biblical echoes , especially when the Eagle-messenger sings of the final victory to Faramir in phrases reminiscent of Psalm 24 . J. R. R. Tolkien was an English author and philologist of ancient Germanic languages , specialising in Old English ; he spent much of his career as a professor at the University of Oxford . He
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6678-503: Is set in Middle-earth and follows home-loving Bilbo Baggins , the hobbit of the title, who joins the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves of Thorin's Company , on a quest to reclaim the dwarves' home and treasure from the dragon Smaug . Bilbo's journey takes him from his peaceful rural surroundings into more sinister territory. The story is told in the form of a picaresque or episodic quest ; several chapters introduce
6837-402: Is that in this book a number of good things, never before united, have come together: a fund of humour, an understanding of children, and a happy fusion of the scholar's with the poet's grasp of mythology... The professor has the air of inventing nothing. He has studied trolls and dragons at first hand and describes them with that fidelity that is worth oceans of glib "originality." Lewis compares
6996-410: Is the hair on their heads) and have leathery soles, so Hobbits hardly ever wear shoes. Hobbits are not quite as stocky as the similarly sized dwarves , but still tend to be stout, with slightly pointed ears. Tolkien clarified their appearance in a 1938 letter to his American publisher: I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in
7155-431: Is with rabbit , one that Tolkien "emphatically rejected", although the word appears in The Hobbit in connection with other characters' opinions of Bilbo in several places. Bilbo compares himself to a rabbit when he is with the eagle that carries him; the eagle , too, tells Bilbo not to be "frightened like a rabbit". The giant bear-man Beorn teases Bilbo and jokes that "little bunny is getting nice and fat again", while
7314-564: The Ancrene Wisse (which Tolkien had written on in 1929), and a Christian understanding of Beowulf . Shippey comments that Bilbo is nothing like a king, and that Chance's talk of "types" just muddies the waters, though he agrees with her that there are "self-images of Tolkien" throughout his fiction; and she is right, too, in seeing Middle-earth as a balance between creativity and scholarship, "Germanic past and Christian present". The overcoming of greed and selfishness has been seen as
7473-674: The Big People . Still, Tolkien clearly states in "Concerning Hobbits" that hobbits are not technically a distinct race from Men, the way that Elves or Dwarves are, but branched off from other humans in the distant past of the Elder Days. Many eons later, but still early in the Third Age, the ancient hobbits lived in the valley of the Anduin River , close by the Éothéod , the ancestors of the Rohirrim. This led to some contact between
7632-453: The Eagles or Great Eagles , are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles , but are much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms (55 m; 180 ft). Elsewhere, the Eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations. Scholars have noticed that
7791-561: The Indonesian island of Flores in 2004. The fossils, of a species named Homo floresiensis after the island on which the remains were found, were informally dubbed "Hobbits" by their discoverers in a series of articles published in the scientific journal Nature . The excavated skeletons reveal a hominid that (like a Hobbit) grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child and had proportionately larger feet than modern humans. The Hobbit The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
7950-418: The Misty Mountains , they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground . Although Gandalf kills the goblin king and rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then encounters Gollum , who engages him in a game, each posing a riddle until one of them cannot solve it. If Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him
8109-680: The War of Wrath at the end of the First Age . In The Silmarillion it is recounted that after the appearance of winged dragons , "all the great birds of heaven" gathered under the leadership of Thorondor to Eärendil , and destroyed the majority of the dragons in an aerial battle. On the island of Númenor in the Second Age , three Eagles guarded the summit of the holy mountain Meneltarma, appearing whenever anyone approached it, and staying in
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#17327805321118268-437: The nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle . His creative endeavours at this time also included letters from Father Christmas to his children—illustrated manuscripts that featured warring gnomes and goblins , and a helpful polar bear —alongside the creation of elven languages and an attendant mythology, including The Book of Lost Tales , which he had been creating since 1917. These works all saw posthumous publication. In
8427-471: The " Doctor Dolittle Theme" in The History of The Hobbit , and cites the multitude of talking animals as indicative of this theme. These sapient beings include ravens, a thrush, spiders and the dragon Smaug, alongside the anthropomorphic goblins and elves. Patrick Curry notes that animism is also found in Tolkien's other works, and mentions the "roots of mountains" and "feet of trees" in The Hobbit as
8586-575: The 16th century, so Tolkien invented a calque made of English words. Donald O'Brien, writing in Mythlore , notes, too, that Aragorn 's description of Frodo 's priceless mithril mail -shirt, "here's a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven -princeling in", is a "curious echo" of the English nursery rhyme " To find a pretty rabbit-skin to wrap the baby bunting in ." Tolkien has King Théoden of Rohan say "the Halflings, that some among us call
8745-487: The 1937 children's novel The Hobbit , whose titular Hobbit is the protagonist Bilbo Baggins , who is thrown into an unexpected adventure involving a dragon . In its sequel, The Lord of the Rings , the hobbits Frodo Baggins , Sam Gamgee , Pippin Took , and Merry Brandybuck are primary characters who all play key roles in fighting to save their world (" Middle-earth ") from evil. In The Hobbit , hobbits live together in
8904-607: The 19th century caricaturist John Leech 's "wildly unflattering" depictions of the Irish in Punch magazine . The comic horror rock band Rosemary's Billygoat recorded a song and video called "Hobbit Feet", about a man who takes a girl home from a bar only to discover she has horrifying "hobbit feet". According to lead singer Mike Odd, the band received over 100 pieces of hate mail from angry Tolkien fans. The skeletal remains of several diminutive paleolithic hominids were discovered on
9063-691: The Angle formed by the rivers Mitheithel and Bruinen , the divisions between the hobbit-kinds began to blur. Shippey explains that the name "Angle" has a special resonance, as the name "England" comes from the Angle (Anglia) between the Flensburg Fjord and the River Schlei , in the north of Germany next to Denmark, the origin of the Angles among the Anglo-Saxons who founded England. Further,
9222-579: The Arkenstone to the besiegers, hoping to head off a war. When they offer the jewel to Thorin in exchange for treasure, Bilbo reveals how they obtained it. Thorin, furious at what he sees as betrayal, banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable when Dáin Ironfoot , Thorin's second cousin, arrives with an army of dwarf warriors. Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men and elves band together, but only with
9381-465: The Arkenstone, the most-treasured heirloom of Thorin's family, and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men request compensation for Lake-town's destruction and settlement of old claims on the treasure. When Thorin refuses to give them anything, they besiege the mountain. However, Thorin manages to send a message to his kinfolk in the Iron Hills and reinforces his position. Bilbo slips out and gives
9540-586: The Eagles appear as agents of eucatastrophe or deus ex machina throughout Tolkien's writings, from The Silmarillion and the accounts of Númenor to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Where Elves are good, and fully sentient, and Orcs bad, Eagles amongst other races are in between; the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins fears he will become their supper, torn up like a rabbit , and is indeed served rabbit for supper. The scholar Marjorie Burns notes, too, that Gandalf 's association with Eagles
9699-625: The Eagles of the Misty Mountains helped the Elves of Rivendell and the Wizard Radagast to gather news of the Orcs. Gwaihir the Windlord carries news to Isengard , rescues the wizard Gandalf from the top of the tower there, and again rescues Gandalf from the top of Celebdil after searching for him at Galadriel 's request. Gwaihir and his Eagles appear in great numbers towards the end of
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#17327805321119858-454: The Eagles three times to save his protagonists: to rescue Bilbo and company in The Hobbit ; to lift Gandalf from imprisonment by Saruman in the tower of Orthanc ; and finally, to save Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom when they have destroyed the One Ring . The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance describes these interventions as a deus ex machina , a sudden and unexpected mechanism to bring about
10017-626: The Early Sun in His Eyes , Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves and Conversation with Smaug , which features a dwarvish curse written in Tolkien's invented script Tengwar , and signed with two "þ" ("Th") runes. The additional illustrations proved so appealing that George Allen & Unwin adopted the colour plates as well for their second printing, with exception of Bilbo Woke Up with
10176-469: The Early Sun in His Eyes . Different editions have been illustrated in diverse ways. Many follow the original scheme at least loosely, but many others are illustrated by other artists, especially the many translated editions. Some cheaper editions, particularly paperback, are not illustrated except with the maps. "The Children's Book Club" edition of 1942 includes the black-and-white pictures but no maps, an anomaly. Douglas Anderson 's The Annotated Hobbit
10335-636: The Fallohide brothers Marcho and Blancho, who settled and founded the Shire in TA 1601. Bilbo and three of the four principal hobbit characters in The Lord of the Rings ( Frodo , Pippin , and Merry ) had Fallohide blood through their common ancestor, the Old Took. The one physical description given for Frodo matches this, as Gandalf identifies him as "taller than some, and fairer than most". Tolkien created
10494-678: The Fallohides did, but instead of settling in Bree-land they headed farther south to Dunland by Third Age 1300, finally migrating to the newly founded Shire in Third Age 1630, the last of the three groups to arrive. The Stoors mostly settled along the banks of the River Brandywine in the east of the Shire, thus many hobbits of Buckland and the Marish were of Stoor descent. Due to the time the Stoors spent living in Dunland before migrating to
10653-406: The Gladden River met the Anduin, and were broader and heavier in build; and the Fallohides preferred to live in the woods under the Misty Mountains. They were described as fairer of skin and hair, as well as taller and slimmer than the rest of the hobbits. In the Third Age , hobbits undertook the arduous task of crossing the Misty Mountains - a migration period they refer to as the "Wandering Days",
10812-418: The Great Eagles' nature with apparent hesitation. In early writings there was no need to define it precisely, since he imagined that, beside the Valar, "many lesser spirits... both great and small" had entered the Eä upon its creation; and such sapient creatures as the Eagles or Huan the Hound, in Tolkien's own words, "have been rather lightly adopted from less 'serious' mythologies". The phrase "spirits in
10971-401: The Holbytlan". Tolkien set out a fictional etymology for the word "Hobbit" in an appendix to The Lord of the Rings , that it was derived from holbytla (plural holbytlan ), meaning "hole-builder". This was Tolkien's own new construction from Old English hol , "a hole or hollow", and bytlan , "to build". Tolkien describes hobbits as between two and four feet (0.6–1.2 m) tall, with
11130-486: The King of glory shall come in". E. L. Risden, making a different connection with Christianity, describes the Eagles' rescue of Frodo and Sam as a "ritual rebirth", and the rescuing bird as "a symbol of the spirit", John the Evangelist 's traditional symbol. Different adaptations of Tolkien's books treated both the nature of the Eagles and their role in the plots with varying level of faithfulness to originals. The first scenario for an animated motion-picture of The Lord of
11289-399: The Marish, who founded the Oldbuck family. However, the Oldbuck family later crossed the Brandywine River to create the separate land of Buckland and the family name changed to the familiar "Brandybuck". Their patriarch then became Master of Buckland. With the departure of the Oldbucks/Brandybucks, a new family was selected to have its chieftains be Thain: the Took family (Pippin Took was son of
11448-604: The Old English word stor or stoor , meaning "strong". In his writings, Tolkien depicted hobbits as fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing, although capable of defending their homes courageously if the need arises. They would enjoy six meals a day, if they could get them. They claimed to have invented the art of smoking pipe-weed . They were extremely "clannish" and had strong "predilections for genealogy "; accordingly, Tolkien included several Hobbit family trees in The Lord of
11607-559: The Old Norse words for "raven" and "rook", but their peaceful characters are unlike the typical carrion birds from Old Norse and Old English literature. Tolkien is not simply skimming historical sources for effect: the juxtaposition of old and new styles of expression is seen by the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey as one of the major themes explored in The Hobbit . Maps figure in both saga literature and The Hobbit . Themes from Old English literature , especially from Beowulf , shape
11766-439: The Old Took are described as living to the age of 130 or beyond, though Bilbo's long lifespan owes much to his possession of the One Ring . Hobbits are considered to "come of age" on their 33rd birthday, so a 50-year-old hobbit would be regarded as entering middle-age. Tolkien devised a fictional history with three types of hobbits, with different physical characteristics and temperaments: Harfoots , Fallohides , and Stoors . By
11925-570: The Rings and The Hobbit made extensive use of prosthetics . Wētā Workshop spent a year creating hobbit feet to look like large, furry feet, yet act as shoes for the actors. In total, 1,800 pairs were worn by the four lead hobbit actors during production. In addition, actors went in for face casts to create pointed ears and false noses. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power , a series screened from 2022, has attracted "fierce debate" about its handling of race, and racism aimed at
12084-686: The Rings as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work", rich in Christian symbolism . Throughout The Silmarillion , the Eagles are associated with Manwë , the ruler of the sky and Lord of the Valar . It is stated that "spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles" brought news from Middle-earth to his halls upon Taniquetil, the highest mountain in Valinor , and in the Valaquenta of "all swift birds, strong of wing". Upon their first appearance in
12243-756: The Rings became the end of the " Third Age " of Middle Earth within Arda . Eventually those tales of the earlier periods became published as The Silmarillion and other posthumous works. Tolkien's correspondence and publisher's records show that he was involved in the design and illustration of the entire book. All elements were the subject of considerable correspondence and fussing over by Tolkien. Rayner Unwin, in his publishing memoir, comments: "In 1937 alone Tolkien wrote 26 letters to George Allen & Unwin... detailed, fluent, often pungent, but infinitely polite and exasperatingly precise... I doubt any author today, however famous, would get such scrupulous attention." Even
12402-531: The Rings proposed to Tolkien in 1957 was turned down because of several cardinal deviations, among which Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter recorded that "virtually all walking was dispensed with in the story and the Company of the Ring were transported everywhere on the backs of eagles". According to the fantasy artist Larry Dixon , the digitally animated eagles in Peter Jackson 's The Lord of
12561-518: The Rings . Most hobbits married and had large families, although Bilbo and Frodo were exceptions to this general rule. The hobbits of the Shire developed the custom of giving away gifts on their birthdays, instead of receiving them, although this custom was not universally followed among other hobbit cultures or communities. The term mathom is used for old and useless objects, but which hobbits are unwilling to throw away. Mathoms are invariably given as presents many times over, sometimes returning to
12720-539: The Shire, their names have a slight Celtic influence. A small group of Stoors did not go as far south as Dunland but settled in the wetlands of the Angle in southern Rhudaur, between Dunland and Bree. When the evil power of Angmar rose in the north many of these Stoors joined their kin in Dunland, but some fled back east over the mountains and settled in the marshes of the Gladden Fields: Déagol and Sméagol/Gollum both belonged to this group. Tolkien used
12879-545: The Thain and would later become Thain himself). The Thain was in charge of Shire Moot and Muster and the Hobbitry-in-Arms, but as the hobbits of the Shire generally led entirely peaceful, uneventful lives the office of Thain came to be seen as something of a formality. Hobbits first appear in The Hobbit as the rural people of the Shire; the book tells of the unexpected adventure that happened to one of them, Bilbo, as
13038-648: The Tower of Guard, for your watch hath not been in vain, and the Black Gate is broken, and your King hath passed through, and he is victorious. Shippey writes that this is certainly Biblical, indeed that it is specifically in the style of Psalm 24 in the King James Version of the Bible, with its phrases "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, for
13197-550: The Valar and Maiar. In the last of his notes on this topic, dated by his son Christopher to the late 1950s, Tolkien decided that the Great Eagles were animals that had been "taught language by the Valar, and raised to a higher level—but they still had no fëar [souls]." The Tolkien scholars Paul Kocher and Tom Shippey note that in The Hobbit , the narrator provides a firm moral framework, with good elves, evil goblins, and
13356-429: The actors playing the Harfoots. The fantasy author Neil Gaiman , defending the casting, commented that "Tolkien described the Harfoots as "browner of skin" than the other Hobbits. So I think anyone grumbling is either racist or hasn't read their Tolkien." Commentators have observed that the hobbit-like Harfoots speak in Irish accents, behave as friendly peasants, and are accompanied by Celtic music ; and that they resemble
13515-658: The ancient world which Bilbo stepped into. Tolkien, a scholar of Beowulf , counted the epic among his "most valued sources" for The Hobbit . Tolkien was one of the first critics to treat Beowulf as a literary work with value beyond the merely historical, with his 1936 lecture Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics . Tolkien borrowed several elements from Beowulf , including a monstrous, intelligent dragon. Certain descriptions in The Hobbit seem to have been lifted straight out of Beowulf with some minor rewording, such as when
13674-412: The average height being three feet six inches (1.1 m). They dress in bright colours, favouring yellow and green. They are usually shy, but are nevertheless capable of great courage and amazing feats under the proper circumstances. They are adept at throwing stones. For the most part, they cannot grow beards, but a few Stoor hobbits can. Their feet are covered with curly hair (usually brown, as
13833-602: The book to Alice in Wonderland in that both children and adults may find different things to enjoy in it, and places it alongside Flatland , Phantastes , and The Wind in the Willows . W. H. Auden , in his review of the sequel The Fellowship of the Ring , calls The Hobbit "one of the best children's stories of this century". Auden was later to correspond with Tolkien, and they became friends. Eagle (Middle-earth) In J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth ,
13992-680: The book. The Eagles similarly arrive at the Battle of the Morannon , helping the Host of the West against the Nazgûl , while Gwaihir, Landroval, and Meneldor rescue Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee from Mount Doom after the One Ring had been destroyed. Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of The Hobbit . According to Christopher Tolkien , the author based this picture on
14151-404: The bridges and roads in repair. During the final fight against Angmar at the Battle of Fornost, the hobbits maintain that they sent a company of archers to help but this is nowhere else recorded. After the battle, the kingdom of Arnor was destroyed, and in the absence of the king, the hobbits elected a Thain of the Shire from among their own chieftains. The first Thain of the Shire was Bucca of
14310-429: The central moral of the story. Whilst greed is a recurring theme 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, it is only by the Arkenstone's influence upon Thorin that greed, and its attendant vices "coveting" and "malignancy", come fully to
14469-474: The characters of the dwarves are based on fairy tales such as Snow White and Snow-White and Rose-Red as collected by the Brothers Grimm , while the latter tale may have influenced the character of Beorn. Tolkien's use of descriptive names such as Misty Mountains and Bag End echoes the names used in Old Norse sagas . The names of the dwarf-friendly ravens, such as Roäc, are derived from
14628-580: The colour of the Brandywine River, and the nature of the bricks made at Stock, the main Shire brickyard. Hobbit architecture favours round doors and windows. Tolkien likened his own tastes to those of hobbits in a 1958 letter: I am in fact a Hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of
14787-404: The company ; two types of elves : both puckish and more serious warrior types ; Men ; man-eating trolls ; boulder-throwing giants; evil cave-dwelling goblins ; forest-dwelling giant spiders who can speak; immense and heroic eagles who also speak; evil wolves, or Wargs , who are allied with the goblins; Elrond the sage; Gollum , a strange creature inhabiting an underground lake; Beorn ,
14946-406: 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 recurring theme in The Hobbit . Smaug is the main antagonist. In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf , and Tolkien uses
15105-584: The cup-thief and the dragon's intellect and personality. Named swords of renown, adorned with runes, similarly have Old English connections. In using his elf-sword, Bilbo finally takes his first independent heroic action. By his naming the sword " Sting " we see Bilbo's acceptance of the kinds of cultural and linguistic practices found in Beowulf , signifying his entrance into the ancient world in which he found himself. This progression culminates in Bilbo stealing
15264-429: The development of high fantasy, and further credits the 1960s paperback debuts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as essential to the creation of a mass market for fiction of this kind as well as the fantasy genre's current status. Tolkien's prose is unpretentious and straightforward, taking as given the existence of his imaginary world and describing its details in a matter-of-fact way, while often introducing
15423-481: The dragon Smaug . Gandalf unveils Thrór's 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. Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell , where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. When they attempt to cross
15582-547: The dragon stretches its neck out to sniff for intruders. Likewise, Tolkien's descriptions of the lair as accessed through a secret passage mirror those in Beowulf . Other specific plot elements and features in The Hobbit that show similarities to Beowulf include the title of thief , as Bilbo is called by Gollum and later by Smaug, and Smaug's personality, which leads to the destruction of Lake-town. Tolkien refines parts of Beowulf 's plot that he appears to have found less than satisfactorily described, such as details about
15741-496: The dwarf Thorin shakes Bilbo "like a rabbit". Shippey writes that the rabbit is not a native English species, but was deliberately introduced in the 13th century, and has become accepted as a local wild animal. Shippey compares this "situation of anachronism -cum-familiarity" with the lifestyle of the Hobbit, giving the example of smoking "pipeweed". He argues that Tolkien did not want to write " tobacco ", as it did not arrive until
15900-452: The dwarves could not bear to acknowledge. The analogue of the " underworld " and the hero returning from it with a boon (such as the ring, or Elvish blades) that benefits his society is seen to fit the mythic archetypes regarding initiation and male coming-of-age as described by Joseph Campbell . Chance compares the development and growth of Bilbo against other characters to the concepts of just kingship versus sinful kingship derived from
16059-493: 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 reaches the mountain and finds the secret door. The dwarves send a reluctant Bilbo inside to scout the dragon's lair. He steals a great cup and, while conversing with Smaug, spots
16218-457: The eagles of Thorondor became his allies, bringing him news and keeping spies and Orcs away. The eagles' watch was redoubled after the coming of Tuor , enabling Gondolin to remain undiscovered longer than any other Elvish kingdom in Beleriand. When the city fell, the eagles protected the fugitives from ambushing orcs. The Eagles fought alongside the army of the Valar, Elves, and Men during
16377-530: The earliest remembered time in their history. Reasons for this trek are unknown, but they possibly had to do with Sauron 's growing power in nearby Greenwood, which later became known as Mirkwood as a result of the shadow that fell upon it during his search of the forest for the One Ring. Hobbits took different routes in their journey westward, but as they began to settle together in Bree-land , Dunland , and
16536-411: The end of the Third Age most hobbits outside The Shire could be found in their village of Staddle on the southeastern slopes of Bree-hill. However, some also lived with Men in the village of Bree itself and in nearby Archet and Combe. Originally the hobbits of the Shire swore nominal allegiance to the last Kings of Arnor, being required only to acknowledge their lordship, speed their messengers, and keep
16695-416: The episode to put into practice some of the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Old English poem in its portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence. Tolkien greatly prefers this motif over the later medieval trend of using the dragon as a symbolic or allegorical figure, such as in the legend of St. George . Smaug the dragon with his golden hoard may be seen as an example of
16854-683: The extra cost. Thus encouraged, Tolkien supplied a second batch of illustrations. The publisher accepted all of these as well, giving the first edition ten black-and-white illustrations plus the two endpaper maps. The illustrated scenes were: The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water , The Trolls , The Mountain Path , The Misty Mountains looking West from the Eyrie towards Goblin Gate , Beorn 's Hall , Mirkwood , The Elvenking 's Gate , Lake Town , The Front Gate , and The Hall at Bag-End . All but one of
17013-456: The figure of the trickster occurs in every age, whether in sacred rites or picaresque stories. Jaume Albero Poveda similarly calls the "comical episodes" like the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum "typical of the picaresque novel". Tolkien wished to imitate the prose and poetry romances of the 19th-century Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris in style and approach. The Desolation of Smaug, portraying dragons as detrimental to landscape,
17172-451: The final design of two maps as endpapers, Thror's map , and the Map of Wilderland (see Rhovanion ), both printed in black and red on the paper's cream background. Originally Allen & Unwin planned to illustrate the book only with the endpaper maps, but Tolkien's first tendered sketches so charmed the publisher's staff that they opted to include them without raising the book's price despite
17331-495: The fore in the story and provide the moral crux of the tale. Bilbo steals the Arkenstone—a most ancient relic of the dwarves—and attempts to ransom it to Thorin for peace. However, Thorin turns on the Hobbit as a traitor, disregarding all the promises and "at your services" he had previously bestowed. In the end Bilbo gives up the precious stone and most of his share of the treasure to help those in greater need. Tolkien also explores
17490-406: The general tone is kept light-hearted, being interspersed with songs and humour. One example of the use of song to maintain tone is when Thorin and Company are kidnapped by goblins, who, when marching them into the underworld, sing: Clap! Snap! the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down down to Goblin-town You go, my lad! This onomatopoeic singing undercuts the dangerous scene with
17649-575: The goblins; however, their relationship with the local Woodmen was only cool, as the eagles often hunted their sheep. They rescued Thorin's company from a band of goblins and Wargs , ultimately carrying the dwarves to the Carrock. Later, having seen the mustering of goblins in the Mountains, a great flock of Eagles participated in the Battle of the Five Armies. In The Lord of the Rings ,
17808-571: The hall of Bilbo's home, Bag End , shows both a clock and a barometer (mentioned in an early draft), and he had another clock on his mantelpiece . To arrange a party, hobbits rely on a daily postal service . The effect, the scholars agree, is to bring the reader comfortably into the ancient heroic world. Dungeons & Dragons began using the name halfling as an alternative to hobbit for legal reasons. Fantasy authors including Terry Brooks , Jack Vance , and Clifford D. Simak use races of halflings. Peter Jackson 's films of The Lord of
17967-424: The hero being plucked from his rural home and thrown into a far-off war where traditional types of heroism are shown to be futile. The tale as such explores the theme of heroism. As Janet Brennan Croft notes, Tolkien's literary reaction to war at this time differed from most post-war writers by eschewing irony as a method for distancing events and instead using mythology to mediate his experiences. Similarities to
18126-625: The hills around Sorontil in the north of the island. When the Númenóreans began to speak openly against the Ban of the Valar , Manwë appeared as eagle-shaped storm clouds, called the "Eagles of the Lords of the West", to try to reason with or threaten them. By the end of the Third Age , a colony of Eagles lived in the north of the Misty Mountains , as described in The Hobbit . These Eagles opposed
18285-453: The human race, or a "variety" or separate "branch" of humanity. In Tolkien's fictional world, hobbits and other races are aware of the similarities between humans and hobbits (hence the colloquial terms for each other of " Big People " and "Little People"); nevertheless, hobbits consider themselves a separate people. The race's average life expectancy is 100 years, but some of Tolkien's main Hobbit characters live much longer: Bilbo Baggins and
18444-501: The illustrations were a full page, and one, the Mirkwood illustration, required a separate plate. Satisfied with his skills, the publishers asked Tolkien to design a dust jacket. This project, too, became the subject of many iterations and much correspondence, with Tolkien always writing disparagingly of his own ability to draw. The runic inscription around the edges of the illustration are a phonetic transliteration of English, giving
18603-433: The incarnates or of animals, and were able to communicate both by thought and speech; and finally animals, mere beasts, unable to speak. For some time Tolkien considered the Eagles as bird-shaped Maiar; however, he realised that the statement about Gwaihir and Landroval's descent from Thorondor had already appeared in print in The Lord of the Rings , while he had long before rejected the notion of their being "Children" of
18762-547: The initial reviews refer to the work as a fairy story. However, according to Jack Zipes writing in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales , Bilbo is an atypical character for a fairy tale. The work is much longer than Tolkien's ideal proposed in his essay On Fairy-Stories . Many fairy tale motifs, such as the repetition of similar events seen in the dwarves' arrival at Bilbo's and Beorn's homes, and folklore themes, such as trolls turning to stone, are to be found in
18921-458: The lower layer of the space above the Earth, while the Eagles of Manwë could fly "beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of darkness". The eagle-shaped clouds that appeared in Númenor formed one of Tolkien's recurring images of the downfall of the island; they appear, too, in his abandoned time-travel stories , The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers . Tolkien faced the question of
19080-514: The main narrative, it is stated that the Eagles had been "sent forth" to Middle-earth by Manwë, to live in the mountains north of the land of Beleriand , to "watch upon" Morgoth , and to help the exiled Noldorin Elves "in extreme cases". The Eagles were ruled by Thorondor, "Lord of the Eagles", and "mightiest of all birds that have ever been". When Turgon built the Hidden City of Gondolin ,
19239-409: The maps, of which Tolkien originally proposed five, were considered and debated. He wished Thror's Map to be tipped in (that is, glued in after the book has been bound) at first mention in the text, and with the moon letter runes on the reverse so they could be seen when held up to the light. In the end the cost, as well as the shading of the maps, which would be difficult to reproduce, resulted in
19398-582: The medieval image of Jews, whilst their warlike nature stems from accounts in the Hebrew Bible . The Dwarvish calendar invented for The Hobbit reflects the Jewish calendar which begins in late autumn. And although Tolkien denied that he used allegory , the dwarves taking Bilbo out of his complacent existence has been seen as an eloquent metaphor for the "impoverishment of Western society without Jews." The scholar of literature James L. Hodge describes
19557-674: The migrations of the three types of hobbit mirror those of England's founders. In the year 1601 of the Third Age (year 1 in the Shire Reckoning), two Fallohide brothers named Marcho and Blanco gained permission from the King of Arnor at Fornost to cross the River Brandywine and settle on the other side. The new land that they founded on the west bank of the Brandywine was called The Shire. Many hobbits followed them, and by
19716-485: The modern world known to readers and the heroic ancient world of Middle-earth. Halflings appear as a race in Dungeons & Dragons , and the works of other fantasy authors including Terry Brooks , Jack Vance , and Clifford D. Simak . Tolkien claimed that he started The Hobbit suddenly, without premeditation, in the midst of grading a set of student essay exams in 1930 or 1931, writing its famous opening line on
19875-425: The most typical of the race as described in The Hobbit . They lived in holes , or smials , and had closer relations with Dwarves than other hobbits did. Harfoots tended to live in gentle rolling hill country, and were mostly agrarian. They were the first group to cross the Misty Mountains, settling in the lands around Bree starting in Third Age 1050 (about 2,000 years before the time of Bilbo and Frodo, and five and
20034-604: The motif of jewels that inspire intense greed that corrupts those who covet them in the Silmarillion , and there are connections between the words "Arkenstone" and " Silmaril " in Tolkien's invented etymologies. The Hobbit employs themes of animism . An important concept in anthropology and child development , animism is the idea that all things—including inanimate objects and natural events, such as storms or purses, as well as living things like animals and plants—possess human-like intelligence. John D. Rateliff calls this
20193-446: The name from the archaic meanings of English words "fallow" and "hide", meaning "pale skin". The Stoors were the second most numerous group of hobbits and the last to enter Eriador. They were quite different from the other two groups: they were stockier than other hobbits, though slightly shorter, and they were also the only group whose males were able to grow beards. They had an affinity for water, dwelt mostly beside rivers , and were
20352-491: The narrative flow with asides (a device common to both children's and Anglo-Saxon literature), has his own linguistic style separate from those of the main characters. The basic form of the story is that of a quest , told in episodes. For the most part of the book, each chapter introduces a different denizen of the Wilderland, some helpful and friendly towards the protagonists, and others threatening or dangerous. However
20511-557: The narrative voice addressing the reader directly, the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel. The scholar Lois R. Kuznets comments that the "obtrusive narrator" is part of a standard "rhetoric of childhood"; C. W. Sullivan III adds that Tolkien may have taken the idea of an intrusive narrator from the medieval texts Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Emer O'Sullivan, in her Comparative Children's Literature , notes The Hobbit as one of
20670-450: The new and fantastic in an almost casual manner. This down-to-earth style, also found in later fantasy such as Richard Adams ' Watership Down and Peter Beagle 's The Last Unicorn , accepts readers into the fictional world , rather than cajoling or attempting to convince them of its reality. While The Hobbit is written in a simple, friendly language, each of its characters has a unique voice. The narrator, who occasionally interrupts
20829-501: The only hobbits to use boats and swim, activities which other hobbits considered dangerous and frightening. Their hands and feet were also sturdier than those of other hobbits, who generally didn't wear shoes for cushioning their steps, though because the Stoors tended to live near muddy riverbanks they often wore boots to keep their feet dry, making them the only hobbits to use footwear of any kind. Tolkien says they were "less shy of Men ". The Stoors migrated into Eriador two centuries after
20988-441: The original owner, or are stored in a museum ( mathom-house ). The hobbits had a distinct calendar : every year started on a Saturday and ended on a Friday, with each of the twelve months consisting of thirty days. Some special days did not belong to any month— Yule 1 and 2 (New Year's Eve & New Years Day) and three Lithedays in mid-summer. Every fourth year there was an extra Litheday, most likely as an adaptation, similar to
21147-460: The other breeds and preferred living in woodlands, where they became skilled huntsmen, known for their accuracy with ranged weapons. They had closer relations with Elves , who also tended to live in forests. Due to their contact with the Elves, Fallohides were the first hobbits to learn literacy, and therefore were the only ones who preserved even vague knowledge of their past before crossing the Misty Mountains. The Fallohides crossed into Eriador about
21306-599: The other peoples like dwarves and eagles somewhere in between. Shippey remarks that the eagles are in the narrator's "euphemistic" words, "not kindly birds". Marjorie Burns comments that the "threat of being eaten [by the Eagle] is so dominant" that the Hobbit Bilbo, who the Eagle described as being rather like a rabbit , is afraid of being torn up and eaten; he is relieved that he is not to become their supper, "but rabbit
21465-461: The right must hereafter be waged only on the moral plane". Tolkien scholars including Shippey and Dimitra Fimi have stated that the hobbits are misfits in Middle-earth's heroic cultures like Gondor and Rohan . Those have a basis in ancient societies such as ancient Rome and the Anglo-Saxons . In contrast, Tolkien placed the Shire in a society he had personally experienced, "more or less
21624-545: The shape of hawks and eagles" in The Silmarillion derives from that stage of writing. After completing The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien moved toward a more carefully defined "system" of creatures. At the top were incarnates or Children of Ilúvatar: Elves and Men, those who possessed fëar or souls, with the defining characteristic of being able to speak; next were self-incarnates, the Valar and Maiar , "angelic" spirits that "arrayed" themselves in bodily forms of
21783-607: The sky during the Númenórean "Three Prayers" religious ceremony. The Númenóreans called them "the Witnesses of Manwë", believing he had sent them from Aman "to keep watch upon the Holy Mountain and upon all the land". Another eyrie upon the tower of the King's House in the capital Armenelos was always inhabited by a pair of eagles, until the days of Tar-Ancalimon and the coming of Shadow to Númenor. Many eagles lived upon
21942-472: The small, food-obsessed, and morally ambiguous Bilbo. The text emphasizes the relationship between time and narrative progress and it openly distinguishes "safe" from "dangerous" in its geography. Both are key elements of works intended for children, as is the "home-away-home" (or there and back again ) plot structure typical of the Bildungsroman . While Tolkien later claimed to dislike the aspect of
22101-404: The source that it supposed Tolkien to have used: James Hardy wrote in his 1895 The Denham Tracts, Volume 2 : "The whole earth was overrun with ghosts, boggles ... hobbits, hobgoblins." Shippey writes that the list was of ghostly creatures without bodies, nothing like Tolkien's solid flesh-and-blood hobbits. Tolkien scholars consider it unlikely that Tolkien saw the list. An additional connection
22260-436: The stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur. Clothing: green velvet breeches; red or yellow waistcoat; brown or green jacket; gold (or brass) buttons; [and specifically for Bilbo, in The Hobbit ] a dark green hood and cloak (belonging to a dwarf). Tolkien presented hobbits as relatives of
22419-563: The story an allegory . He comments however that in one place "Revelation seems very close and allegory does all but break through", namely the eucatastrophic moment when the Eagle-messenger sings to Faramir about Frodo and Sam's destruction of the One Ring: Sing now, ye people in the Tower of Anor for the realm of Sauron is ended for ever, and the Dark Tower is thrown down. Sing and rejoice, ye people of
22578-434: The story as picaresque , a genre of fiction in which a hero relies on his wits to survive a series of risky episodes. Hodge further likens Bilbo's admittedly unheroic business of burglary to the trickster role of some pagan gods and mythical figures: Hermes steals cattle from Apollo , Prometheus and Coyote steal fire, Odin steals the mead of poetry , and so on. Hodge quotes the psychiatrist Carl Jung as saying that
22737-507: The story of his adventures . In the early 1930s Tolkien was pursuing an academic career at Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon , with a fellowship at Pembroke College . Several of his poems had been published in magazines and small collections, including Goblin Feet and The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked , a reworking of
22896-400: The story, along with motifs of warfare. These themes have led critics to view Tolkien's own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the story. The author's scholarly knowledge of Germanic philology and interest in mythology and fairy tales are often noted as influences, but more recent fiction including adventure stories and the works of William Morris also played
23055-494: The story. The book is popularly called (and often marketed as) a fantasy novel , but like Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald , both of which influenced Tolkien and contain fantasy elements, it is primarily identified as being children's literature. The two genres are not mutually exclusive, so some definitions of high fantasy include works for children by authors such as L. Frank Baum and Lloyd Alexander alongside
23214-452: The style of language used by hobbits, and to their material culture of "umbrellas, camping kettles, matches, clocks, pocket handkerchiefs and fireworks", all of which are plainly modern, as are the fish and chips that Sam Gamgee thinks of on his journey to Mordor . Most striking, in her view, however, is Tolkien's description of the enormous dragon firework at Bilbo's party which rushed overhead "like an express train". Tolkien's drawing of
23373-401: The time of Bilbo and Frodo, these kinds had intermixed for centuries, though unevenly, so that some families and regions skewed more towards descent from one of the three groups. The Harfoots were by far the most numerous group of hobbits and were the first to enter the land of Eriador , which contains the Shire and Bree. They were the smallest in stature, "browner of skin" in complexion, and
23532-437: The timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn, who fights in his bear form and kills the goblin general, do they win the climactic Battle of Five Armies. Thorin is fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies. Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no want or need for more, but still returns home a very wealthy hobbit roughly a year and a month after he first left. Years later, he writes
23691-420: The title of the book and details of the author and publisher. The original jacket design contained several shades of various colours, but Tolkien redrew it several times using fewer colours each time. His final design consisted of four colours. The publishers, mindful of the cost, removed the red from the sun to end up with only black, blue, and green ink on white stock. The publisher's production staff designed
23850-544: The traditional relationship between evil and metallurgy as collated in the depiction of Pandæmonium with its "Belched fire and rolling smoke" in John Milton 's Paradise Lost . Of all the characters, Smaug's speech is the most modern, using idioms such as "Don't let your imagination run away with you!" Just as Tolkien's literary theories have been seen to influence the tale, so have Tolkien's experiences. The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of World War I with
24009-524: The two, and as a result many old words and names in "Hobbitish" are derivatives of words in Rohirric (which Tolkien "translated" into his text by presenting it as Old English). The Harfoots lived on the lowest slopes of the Misty Mountains in Hobbit-holes dug into the hillsides. They were not only smaller and shorter, but also beard- and bootless. The Stoors lived on the marshy Gladden Fields where
24168-546: The upper edge. Once illustrations were approved for the book, Tolkien proposed colour plates as well. The publisher would not relent on this, so Tolkien pinned his hopes on the American edition to be published about six months later. Houghton Mifflin rewarded these hopes with the replacement of the frontispiece ( The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water ) in colour and the addition of new colour plates: Rivendell , Bilbo Woke Up with
24327-454: The way out of the tunnels, but if he fails, his life will be forfeit. With the help of the ring, which confers invisibility , Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improving his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase, but the company are saved by eagles. They rest in the house of the skin-changer Beorn. The company enters the dark forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf, who has other responsibilities. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves
24486-549: The wizard Radagast is taken from the name of the Slavic deity Radogost . The representation of the dwarves in The Hobbit was influenced by his own selective reading of medieval texts regarding the Jewish people and their history . The dwarves' characteristics of being dispossessed of their ancient homeland at the Lonely Mountain, and living among other groups whilst retaining their own culture are all derived from
24645-418: The works of Gene Wolfe and Jonathan Swift , which are more often considered adult literature. The Hobbit has been called "the most popular of all twentieth-century fantasies written for children". Jane Chance , however, considers the book to be a children's novel only in the sense that it appeals to the child in an adult reader. Sullivan credits the first publication of The Hobbit as an important step in
24804-477: The works of other writers who faced the Great War are seen in The Hobbit , including portraying warfare as anti- pastoral : in "The Desolation of Smaug", both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for the Battle of Five Armies later are described as barren, damaged landscapes. The Hobbit makes a warning against repeating the tragedies of World War I, and Tolkien's attitude as
24963-536: The world into which Bilbo stumbled. The work has never been out of print. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, board games , and video games. Several of these adaptations have received critical recognition on their own merits. Bilbo Baggins , the protagonist, is a respectable, reserved and well-to-do hobbit —a race resembling short humans with furry, leathery feet who live in underground houses and are mainly farmers and gardeners. Gandalf , an itinerant wizard , introduces Bilbo to
25122-416: Was more profound than the shaping of individual characters and episodes; his works helped Tolkien form his whole thinking on the role of fantasy within his Christian faith . The evolution and maturation of the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is central to the story. This journey of maturation, where Bilbo gains a clear sense of identity and confidence in the outside world, may be seen in psychological terms as
25281-556: Was visited in Oxford by Susan Dagnall, a staff member of the publisher George Allen & Unwin , she is reported to have either lent Dagnall the book or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien. In any event, Dagnall was impressed by it, and showed the book to Stanley Unwin , who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. Rayner's favourable comments settled Allen & Unwin's decision to publish Tolkien's book. The setting of The Hobbit , as described on its original dust jacket,
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