The Hobbit (Middle-Earth Universe)

324 Pages·1937·9.91 MB·English

by  J. R. R. Tolkien [Tolkien

THE HOBBIT

OR

THERE AND BACK AGAIN

BY

J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Contents

Title Page

Images, Illustrations and Audio
Foreword
Note on the Text
Chapter I - An Unexpected Party
J.R.R. Tolkien sings 'Chip the glasses and crack the plates!'
J.R.R. Tolkien reads 'Far over the Misty Mountains cold'
Chapter II - Roast Mutton
J.R.R. Tolkien reads from 'Roast Mutton'
Chapter III - A Short Rest
Chapter IV - Over Hill and under Hill
Chapter V - Riddles in the Dark
J.R.R.Tolkien reads from 'Riddles in the Dark'
Chapter VI - Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire
Chapter VII - Queer Lodgings
Chapter VIII - Flies and Spiders
Chapter IX - Barrels Out of Bond
Chapter X - A Warm Welcome
Chapter XI - On the Doorstep
Chapter XII - Inside Information
Chapter XIII - Not at Home
Chapter XIV - Fire and Water
Chapter XV - The Gathering of the Clouds
Chapter XVI - A Thief in the Night
Chapter XVII - The Clouds Burst
Chapter XVIII - The Return Journey
Chapter XIX - The Last Stage

Sample from Lord of the Rings

Works by J.R.R. Tolkien
About the Author
Copyright
Images, Illustrations and Audio

Map of Wilderland
Image of the Original Manuscript
Image of the Original Manuscript
The Gate of the Elvenking's Halls
Nargothrond
Mirkwood
The original Hobbit jacket
The Lonely Mountain
Smaug flies round the Mountain
The Lonely Mountain from the West
The Back Door
Bag End Underhill
The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-water
Thror’s Map
The Trolls*
The Three Trolls are Turned to Stone*
Rivendell
The Mountain-path*
The Misty Mountains looking West*
Bilbo woke with the early sun in his eyes
Beorn’s Hall*
Mirkwood
The Elvenking’s Gate*
Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves
LakeTown*
The Front Gate*
Conversation with Smaug
The Hall at Bag-End*
AUDIO
J.R.R. Tolkien sings 'Chip the glasses and crack the plates!'
J.R.R. Tolkien reads 'Far over the Misty Mountains cold'
J.R.R. Tolkien reads from 'Roast Mutton'
J.R.R.Tolkien reads from 'Riddles in the Dark'
* Colour by H. E. Riddett
Follow this link to uncover an alternative version of this artwork
Foreword

THE HOBBIT was first published on 21 September 1937, and for its fiftieth
anniversary edition Rayner Unwin suggested to me that it would be of interest to
include in it some unpublished or little known illustrations by my father, and
also one of three manuscript sheets (each written on both sides, making six pages
in all) that alone survive today of the original draft of the first chapter, An
Unexpected Party. This particular sheet was preserved, no doubt, because on it
there was also the first sketch of Thror’s Map. This preface is mostly concerned
with this text and with pictures and designs; an account of the writing of The
Hobbit (or what can be known of it) and the story if its publication are given by
Humphrey Carpenter in J.R.R.Tolkien: A Biography, pp. 177-82.
On the now very battered manuscript sheet reproduced on the following pages
my father afterwards wrote: ‘Only page preserved of the first scrawled copy of
The Hobbit which did not reach beyond the first chapter.’1 Since the writing is
indeed a scrawl and very hard to read, I set it out in print here. The text will be
found to correspond, with many differences, to that in this book on pp. 20-1, but
if the bottom of the second side of the sheet was the end of the text the entire
history related by Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield had yet to emerge.
A page from the earliest manuscript of The Hobbit

‘Why?’
‘Because it is too small. “Five feet high is the door, and three abreast [first
written four abreast] may enter it” say the runes. But Pryftan could not creep in a
hole that size, not even when he was a young dragon, certainly not after he had
devoured so many maidens of the valley.’
‘It seems a pretty big hole,’ piped Bilbo. He loved maps, and in the hall there
was a large one of the County Round (where he lived), with all his favourite
walks marked on it in red ink. He was so interested he forgot to be shy and keep
his mouth shut. ‘How could such an enormous door’ (he was a hobbit,
remember) ‘be secret?’
‘Lots of ways,’ said Bl[adorthin], ‘but which one of them we don’t know
without looking.’
At the top of the other side of the page there is a list of the dwarves, which
includes ‘Gandalf’; and against this my father afterwards wrote in pencil: ‘NB
Gandalf was originally chief Dwarf (=Thorin) and Gandalf was called
Bladorthin.’ The names of the dwarves in The Hobbit were taken from verses of
a very ancient Norse poem called Völuspá, where many dwarf-names are given,
and among them Gandalf. The only other difference in this original list is that Oi
appears for Ori (in the Völuspá there is the name Ái). – Bladorthin became the
name of a long-dead king who is mentioned once in The Hobbit (p. 230) but
nowhere else.