The History of the Hobbit (One-Volume Edition) by John D. Rateliff

The History of the Hobbit (One-Volume Edition) Reviews

• 
  Melissa

  Great insight into the writing of the original, so much detail that I could definitely appreciate even more now that I’ve read The Lost Tales & Silmarillion stories, so much great stuff about the writing process & writing at that period of time that I find particularly interesting. Now I feel like picking up The Hobbit and just reading the original completed tale again.
• 
  Maggi LeDuc

  Well, it took 3 months, but I have finished! Completely worth it and I am filled with knowledge about and love for JRRT like never before.
• 
  Sarah Zama

  Absolutely fantastic!
  This is a presentation of Tolkien’s process in creating The Hobbit. The reconstruction on when it happened, the possible circumstances of why he even decided to write this story, his motivations. Then the author follows each chapter very closely, examining all the surviving material concerning The Hobbit through seven revisions, though the bigger chunk is dedicated to the first draft.
  All texts are presented in their entirety and commented page by page, exploring the evolution of the story and Tolkien’s likely inspiration or motivation for using one element rather than another.
  I loved Tolkien’s synopsis best of all. The story as it was firstly conceived was quite different from the one we know today and seeing how Tolkien worked the plot and the characters was just fascinating.
  It’s a great companion. A demanding read, I’ll admit, but so rewarding for a Tolkien fan.
  
• 
  Ben

  Gandalf the Wizard was originally named Bladorthin. Bilbo was supposed to kill Smaug the dragon. After the publication of Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien began work on a revised version of the Hobbit in which Bilbo stopped at Bree. These are some of the delightful tidbits included in "The History of the Hobbit."
  Dense and exhaustively researched, this is THE definitive volume regarding the process by which Tolkien wrote The Hobbit. Containing an extraordinarily faithful transcript of the first draft of the novel, this book also documents various phases of writing. Half textbook, half alternate universe version of the beloved tale, this book is essential reading for the sort of person who has read through the entirety of the History of Middle Earth series.
• 
  Alina

  The amount of research put into this book is staggering. The scholarly value is, I dare say, above that of History of Middle Earth (while maintaining proportions, of course). I'm so glad I saved this book for last, so to speak, and read it only after a thorough study of all the materials Christopher Tolkien published. Because without that thorough study, I'd have been drowned in references to History of Middle Earth knowledge. I was not and, in fact, I enjoyed connecting the dots to the Legendarium as much as I had fun with the actual Hobbit writing process.
  
  It was fascinating to see how much of the initial drafting of the Hobbit story remained unchanged in the published form. It was also fascinating to see that many years later, Tolkien actually began to re-write the whole thing in LoTR mode. Most people think that's a failed experiment and one of the happier instances in which Tolkien abandoned a project he embarked on. Personally, I would have LOVED a serious version of The Hobbit, but I'm sure it would have been a completely different book and even the main plot threads would have been transformed, if Tolkien had carried on re-writing.
  
  To my mind, this book is mandatory for any Tolkien and Middle Earth scholar.
• 
  Jeff Bryant

  A must if you are a diehard Tolkien fan. A weighty tome, deeply researched and thoroughly annotated, it provides a unique look into the drafting of the book as well as revisions and a never before view into a revision Tolkien abandoned to try and shift The Hobbit into the feel of the Lord of the Rings.
  The annotations can be a bit deep and intimidating, but the author himself encourages the reader to utilize only what they feel they need.
  Highly recommended
• 
  Ettelwen

  Nevím, jestli mi spadl kámen ze srdce nebo je tohle první krok k ještě hlubšímu, nezlomnému závazku. Závazku, u kterýho se budu pravidelně vztekat.
  
  Díky Tolkiene, že nejseš bez chyby.
  
• 
  Jeffrey

  Detailed, in-depth, fascinating for a fan of the deep-lore of MiddleEarth. Reading this book, and seeing more clearly the reflections of the larger legendarium (Silmarillion and History of MiddleEarth) in The Hobbit I gained a far greater appreciation for The Hobbit itself.
• 
  D

  A scholarly tour de force
  
  Superb. An achievement of literary scholarship on a par with anything published by anyone whose last name was not Tolkien. Will enhance anyone’s appreciation of the published work. Highly recommended.
• 
  Jenna (Falling Letters)

  Oh. my. gosh. What an incredible book. The amount of work that must have gone into this enormous volume is staggering. There is just so much information packed into this book, on every single topic you could want to know more about and many more you might never have considered (such as what kind of thrush Bilbo would have encountered at Erebor). At times I felt the book was a bit heavy on aspects such as related story inspirations or historical information, but really, if you're not interested in such things they are easily skimmed. Even more rarely, the book strayed more into Tolkien's mythology than seems related to The Hobbit (for example, a lengthy passage on Thingol) but these segments of course will be enjoyed by strong Tolkien fans and again, easily skimmed over by those only interested in The Hobbit. To be able to see so precisely how The Hobbit developed, and to read such insightful commentary on that development, is a very great treat for any Tolkien or Hobbit fan. Highly recommended!
• 
  H. P.

  Writing a post on John Rateliff’s encyclopedic The History of the Hobbit isn’t the problem. The problem is writing one that doesn’t turn into a 3,000 word behemoth itself. I will try very hard to keep this post to a reasonable length while dropping as many nuggets of knowledge as possible.
  
  Rateliff’s primary focus is Tolkien’s original draft of The Hobbit. A full, heavily annotated copy is included. The text itself is footnoted, and each chapter (there were no chapter divisions in the original draft, so according to the final book) is followed by a section digging into it. Most notable perhaps are the notes on the etymology of various words Tolkien invented and comparisons with the Silmarillion as it existed at that time (quite different than what would eventually be published). Rateliff also includes Tolkien’s occasional bouts of outlining, and notes the probable splits in the drafting (Tolkien tended to work in great spurts in between academic semesters).
  
  Rateliff views The History of the Hobbit as complementary to Douglas Anderson’s The Annotated Hobbit (which I have not read). The Annotated Hobbit “takes as a starting point the first printing of 1937 and scrupulously records every change and correction to the text by Tolkien from that point onward, while [Rateliff looks] backwards from the moment of the first printing to tell the story of how the book was written.”
  
  Rateliff’s book is particularly interesting for its examination of Tolkien’s source material. Many books note that, for example, Tolkien was inspired by Beowulf, but the length of Rateliff’s book and the focus on just The Hobbit allow for him to cast a far wider net. For example, Rateliff gives examples from Dunsany of “really good and legendary burglars.”
  
  I find myself thinking a lot these days about the inherently derivative nature of fantasy. The History of the Hobbit makes that obvious. It isn’t that Tolkien directly copied someone else; it is that there were sometimes dozens of examples of a single motif that he could draw from. The idea that he drew heavily from Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a lot less convincing when you consider that his original conception of the ring was very different and that magic rings are a common motif in folklore. Even something like petrification, that he may have introduced to English fiction, was an example of Tolkien popularizing, rather than inventing, a motif. In Tolkien’s case, this was intentional. He saw great value in folklore, in the reinvention of folklore, and in “ancient belief over artificial invention.”
  
  As I mentioned above, the ties to Beowulf are hardly unknown, but Rateliff’s analysis is robust and welcome. Even more so are his comparisons to Sigurd.
  
  I have few points of contention, although Rateliff’s refusal to speculate on Beorn’s height and his dismissiveness toward those who have is weird coming from a guy who wrote a book analyzing and speculating on everything else in The Hobbit.
  
  Rateliff makes a very convincing case that The Hobbit is and was always intended to be closely tied to Tolkien’s legendarium. Of course that legendarium would look very different by the time it was finally published. That created any number of problems for Tolkien, as did the elements pulled into The Lord of the Rings, but he had a knack for fixing seeming contradictions in worldbuilding with more worldbuilding, “solving a problem in the received text by addition, not contradiction or replacement.”
  
  It is remarkable is how little Tolkien changed his original draft prior to its first publication. But there are some important differences from his first conception. Thranduil and the Mirkwood wood elves, not so heroic even in the published book, were originally worse. The biggest change, though, is that Tolkien originally planned a large battle near the Anduin on the return journey. This would have involved Beorn and the goblins, but not the dwarves. Eventually he settled on bringing Beorn and the goblins east for the Battle of Five Armies. In doing so, he avoided the problems the Scouring of the Shire would later create for The Lord of the Rings. Rather than place an important scene in an overlong denouement, he is able to incorporate it into a stronger climax.
  
  More nuggets:
  • Rateliff dates the drafting as starting in the summer of 1930 and ending in January 1933 (there is quite a bit about why he settles on these dates even though others, including Humphrey Carpenter, offer different dates)
  • Tolkien started work on a full revision of The Hobbit in 1960 to match The Lord of the Rings in both tone and canon, but abandoned it early on after feedback; the new work simply wasn’t The Hobbit (Peter Jackson would later apparently receive no such feedback)
  • According to Tolkien, “Mirkwood is not an invention of mine, but . . . probably the Primitive Germanic name for the great mountainous forest regions that anciently formed a barrier to the south of the lands of Germanic expansion”
  • Tolkien toyed with the idea that “the original orcs were the least of the spirits corrupted by Morgoth, just as balrogs are greater spirits”—the orcs and goblins we see would have been their lesser descendants
  • John the Evangelist was Tolkien’s favorite apostle
  • Dunsany used man-sized spiders in his story The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth
  • Tolkiens’ elves were originally smaller than humans
  • The Mirkwood chapter (one of the best, in my opinion) was the only chapter extensively rewritten prior to the book’s original publication (Tolkien cut Bilbo using a ball of spider-thread to find his way and added the enchanted stream)
  • The Jewish influence on Tolkien’s dwarves both resulted in a much more positive depiction than that of the folklore from which he drew and long predated his 1965 radio interview in which he directly identified the influence
  • Tolkien at one point made a note asking “what happened to the musical instruments used by the Dwarves at Bag-end?” (I’m glad I’m not the only one who wondered that)
• 
  Clinton Tibbitts

  For 2022 I decided to read essentially all of the books that contained Tolkien's writings' of middle-earth. This book was the culmination of all of that reading. I had saved it until last as I had just finished reading the 12 volumes of History of Middle Earth as well as the adopted 13th Volume; 'The Nature of Middle Earth' by Carl Hostetter. This book seemed like the next logical step as it was a history of the writing of The Hobbit (in the same vein as The History of Middle Earth) like was compiled by an author that was not Christopher Tolkien (just like 'Nature of Middle Earth). In a way I was glad that I saved this one until the end; because I actually enjoyed this more than all of the History of Middle Earth volumes and more than Nature of Middle Earth.
  
  Of all the Middle-Earth books I read in 2022; The History of the Hobbit was by far the longest endeavor (if you discount the Index this book comes in at a hefty 912 pages). Not to mention this is much more of a deep dive than even the History of Middle Earth volumes were. While this book does go into the different drafts and versions of The Hobbit that existed throughout the years that tolkien wrote it; John D. Ratliff examines that possible origins of almost every aspect of the stories. Relating the possible influences that Tolkien drew from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Old Norse and Greek Mythology, Egyptian Mythology and especially his own family interests (we get frequent reminders that the drew audience of The Hobbit was his children).
  
  I loved reading the History of Middle Earth volumes; but let me be the first to tell you, they can be dry as a dessert when it comes to reading them from cover to cover and realistically should be bought and kept as references more than novels to just sit down and read. For all intents and purposes; 'The History of the Hobbit' should have felt the same way...but it just didnt. The deep doves became super interesting and actually managed to keep me reading (despite the Herculean length of the book).
  
  The Hobbit will forever be my favorite JRR Tolkien writing and perhaps that is my bias for loving this book as much as I did. If you love the hobbit and just want to know all you can about how it was written and the POSSIBLE influences behind Tolkien's writing of it; pick this one up and just dive in!
• 
  Ludvig Solnør

  Spennende å kunne følge utviklinga av historien. Den opprinnelige planen var for eksempel at Bilbo skulle drepe dragen, istedenfor å bare stjele en kopp. Mange andre til kom heller ikke med i utgivelsen av boka i 1937. Bilbo skulle navigere seg gjennom Myrkskog ved hjelp av edderkoppspinn, slik som Tesevs gjennom Labyrinten for eksempel.
  
  Man får også lese de ulike revisjonene av boka etter den ble utgitt. For eksempel i første utgave ga Gollum fra seg ringen frivillig til Bilbo, mens i den andre utgaven fra 1951 ble den endret til den historien som siden har vært på trykk for å tilpasse seg Ringenes Herre. Man får lese om endringer som aldri ble utgitt fra 1960 der de første kapitlene ble endret for å tilpasse seg geografien fra Ringenes Herre.
  
  I tillegg til selve manuskriptene og teksten fra Tolkien får man lese essay om ulike tema som dukker opp i teksten og mulige inspirasjonskilder. Dette innebærer blant annet folketro fra Storbritannia på 1700- og 1800-tallet, norrøne sagaer, greske myter, konflikter mellom studenter og borgere i Oxford, kjente rettsaker fra 1800-tallet, Tolkiens egne opplevelser på ferie i Sveits, og MYE MER!
  
  Det eneste negative med boka er at originalteksten til tider blir beskrevet veldig nøye. Jeg bryr meg ikke veldig mye om hva slags papir eller blekk som har blitt brukt. Men jeg skjønner at dette har vært viktige hint for å datere teksten.
  
  Uansett en veldig interessant bok. Anbefales!
• 
  Caleb

  A fascinating look at the creation of one of the world's most endearing fantasies.
  
  John D. Rateliff does a fantastic job examining all the various manuscripts. The book is thoroughly researched and well-written, providing the reader with a wealth of knowledge and a deeper understanding, and thus enjoyment, of The Hobbit.
  
  Rateliff opts for semantic precision more than reader accessibility with his writing, using words like "recalcitrant" and "suzerainty" instead of "troublesome" and "dominion". I was grateful to be reading this on the Kindle app, where I could simply highlight a word and obtain the definition. I also do not think the manner in which Rateliff treated the 1960 Hobbit was entirely fair - he seemed biased in his judgment and dismissed most of what was good about it.
  
  These small manners aside, The History of The Hobbit is an excellent book that I would recommend to serious Tolkien fans. If you enjoyed Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth, you will enjoy this book as well.
• 
  Victoria Schreiber

  4.5/5 stars
  
  An incredibly thorough and interesting at The Hobbit and its development over the years. Despite the fact that the book is rather long, I positively devoured it (as seen by my reading speed) and enjoyed reading not only the original manuscripts of the novel but also Rateliff's annotations, notes, and explanations. Rateliff's additions were also very well done as they are not only detailed and well researched, but also do not disturb the reading of the manuscript text itself but are rather added at the end of each chapter. To see the changes in Tolkien's writing and (to some extent) his mythology was incredible as it truly shows how Middle- Earth changed in the mind of its creator. To compare these changes to the finished Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other Middle-Earth works is very fascinating. The history of The Hobbit is a very interesting read for every Tolkien fan and I can only recommend the book!
• 
  Aaron

  Tolkien enthusiasts will have a great time wading through this sizeable tome. Rateliff has thrown his heart and soul into exhaustively researching the drafting and crafting that went into Tolkien's quintessential fable. There's pretty much all you ever wanted to know about how The Hobbit evolved as a written text. For those with a passion for Middle Earth, or those with a literary bent, this is well worth your time. Casual Fantasy readers on the other hand will likely find the discussion overly dense.
• 
  Bob Cooling

  Understanding JRR Tolkien
  
  I gave this book five stars since the author was able to expound about Tolkien's thought process when creating his fictional world and the creatures living in, on and under Middle Earth and Arda. This is a scholarly work and will only be appreciated by those readers of Tolkien's created universe who appreciate the effort Tolkien expended in creating his fictional world.
• 
  Pony

  A sustained and substantial read best suited to serious JRRT fans. The author does not just consult the written material, but in a scholarly way interleaves it with the film material. It does go on (and on) so you certainly get value for money, with heaps and heaps of footnotes, Read this and you'll be ready to a 3 year degree course in LOTR studies! I enjoyed it immensly, but then I'm a bit odd that way!
• 
  JD Shaffer

  Admittedly I did not read every page of this book. I read perhaps every page of the first 10-15%, but then realized that it makes a wonderful reference volume and not really a "sit down and read" volume. I will be very happy to slowly dip into it as I re-read "The Hobbit" or have any particular themes I wish to explore in the future.
  
• 
  Jay

  Mr Rateliff clearly did his research into the writing history of one of the most beloved children's books. I loved learning about Tolkien's process of writing and re-writing The Hobbit. The facsimile of the first edition of The Hobbit was a great addition to the book.
• 
  Susan Ferguson

  Very interesting look at Tolkien’s creative process. The reasons for specific phrasing and usage. He was very good at selecting his words to convey a specific meaning or inflection. After all, he was a philologist.
• 
  Brian

  Discussion of book never written.
• 
  Matthijs Krul

  Turns out to be just as essential and informative as the volumes of "The History of Middle-Earth".
• 
  Christian

  Read this for the revised 1960 version of The Hobbit, which I loved, and wished it had been completed or at least made it through the Misty Mountains
• 
  Jon

  I already had the previous edition, but this was going cheap. Interesting insight into the writing process, but otherwise strictly for hardcore Tolkien fans only.
• 
  Guy Haley

  NB, this review also contains a review of The Lord of The Rings Companion
  
  A pedant’s feast of minutiae for the most ardent of Tolkien fans.
  
  There are some brands of knowledge that seem utterly pointless, and for all but the most obsessive Tolkien fanatics, the information contained in these three books is of that brand. It is so detailed, so relentlessly comprehensive that it robs the subject of its magic. The level of information, for example, in The Lord of The Rings Reader’s Companion goes as far as cataloguing an instance where Tolkien contradicts himself in his letters on the date he started the Moria sequence.
  
  Though they share the collector’s desire to pin every butterfly fact to the boards of posterity, the books are slightly different. The History of the Hobbit contains the first draft of the Hobbit, and expends most of its energy on a comparative study of it and the published work, and the development of the former to the latter. It is the more interesting, and the less portentously written. The Lord of The Rings companion does not contain the novel’s text, for obvious reasons of space. It is instead intended to be useful alongside any edition of the novel, ticking off unusual vocabulary and The Lord of The Rings’ internal referencing of Tolkien’s mythos page by page, with extra detail provided by mini-essays. It’s comprehensive, but does a book that is delivered in the dense style of academia then need to explain the words ‘raiment’ or ‘mantle’? Its discussion of Middle-earth place names and Tolkien’s linguistic playfulness are more appropriate, and you do get a feel, here and there, for Tolkien’s state of mind. But it is all rather dry, and a far better insight into Tolkien as a man is to be had from the many biographies about him.
  
  Impressive achievements, they get points for their sheer exhaustiveness. However, they are likely to prove only exhausting to the casual reader. For the academically interested or hard-core fan only.
• 
  Rossrn Nunamaker

  This is for those who want to dig deeper into Tolkien's work, not for those who enjoy reading the Hobbit, but are good with what is there.
  
  The Hobbit is much shorter than LoTR and Silmarillion and as a result I liked the way the History of the Hobbit was organized compared to HoME.
  
  I read the one volume edition and it was a thick book to say the least, but it was worth every minute I spent reading it. Reading it would be an understatement. I savored it. I waited until everyone else in the house had gone to bed, shut the TV and any other distractions, and simply enjoyed reading this.
  
  Like HoME, it amazes me to get the insight into how the story evolved and to learn of potential works that inspired and influenced Tolkien.
• 
  Kris Ivy

  an in-depth look into how the Hobbit changed over time, the book and Bilbo. Explanations are even given for the changes and choices that were originally made. references to the works that Tolkien looked at himself are given for the reader to look back to, if they so wish. it has an air of explanation without demeaning the reader for not knowing already what was being explained.