While The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings share a continuous narrative focused on “The Great Years” of Middle-earth’s late Third Age, for serious readers of Tolkien the two works appear, in many respects, to be of entirely different literary genres. It’s often noted that The Hobbit feels like more of a children’s fairy-tale, while The Lord of the Rings elevates the Baggins saga to the level of an ancient epic. Considering this, it’s fascinating to note that despite The Hobbit’s immense popularity, Tolkien was in many ways unsatisfied with it, especially in the way the tale had been told. Around 1960, he even went so far as to begin a complete rewrite of The Hobbit, a rewrite that, for better or for worse, never saw completion. Beginning with this episode, we will take a close look at the the texts and notes associated with this effort, as contained in John Rateliff’s The History of The Hobbit.
Please patronize us: https://patreon.com/tolkienroad
For more on this episode and The Tolkien Road podcast, please visit TolkienRoad.com or Facebook.com/TolkienRoad. Also, follow us on Twitter via @TolkienRoad.
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free