The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Analysis

The Ring and the ArkenstoneIt may seem surprising that we find Thorin Oakenshield and Gollum similar. But hear us out! We think we can make our case. To start, both of them lost their homes long ag...

Middle-earth: Bag-End, the Lone-lands, Rivendell, the Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, Lake-town, the Lonely MountainFirst things first, we strongly suggest that you check out the handy map Tolkien drew...

First Person (Peripheral Narrator)Even though the "I" who is narrating The Hobbit hardly ever appears in the novel, this is still technically a first-person book. Someone occasionally steps in to m...

Fantasy, Quest, Coming-of-AgeIt's hard to miss that The Hobbit is a fantasy novel, what with all of the elves and goblins and trolls and things. And The Hobbit is also clearly a quest because the w...

The first line of The Hobbit suddenly came to J.R.R. Tolkien as he was in the middle of grading English exam papers:One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing on it,...

In a 1933 letter, C.S. Lewis (author of the beloved Narnia books) comments on having just finished reading Tolkien's manuscript of The Hobbit: "Whether it is really good (I think it is until the en...