The Hobbit: Illustrated Edition: Or There and Back Again

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Carpenter, Humphrey (1979). The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-395-27628-0. I could possibly go on and on but seeing that the crappy Collider piece was the reason all of this had bubbled up I will link to it as well (you can visit it from the tweet at the beginning of this post, too). To give you an idea of this nonsense: Lawrence, Elizabeth T. (1987). "Glory Road: Epic Romance As An Allegory of 20th Century History; The World Through The Eyes of J. R. R. Tolkien". Epic, Romance and the American Dream; 1987 Volume II. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute . Retrieved 15 June 2008.

In December 1937 The Hobbit 's publisher, Stanley Unwin, asked Tolkien for a sequel. In response Tolkien provided drafts for The Silmarillion, but the editors rejected them, believing that the public wanted "more about hobbits". [51] Tolkien subsequently began work on The New Hobbit, which would eventually become The Lord of the Rings, [51] a course that would not only change the context of the original story, but lead to substantial changes to the character of Gollum. This new edition of The Hobbit follows similar editions of Tolkien’s other books featuring the author’s hand-drawn maps and artwork. There’s The Lord of the Rings Illustrated, which came out in 2021 and The Silmarillion Illustrated, which arrived last fall. 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, [77] stemming from Tolkien's popularity with the elements of counter-culture in the 1970s. [78] Genre [ edit ]Faraci, Mary (2002). " 'I wish to speak' (Tolkien's voice in his Beowulf essay)". In Chance, Jane (ed.). Tolkien the Medievalist. Routledge. pp.58–59. ISBN 978-0-415-28944-3. Tolkien's portrayal of goblins in The Hobbit was particularly influenced by George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin. [22] However, MacDonald's influence on Tolkien was more profound than the shaping of individual characters and episodes; his works further helped Tolkien form his whole thinking on the role of fantasy within his Christian faith. [23] Verne's runic cryptogram from Journey to the Center of the Earth

a b Helms, Randel (1976). Myth, Magic and Meaning in Tolkien's World. Granada. pp. 45–55. ISBN 978-0-415-92150-3. Hunt, Peter; Hunt, Tristram (2000). Children's Literature. John Wiley & Sons. p.173 et seq. ISBN 978-0-631-21141-9.Rayner [Unwin] shows Tolkien the sample illustration by Maurice Sendak for the proposed Houghton Mifflin illustrated Hobbit. Rayner will write to Austin Olney on 20 February that Tolkien was not ‘wildly happy about the proportions of the figures’ in the Sendak drawing (…)

Shippey, Tom (December 1980). "[Review:] Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' by Jane Chance Nitzsche". Notes and Queries. 27 (6): 570–572. doi: 10.1093/nq/27.6.570-b. Tolkien's use of descriptive names such as Misty Mountains and Bag End echoes the names used in Old Norse sagas. [30] The names of the dwarf-friendly ravens, such as Roäc, are derived from the Old Norse words for "raven" and "rook", [31] but their peaceful characters are unlike the typical carrion birds from Old Norse and Old English literature. [32] 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. [33] Maps figure in both saga literature and The Hobbit. [30] Several of the author's illustrations incorporate Anglo-Saxon runes, an English adaptation of the Germanic runic alphabets. Joy Hill writes to Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin have asked to pay Allen & Unwin a lower royalty on the deluxe illustrated Hobbit so as to give a small royalty to the artist, Maurice Sendak. Yale University Library database entry for [Study of Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf]So, if you ask me Sendak never liked doing the illustrations for The Hobbit. He had become incredibly successful and popular when Where The Wild Things Are was published and probably no longer willing to just take on any old job to make the money – there was no need for it anymore. So he let it slip until the very last minute – the grand old freelancing artist strategy – and then sketched something in a couple of hours to send off to the publishers. No second picture, there was no need for it – and no proof of a second picture has ever been given. a b Kocher, Paul (1974). Master of Middle-earth, the Achievement of J. R. R. Tolkien. Penguin Books. pp.31–32.

For the first time ever, a beautiful slipcased edition of the enchanting prelude to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout with over 50 sketches, drawings, paintings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien himself, with the complete text printed in two colours and with many bonus features unique to this edition. Tolkien's works show many influences from Norse mythology, reflecting his lifelong passion for those stories and his academic interest in Germanic philology. [25] The Hobbit is no exception to this; the work shows influences from northern European literature, myths and languages, [26] especially from the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Examples include the names of characters, [27] such as Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Dwalin, Balin, Dain, Nain, Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf (deriving from the Old Norse names Fíli, Kíli, Oin, Glói, Bivör, Bávörr, Bömburr, Dori, Nóri, Dvalinn, Bláin, Dain, Nain, Þorin Eikinskialdi and Gandálfr). [28] But while their names are from Old Norse, the characters of the dwarves are more directly taken from fairy tales such as Snow White and Snow-White and Rose-Red as collected by the Brothers Grimm. The latter tale may also have influenced the character of Beorn. [29] St. Clair 2000, p.39. "Unlike the raven servants of the god of war, Roac is against war with the men of Dale and the Elves. Further, the birds carry the good news of Smaug's fall over the countryside. In The Hobbit, they do not function as scavengers after battle as ravens usually do in medieval Norse and English works."

As Sendak noted passages for possible illustration and sketched in the margins of his copy of the book, the publisher prepared the art samples for Tolkien’s approval. The editor mislabeled the samples, however, identifying the wood-elves as “hobbits,” as Sendak recalled to Maguire. This blunder nettled Tolkien. His reply was that Sendak had not read the book closely and did not know what a hobbit was. Consequently, Tolkien did not approve the drawings. Sendak was furious. Uffindell, Matthew; Passey, Chris (May 1984). "Playing The Game" (jpg). Crash. 1 (4): 43 . Retrieved 6 July 2008.Kean, Danuta (17 January 2017). "The Da Vinci Code code: what's the formula for a bestselling book?". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 August 2019. St. Clair, Gloriana. "Tolkien's Cauldron: Northern Literature and The Lord of the Rings". Carnegie Mellon . Retrieved 9 July 2008. Millard, Elaine (1997). Differently Literate: boys, Girls and the Schooling of Literacy. Routledge. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-7507-0661-2. a b Shippey, Tom (2001). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. HarperCollins. p.41. ISBN 978-0-261-10401-3.