Characters
Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist, is a respectable, reserved and well-to-do hobbit—a … See more

On its publication in October 1937, The Hobbit was met with almost unanimously favourable reviews from publications both in the UK and the … See more

The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit's sequel The Lord of the Rings is often claimed to be its greatest legacy. The plots share the same basic structure in the same sequence: the stories are both quests starting at Bag End, the home of Bilbo Baggins; … See more

Background
In the early 1930s Tolkien was pursuing an academic career at Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth … See more

Norse mythology
Tolkien's works show many influences from Norse mythology, reflecting his lifelong passion for those stories and his academic interest in Germanic philology. The Hobbit is no exception to this; the work shows … See more

Themes
The evolution and maturation of the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is central to the story. This journey of maturation, where Bilbo gains a clear sense of identity and confidence in the outside world, may be seen See more

George Allen & Unwin published the first edition of The Hobbit on 21 September 1937 with a print run of 1,500 copies, which sold out by … See more