We interrupt our normal posting pattern of Tuesday and Thursday to bring you a special reflection upon the 75th Anniversary of The Hobbit.
J. R. R., Tolkien described the events that led to the publication of one of the greatest children’s books ever–The Hobbit. Tolkien was grading papers, a task any teacher can attest to leading to mental daydreaming. Thus, in 1930, he was grading and later, he wrote, “All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children.”
“On a blank leaf I scrawled: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ I did not and do not know why. I did nothing about it, for a long time.” The Hobbit was published 75 years ago on September 21, 1937. Without the success of The Hobbit, there certainly would never have been the opportunity to produce a sequel which resulted in The Lord of the Rings in 1953. Even with the now-famous opening line written, the whole thing might have ended there, except for the author’s extraordinary interest in names and word origins. “Names always generate a story in my mind,” Tolkien later explained. “Eventually I thought I’d better find out what hobbits were like.”
Just today, I was speaking with my good friend, a professor and fellow Tolkien lover, Rob McCaffrey about our excitment of the coming publication of the movie about Tolkien’s book. We remarked about the amazement that Tolkien created a world, languages, a mythology, and then, in essence, set out to tell the history of the world he created. Ever since I first picked up the book in 1977, at the age of 13, I have loved the world of Middle Earth. I quickly discovered that Tolkien had printed a follow-up work, The Lord of the Rings, and I dove into that amazing trilogy the following year.
In 1958, Tolkien responded to a number of questions that a fan had sent him. There the author tells his reader, “I am a Christian” and then adds in parentheses “which can be deduced from my stories.” Tolkien’s use of the word deduced is central to understanding how Tolkien presented his faith in writing; the Christian element in his stories is present but is not overt. As a young Christian reading LOTR, the themes of sacrifice, of a king in hiding, of battling a great evil and of a community willing to band together for survival, even to the point of mutual defense seeped out of the pages. Aragorn’s quest and willingness to die in order to allow Frodo to make his way to Mount Doom, and Sam’s constant determination to become less in order to sustain his master, even as that master teetered into rebellion due to the influence of the ring, both testify to Tolkien’s creativity in sharing the Gospel without necessarily beating anyone over the head with it.
His witness in this way had a great influence on his fellow professor, C.S. Lewis. When they first met, Lewis was a determined atheist, but over time, their friendship began to infiltrate how Lewis saw the world. Eventually, Lewis would convert to Christianity, and go on to become one of the 20th century’s most influential apologist for the faith.
Tolkien actually reviewed The Hobbit, saying, “This is a children’s book only in the sense that the first of many readings can be undertaken in the nursery,” the reviewer explained. He also made the point that the book “will be funniest to its youngest readers, and only years later, at a tenth or a twentieth reading, will they begin to realize what deft scholarship and profound reflection have gone to make everything in it so ripe, so friendly, and in its own way so true.” Then, with a deep boldness probably reflecting both his wisdom as a language scholar and his passion for his friend, Lewis wrote, “Prediction is dangerous but The Hobbit may well prove to be a classic.”
It certainly was a classic and it spawned not only a genre, but entire worlds of fantasy. Those of us who have walked with Beren or Elendil, wept over the loss of Theoden or Thingol, and fought alongside Fingolfin or Faramir, find in Tolkien the Master creator. To know him as a man of faith deepens the appreciation.
Congrats, Professor Tolkien…though you were unsure if your work would ever be accepted or worth reading, on its 75th anniversary, we celebrate the day!