We have a long way to go, and there is time ahead for thought.
The 1960 Hobbit, or Fifth Phase, is a chapter in The History of The Hobbit about an abandoned attempt by Tolkien to reconcile the differences between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, including discrepancies in chronology, geography, and style, which resulted from The Hobbit having been written years before The Lord of the Rings, and in a much more whimsical tone.[1]
The existence of the rewrite was not known to the general public for a long time, aside from Humphrey Carpenter's J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography referring to "some revision notes" that Tolkien had wished to use to help him in writing the third edition of The Hobbit (1966) but had been unable to find. It was first brought to light when Christopher Tolkien read a portion of it at the 1987 Marquette Tolkien Conference (Mythcon 18), and at last became available to the public when it was published in John D. Rateliff's The History of The Hobbit.[1]
The 1960 rewrite was a typescript consisting of several updated passages intended to replace corresponding portions of the already-published second edition. Tolkien did not complete the project, however, abandoning the rewrite just before Thorin and Company reach Rivendell.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, John D. Rateliff (ed.), The History of The Hobbit, Return to Bag-End, "The Fifth Phase", "The 1960 Hobbit"