The History of The Hobbit

The History of The Hobbit
Author	J.R.R. Tolkien
Editor	John D. Rateliff
Illustrator	J.R.R. Tolkien
Publisher	HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released	vol.1: 1 May 2007 vol.2: 18 June 2007
Format	Hardcover
Pages	480 (each volume)
ISBNs	0007235550 0007250665

The History of The Hobbit is a two-volume study of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, published in 2007.

It contains Tolkien's unpublished drafts of the novel, with commentary by John D. Rateliff. It also details Tolkien's various revisions to The Hobbit, including abandoned revisions for the unpublished third edition of the work, intended for 1960, as well as previously unpublished original maps and illustrations drawn by Tolkien himself.

An abbreviated version was published by HarperCollins in 2015 as A Brief History of The Hobbit. This version retains Tolkien's text and the textual notes provided by Rateliff but omits his essays on various aspects of the texts.

First edition

The first edition of The History of The Hobbit was released in two volumes:

1. Part One: Mr. Baggins
2. Part Two: Return to Bag-End

First in May and June of 2007 in the U.K. by HarperCollins, then in September in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin, which also released it as a boxed set in October. The Houghton Mifflin boxed set also includes a new edition of The Hobbit with a short introduction by Christopher Tolkien, a reset text incorporating the most up-to-date corrections, and all of Tolkien's own drawings and color illustrations, including the rare "Mirkwood" piece.

In an interview conducted before the publication, Rateliff described the undertaking in the following way:

The big project, which I've been working on for years and will finally be sending to the publisher near the end of this year, is a book called The History of The Hobbit. It's rather along the lines of Christopher Tolkien's editions that make up the History of Middle-Earth series (which I highly recommend if you haven't read them): an edition of the original manuscript of The Hobbit with extensive commentary on how Mr. Baggins' story fits into Tolkien's legendarium. It's a big book filled with the entire text of Tolkien's first draft, along with short essays about everything from rings of invisibility or Tolkien's spiders to a detailed account of just when Tolkien wrote the book (which can actually be reconstructed from available evidence to within a month or two on either end). I hope people will like it when it finally sees the light of day.

One-volume edition

On 24 March 2011, Rateliff announced that The History of The Hobbit will be reprinted, together with an Addendum, as a single-volume book. This "Revised edition" was released on 27 October. The Addendum includes:

• "Timeline of Events" — (a timeline of fifteen days following Durin's Day)
• "Notes on a Parley" — (a detailed description of the Front Gate)
• "Responses to Queries" — (some proofreader's concerns addressed by J.R.R. Tolkien)
• "Personae" — (an interesting listing of Thorin and Company)
• "Runic Charts" — (details on using dwarven runes)
• "Feanorian Letters" — (details on writing in Tengwar, including punctuation and numbers)

Publication history and gallery

First edition vol.1   First edition vol.2   Boxed set (with The Hobbit)   One-volume edition   One-volume deluxe edition

• First edition
  • Volume 1: HarperCollins hardcover (2007), pp. 480. ISBN 0007235550
  • Volume 2: HarperCollins hardcover (2007), pp. 480. ISBN 0007250665
  • Boxed Set: HarperCollins hardcover with slipcase (2007), ISBN 0261102915
• One-volume edition
  • HarperCollins hardcover (27 October 2011), pp. 960. ISBN 0007440825
  • HarperCollins hardcover with slipcase (23 February 2023), pp. 960. ISBN 0008601402

See also

• The Annotated Hobbit
• The History of Middle-earth
• The History of The Lord of the Rings

External links

• Official Errata of The History of the Hobbit
• Tom Shippey, Review of the book, Tolkien Studies 5
• Interview with John D. Rateliff
• A Talk with John D. Rateliff