July 16, 2025
The Origins of The Hobbit | JRR Tolkien | Archives | 222
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"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
Tolkien’s simple opening line to his book The Hobbit wasn’t merely the first sentence to a children’s story of adventure, bravery, and dragons: this sentence is the first step in our own adventure of wandering Middle-earth. That unassuming yet provocative line opens us to a much wider world, to the epic struggle of good vs evil, of light overcoming the Shadow.
Today we’ll examine the origins of Tolkien’s first published work of fiction, The Hobbit.
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Embark on an immersive journey through the captivating realms of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, where the epic sagas of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and more come to life. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of Tolkien's masterful storytelling, drawing intriguing comparisons between his literary works and the cinematic adaptations crafted by Peter Jackson. Be at the forefront of the latest developments as we explore the highly anticipated Rings of Power series from Amazon. Prepare to be enthralled as we uncover hidden connections, untold tales, and delve into the depths of Middle-earth lore. Tune in now and become part of our fellowship on this extraordinary journey!
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WEBVTT
00:03.969 --> 00:07.712
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome, and the Lord of the Rings podcast, we wander the world of J.R.R.
00:07.732 --> 00:11.635
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien by exploring the foundational epic stories from the deep past of an olive.
00:12.296 --> 00:19.061
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed Tolkien's books, or maybe Peter Jackson's movies, or perhaps you're excited for Amazon Studios' new series The Rings of Power.
00:19.381 --> 00:22.804
[SPEAKER_00]: And you want to dive deeper into the Rich World of Middle-earth, then listen and subscribe.
00:31.532 --> 00:34.214
[SPEAKER_00]: In a hole in the ground, they're lived a hobbit.
00:35.074 --> 00:42.419
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's simple opening line to his book The Hobbit wasn't merely the first sentence to a children's story of adventure, bravery, and dragons.
00:42.899 --> 00:46.742
[SPEAKER_00]: This sentence is the first step in our own adventure of wandering middle-earth.
00:47.284 --> 00:55.931
[SPEAKER_00]: That unassuming get provocative line opens to us a much wider world to the epic struggle of good versus evil and of light overcoming the shadow.
00:56.531 --> 01:01.295
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we'll examine the origins of Tolkien's first published work of fiction, The Hobbit.
01:01.835 --> 01:02.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's wander.
01:03.196 --> 01:18.743
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we know Tolkien as the master, the grandfather of high fantasy, with a variety of published fiction and nonfiction works, whose lasting influence has inspired generations of authors, illustrators, and movie makers, not to mention the profound impact on readers of all ages.
01:19.443 --> 01:22.184
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's go back in time to nineteen thirty seven.
01:22.805 --> 01:31.969
[SPEAKER_00]: In May, the Hindenburg blew up in November, Japan and Germany would announce their alliance known as the Axis, and just two years later, the world would be ravaged by World War II.
01:32.549 --> 01:34.210
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Tolkien was forty-five.
01:34.670 --> 01:36.251
[SPEAKER_00]: All four of his children had been born.
01:36.691 --> 01:39.953
[SPEAKER_00]: A few years earlier, he had contributed to the Oxford English dictionary.
01:40.453 --> 01:42.735
[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, he was a professor at Oxford.
01:43.215 --> 01:47.559
[SPEAKER_00]: While grading exams, he noticed a blank page in one of the student's examination books.
01:48.159 --> 01:55.045
[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, he put his pen to paper and wrote, quote, in a hole in the ground, there lived a habit.
01:55.805 --> 01:58.968
[SPEAKER_00]: Little did he know of the adventure he had just embarked on.
01:59.957 --> 02:06.919
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tolkien Society.org, quote, in typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a habit was.
02:07.419 --> 02:08.839
[SPEAKER_00]: What sort of a hole it lived in?
02:09.299 --> 02:10.820
[SPEAKER_00]: Why it lived in a hole in et cetera?
02:11.360 --> 02:14.721
[SPEAKER_00]: From this investigation, Groy Tale that he told to his younger children.
02:15.441 --> 02:17.421
[SPEAKER_00]: By nineteen thirty-six, he had a draft.
02:17.902 --> 02:23.163
[SPEAKER_00]: When completed, the manuscript found its way to Stanley Unwin, chairman of the publishing firm, Alan and Unwin.
02:24.023 --> 02:26.545
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the deciding factor for the Hobbit to be published?
02:27.126 --> 02:32.070
[SPEAKER_00]: On when gave it to his ten-year-old son, Rainor, asking him to read it and then write a review.
02:32.690 --> 02:34.152
[SPEAKER_00]: His son's take on the manuscript?
02:34.572 --> 02:36.133
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me read it to you in full, quote.
02:36.594 --> 02:40.597
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo Baggins was a Hobbit who lived in his Hobbit hole and never went for adventures.
02:41.158 --> 02:44.180
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, Gandalf the Wizard and his dwarves persuaded him to go.
02:44.741 --> 02:47.683
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a very exciting time, fighting Goblins and Wargs.
02:48.143 --> 02:49.665
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, they got to the Lonely Mountain.
02:50.065 --> 02:55.930
[SPEAKER_00]: Smog the dragon, who guards it, is killed, and after a terrific battle with the goblins, he returned home, rich.
02:56.931 --> 03:00.595
[SPEAKER_00]: So far so good, ahead of the accurate summary of the whole book, let's keep going.
03:00.935 --> 03:04.818
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote this book, with the help of maps, does not need any illustrations.
03:05.359 --> 03:09.262
[SPEAKER_00]: It is good, and should appeal to children between the ages of five and nine.
03:10.163 --> 03:15.388
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, that short review written by a publisher's ten-year-old son wasn't enough for the Hobbit to be published.
03:16.289 --> 03:18.370
[SPEAKER_00]: I, from one, am grateful for Rainer's review.
03:18.850 --> 03:20.591
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if it hadn't been so positive.
03:21.032 --> 03:22.892
[SPEAKER_00]: Would we have ever been able to wander middle-earth?
03:23.353 --> 03:26.434
[SPEAKER_00]: What a darker place literature would be without token sales.
03:27.235 --> 03:31.777
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit was published in nineteen thirty-seven and has been on recommended reading lists for decades.
03:32.557 --> 03:33.438
[SPEAKER_00]: The readers loved it.
03:33.917 --> 03:36.178
[SPEAKER_00]: and begs Tolkien for more stories about Hobbits.
03:36.958 --> 03:39.178
[SPEAKER_00]: But a major revision happened in the second edition.
03:39.679 --> 03:47.701
[SPEAKER_00]: For the plot to work in the Lord of the Rings, some changes were made to the fifth chapter, Riddles in the Dark, where Bilbo finds the ring and banners with Gaulom.
03:48.341 --> 03:52.182
[SPEAKER_00]: In the original version, Gaulom bets the ring on winning the Riddle game.
03:52.802 --> 03:56.503
[SPEAKER_00]: After Bilbo wins, he can't find it, and instead shows Bilbo the way out.
03:56.863 --> 03:59.404
[SPEAKER_00]: What a courteous and kind Gaulom that must have been.
04:00.164 --> 04:04.890
[SPEAKER_00]: Changes were made to show that the one ring was evil and had been corrupting golem for centuries.
04:05.490 --> 04:07.633
[SPEAKER_00]: What a drastic character changed that is for golem.
04:08.294 --> 04:10.336
[SPEAKER_00]: But could you imagine a kinder gentler golem?
04:10.696 --> 04:11.878
[SPEAKER_00]: It simply doesn't fit.
04:12.919 --> 04:14.321
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's examine the title.
04:14.681 --> 04:20.308
[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably thinking how much insight can be gained from a simple, two-word title such as the Hobbit.
04:21.060 --> 04:23.342
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is, that's not the full title.
04:23.942 --> 04:27.866
[SPEAKER_00]: The full title actually is the Hobbit, or there and back again.
04:28.426 --> 04:40.015
[SPEAKER_00]: If that's a surprise, I remind you of Bilbo's opening words as he is writing in his book at Bagend at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring Movie, quote, there and back again, a Hobbit's Tale by Bilbo Bagends.
04:40.896 --> 04:57.040
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a little insight in the first paragraph of the prologue in the Fellowship of the Ringbook, where we learned that Bilbo's book was published at large to the world as the Hobbit, but Bilbo called it himself, quote, there and back again, since it told of his journey into the East and his return.
04:57.980 --> 05:00.781
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as titles go, this was a brilliant stroke by Tolkien.
05:01.301 --> 05:06.682
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, imagine a world without the Lord of the Rings books or movies, and you had never heard of a Hobbit.
05:07.405 --> 05:12.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly this book from an Oxford professor hits the shelves and everybody seems to be talking about it.
05:12.550 --> 05:12.951
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit?
05:13.411 --> 05:14.312
[SPEAKER_00]: What is a Hobbit?
05:14.692 --> 05:15.473
[SPEAKER_00]: For a strange word.
05:15.954 --> 05:16.774
[SPEAKER_00]: And where is there?
05:17.255 --> 05:18.516
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did the Hobbit travel to?
05:18.676 --> 05:20.758
[SPEAKER_00]: And why is it important that he came back again?
05:21.519 --> 05:24.823
[SPEAKER_00]: These sorts of questions are what I imagine we're passing through people's minds.
05:25.503 --> 05:29.707
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only was it a great marketing move, but it revealed Tolkien's approach to writing fiction.
05:30.408 --> 05:39.077
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien played the part of omniscient narrator, but his writing philosophy was much more like recording true stories from characters who manifested themselves to him.
05:39.778 --> 05:48.367
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that Tolkien was delusional by any means, hearing voices or seeing things, but rather, his approach to writing is to be the recorder of ancient events.
05:48.947 --> 05:53.251
[SPEAKER_00]: events that are true in and of themselves, whether he was the author or not.
05:53.972 --> 06:00.778
[SPEAKER_00]: That sort of separation I think is somewhat unique to Tolkien and is a major contributor to the lasting impact of his tales.
06:01.358 --> 06:05.062
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a ring of truth to them because they feel like ancient history.
06:05.972 --> 06:08.733
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we close out today, I have one more bit of history for you.
06:09.113 --> 06:16.156
[SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning of World War II, Tolkien was tagged to be a codebreaker, mostly because of his expertise in Germanic languages.
06:16.777 --> 06:20.478
[SPEAKER_00]: Though trained, he was dismissed before he actually was able to do any code breaking.
06:21.098 --> 06:27.001
[SPEAKER_00]: But Tolkien's love of languages and his skill with linguistic puzzles is highlighted on page one of the Hobbit.
06:27.501 --> 06:29.242
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to that right after this break.
06:32.952 --> 06:33.612
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done yet.
06:33.932 --> 06:36.694
[SPEAKER_00]: If you like this episode, please leave a review and share with your friends.
06:36.994 --> 06:38.854
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember to subscribe if you haven't already.
06:39.055 --> 06:39.735
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.
06:45.277 --> 06:48.859
[SPEAKER_00]: Page one of the Hobbit has a title, but I actually don't know what it is.
06:49.419 --> 06:50.279
[SPEAKER_00]: It's written in Runes.
06:50.840 --> 06:58.443
[SPEAKER_00]: Runes, talking tells us on that page, quote, where all the letters originally used for cutting or scratching on wood, stone, or metal.
06:58.923 --> 07:00.744
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're thin and angular.
07:01.724 --> 07:08.546
[SPEAKER_00]: Using ancient ruins on page one gives credence to the first line of the page, quote, this is a story of longer go.
07:08.566 --> 07:16.729
[SPEAKER_00]: And because it's a story of longer go, Tolkien felt the need to explain the origin of the word ork that he used in the story of the Hobbit.
07:17.289 --> 07:19.469
[SPEAKER_00]: quote ork is not an English word.
07:20.070 --> 07:22.810
[SPEAKER_00]: It is actually the word that Hobbit's used to describe those creatures.
07:23.311 --> 07:27.912
[SPEAKER_00]: But because this tale is a translation, sometimes the word goblin is also used.
07:28.325 --> 07:34.270
[SPEAKER_00]: Hence, orc and goblin are virtually synonymous, at least from this note on page one of the Hobbit.
07:35.071 --> 07:38.054
[SPEAKER_00]: But returning to the runes, Tolkien explains how to use them.
07:38.494 --> 07:50.604
[SPEAKER_00]: Here are his instructions, quote, if the runes on Thor's map are compared with the transcriptions into modern letters, the alphabet adapted to modern English can be discovered and the above runic title also read.
07:51.525 --> 07:52.425
[SPEAKER_00]: I love a good puzzle.
07:53.025 --> 07:54.506
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you, go figure it out.
07:55.226 --> 07:56.386
[SPEAKER_00]: I forbid you to Google it.
07:56.866 --> 08:03.528
[SPEAKER_00]: You must look at Thor's map and read Gandalf's translation in chapter one and Elron's translation of the moon runes in chapter three.
08:04.048 --> 08:05.589
[SPEAKER_00]: Figure it out for yourself.
08:06.189 --> 08:09.910
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and the charter runes in the appendix to the Lord of the Rings won't help you either.
08:10.350 --> 08:13.451
[SPEAKER_00]: You're on your own, with the text of the Hobbit as your guide.
08:14.271 --> 08:24.415
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually just stopped writing this episode so I could go decipher the runes and I was tempted to Google it halfway through, but I persisted and figured it out, and it was immensely satisfying.
08:25.356 --> 08:30.378
[SPEAKER_00]: Next time we will embark on an adventure, as we break down the first chapter of J.R.R.
08:30.438 --> 08:32.819
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's The Hobbit, or there and back again.
08:33.439 --> 08:35.800
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wandering Middle-Earth with me today.
08:42.541 --> 08:47.684
[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know by subscribing, leaving your review and sharing with your friends.
08:47.704 --> 08:50.886
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on Facebook or Instagram at more of the Reams podcast.
08:51.386 --> 08:54.408
[SPEAKER_00]: For feedback on the show, please email me using the link in the show description.
08:54.788 --> 08:58.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next Thursday, remember, not all those who want to are lost.
00:03.969 --> 00:07.712
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome, and the Lord of the Rings podcast, we wander the world of J.R.R.
00:07.732 --> 00:11.635
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien by exploring the foundational epic stories from the deep past of an olive.
00:12.296 --> 00:19.061
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed Tolkien's books, or maybe Peter Jackson's movies, or perhaps you're excited for Amazon Studios' new series The Rings of Power.
00:19.381 --> 00:22.804
[SPEAKER_00]: And you want to dive deeper into the Rich World of Middle-earth, then listen and subscribe.
00:31.532 --> 00:34.214
[SPEAKER_00]: In a hole in the ground, they're lived a hobbit.
00:35.074 --> 00:42.419
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's simple opening line to his book The Hobbit wasn't merely the first sentence to a children's story of adventure, bravery, and dragons.
00:42.899 --> 00:46.742
[SPEAKER_00]: This sentence is the first step in our own adventure of wandering middle-earth.
00:47.284 --> 00:55.931
[SPEAKER_00]: That unassuming get provocative line opens to us a much wider world to the epic struggle of good versus evil and of light overcoming the shadow.
00:56.531 --> 01:01.295
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we'll examine the origins of Tolkien's first published work of fiction, The Hobbit.
01:01.835 --> 01:02.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's wander.
01:03.196 --> 01:18.743
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we know Tolkien as the master, the grandfather of high fantasy, with a variety of published fiction and nonfiction works, whose lasting influence has inspired generations of authors, illustrators, and movie makers, not to mention the profound impact on readers of all ages.
01:19.443 --> 01:22.184
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's go back in time to nineteen thirty seven.
01:22.805 --> 01:31.969
[SPEAKER_00]: In May, the Hindenburg blew up in November, Japan and Germany would announce their alliance known as the Axis, and just two years later, the world would be ravaged by World War II.
01:32.549 --> 01:34.210
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Tolkien was forty-five.
01:34.670 --> 01:36.251
[SPEAKER_00]: All four of his children had been born.
01:36.691 --> 01:39.953
[SPEAKER_00]: A few years earlier, he had contributed to the Oxford English dictionary.
01:40.453 --> 01:42.735
[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, he was a professor at Oxford.
01:43.215 --> 01:47.559
[SPEAKER_00]: While grading exams, he noticed a blank page in one of the student's examination books.
01:48.159 --> 01:55.045
[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, he put his pen to paper and wrote, quote, in a hole in the ground, there lived a habit.
01:55.805 --> 01:58.968
[SPEAKER_00]: Little did he know of the adventure he had just embarked on.
01:59.957 --> 02:06.919
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tolkien Society.org, quote, in typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a habit was.
02:07.419 --> 02:08.839
[SPEAKER_00]: What sort of a hole it lived in?
02:09.299 --> 02:10.820
[SPEAKER_00]: Why it lived in a hole in et cetera?
02:11.360 --> 02:14.721
[SPEAKER_00]: From this investigation, Groy Tale that he told to his younger children.
02:15.441 --> 02:17.421
[SPEAKER_00]: By nineteen thirty-six, he had a draft.
02:17.902 --> 02:23.163
[SPEAKER_00]: When completed, the manuscript found its way to Stanley Unwin, chairman of the publishing firm, Alan and Unwin.
02:24.023 --> 02:26.545
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the deciding factor for the Hobbit to be published?
02:27.126 --> 02:32.070
[SPEAKER_00]: On when gave it to his ten-year-old son, Rainor, asking him to read it and then write a review.
02:32.690 --> 02:34.152
[SPEAKER_00]: His son's take on the manuscript?
02:34.572 --> 02:36.133
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me read it to you in full, quote.
02:36.594 --> 02:40.597
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo Baggins was a Hobbit who lived in his Hobbit hole and never went for adventures.
02:41.158 --> 02:44.180
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, Gandalf the Wizard and his dwarves persuaded him to go.
02:44.741 --> 02:47.683
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a very exciting time, fighting Goblins and Wargs.
02:48.143 --> 02:49.665
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, they got to the Lonely Mountain.
02:50.065 --> 02:55.930
[SPEAKER_00]: Smog the dragon, who guards it, is killed, and after a terrific battle with the goblins, he returned home, rich.
02:56.931 --> 03:00.595
[SPEAKER_00]: So far so good, ahead of the accurate summary of the whole book, let's keep going.
03:00.935 --> 03:04.818
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote this book, with the help of maps, does not need any illustrations.
03:05.359 --> 03:09.262
[SPEAKER_00]: It is good, and should appeal to children between the ages of five and nine.
03:10.163 --> 03:15.388
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, that short review written by a publisher's ten-year-old son wasn't enough for the Hobbit to be published.
03:16.289 --> 03:18.370
[SPEAKER_00]: I, from one, am grateful for Rainer's review.
03:18.850 --> 03:20.591
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if it hadn't been so positive.
03:21.032 --> 03:22.892
[SPEAKER_00]: Would we have ever been able to wander middle-earth?
03:23.353 --> 03:26.434
[SPEAKER_00]: What a darker place literature would be without token sales.
03:27.235 --> 03:31.777
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit was published in nineteen thirty-seven and has been on recommended reading lists for decades.
03:32.557 --> 03:33.438
[SPEAKER_00]: The readers loved it.
03:33.917 --> 03:36.178
[SPEAKER_00]: and begs Tolkien for more stories about Hobbits.
03:36.958 --> 03:39.178
[SPEAKER_00]: But a major revision happened in the second edition.
03:39.679 --> 03:47.701
[SPEAKER_00]: For the plot to work in the Lord of the Rings, some changes were made to the fifth chapter, Riddles in the Dark, where Bilbo finds the ring and banners with Gaulom.
03:48.341 --> 03:52.182
[SPEAKER_00]: In the original version, Gaulom bets the ring on winning the Riddle game.
03:52.802 --> 03:56.503
[SPEAKER_00]: After Bilbo wins, he can't find it, and instead shows Bilbo the way out.
03:56.863 --> 03:59.404
[SPEAKER_00]: What a courteous and kind Gaulom that must have been.
04:00.164 --> 04:04.890
[SPEAKER_00]: Changes were made to show that the one ring was evil and had been corrupting golem for centuries.
04:05.490 --> 04:07.633
[SPEAKER_00]: What a drastic character changed that is for golem.
04:08.294 --> 04:10.336
[SPEAKER_00]: But could you imagine a kinder gentler golem?
04:10.696 --> 04:11.878
[SPEAKER_00]: It simply doesn't fit.
04:12.919 --> 04:14.321
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's examine the title.
04:14.681 --> 04:20.308
[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably thinking how much insight can be gained from a simple, two-word title such as the Hobbit.
04:21.060 --> 04:23.342
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is, that's not the full title.
04:23.942 --> 04:27.866
[SPEAKER_00]: The full title actually is the Hobbit, or there and back again.
04:28.426 --> 04:40.015
[SPEAKER_00]: If that's a surprise, I remind you of Bilbo's opening words as he is writing in his book at Bagend at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring Movie, quote, there and back again, a Hobbit's Tale by Bilbo Bagends.
04:40.896 --> 04:57.040
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a little insight in the first paragraph of the prologue in the Fellowship of the Ringbook, where we learned that Bilbo's book was published at large to the world as the Hobbit, but Bilbo called it himself, quote, there and back again, since it told of his journey into the East and his return.
04:57.980 --> 05:00.781
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as titles go, this was a brilliant stroke by Tolkien.
05:01.301 --> 05:06.682
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, imagine a world without the Lord of the Rings books or movies, and you had never heard of a Hobbit.
05:07.405 --> 05:12.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly this book from an Oxford professor hits the shelves and everybody seems to be talking about it.
05:12.550 --> 05:12.951
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit?
05:13.411 --> 05:14.312
[SPEAKER_00]: What is a Hobbit?
05:14.692 --> 05:15.473
[SPEAKER_00]: For a strange word.
05:15.954 --> 05:16.774
[SPEAKER_00]: And where is there?
05:17.255 --> 05:18.516
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did the Hobbit travel to?
05:18.676 --> 05:20.758
[SPEAKER_00]: And why is it important that he came back again?
05:21.519 --> 05:24.823
[SPEAKER_00]: These sorts of questions are what I imagine we're passing through people's minds.
05:25.503 --> 05:29.707
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only was it a great marketing move, but it revealed Tolkien's approach to writing fiction.
05:30.408 --> 05:39.077
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien played the part of omniscient narrator, but his writing philosophy was much more like recording true stories from characters who manifested themselves to him.
05:39.778 --> 05:48.367
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that Tolkien was delusional by any means, hearing voices or seeing things, but rather, his approach to writing is to be the recorder of ancient events.
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[SPEAKER_00]: events that are true in and of themselves, whether he was the author or not.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That sort of separation I think is somewhat unique to Tolkien and is a major contributor to the lasting impact of his tales.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They have a ring of truth to them because they feel like ancient history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Before we close out today, I have one more bit of history for you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning of World War II, Tolkien was tagged to be a codebreaker, mostly because of his expertise in Germanic languages.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Though trained, he was dismissed before he actually was able to do any code breaking.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Tolkien's love of languages and his skill with linguistic puzzles is highlighted on page one of the Hobbit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to that right after this break.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done yet.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you like this episode, please leave a review and share with your friends.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And remember to subscribe if you haven't already.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Page one of the Hobbit has a title, but I actually don't know what it is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's written in Runes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Runes, talking tells us on that page, quote, where all the letters originally used for cutting or scratching on wood, stone, or metal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're thin and angular.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Using ancient ruins on page one gives credence to the first line of the page, quote, this is a story of longer go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And because it's a story of longer go, Tolkien felt the need to explain the origin of the word ork that he used in the story of the Hobbit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: quote ork is not an English word.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is actually the word that Hobbit's used to describe those creatures.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But because this tale is a translation, sometimes the word goblin is also used.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hence, orc and goblin are virtually synonymous, at least from this note on page one of the Hobbit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But returning to the runes, Tolkien explains how to use them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Here are his instructions, quote, if the runes on Thor's map are compared with the transcriptions into modern letters, the alphabet adapted to modern English can be discovered and the above runic title also read.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I love a good puzzle.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now you, go figure it out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I forbid you to Google it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You must look at Thor's map and read Gandalf's translation in chapter one and Elron's translation of the moon runes in chapter three.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Figure it out for yourself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and the charter runes in the appendix to the Lord of the Rings won't help you either.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You're on your own, with the text of the Hobbit as your guide.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I actually just stopped writing this episode so I could go decipher the runes and I was tempted to Google it halfway through, but I persisted and figured it out, and it was immensely satisfying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Next time we will embark on an adventure, as we break down the first chapter of J.R.R.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's The Hobbit, or there and back again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wandering Middle-Earth with me today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know by subscribing, leaving your review and sharing with your friends.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on Facebook or Instagram at more of the Reams podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For feedback on the show, please email me using the link in the show description.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Until next Thursday, remember, not all those who want to are lost.
