* 1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.

As one of several books that have been recommended for 11 – 14 year old boys to encourage literacy in that demographic, The Hobbit is promoted as " the original and still the best fantasy ever written.

* The Hobbit covers around the globe – gallery

* November 27 – The Rankin / Bass made-for-TV animated film The Hobbit premieres on NBC in the United States.

* September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

In the BBC radio dramatizations, Gandalf has been voiced by Norman Shelley in The Lord of the Rings ( 1955 – 1956 ), Heron Carvic in The Hobbit ( 1968 ), Bernard Mayes in The Lord of the Rings ( 1979 ) and Sir Michael Hordern in The Lord of the Rings ( 1981 ).

McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf for the upcoming three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit ( 2012 – 2013 ).

Bilbo refuses to give up the Ring, referring to it as his " precious " – just as Gollum had in The Hobbit.

They appear in his books The Hobbit ( 1937 ), The Lord of the Rings ( 1954 – 55 ), and the posthumously published The Silmarillion ( 1977 ), Unfinished Tales ( 1980 ), and The History of Middle-earth series ( 1983 – 96 ), the last three edited by his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien.

Indeed the decline was so severe that in 1601 Argeleb II ( r. 1589 – 1670 ) granted a large portion of Arthedain's best farmland to Hobbit migrants, as these lands had become deserted.

* The Hobbit – Goblins

Howe also re-illustrated the maps of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion in 1996 – 2003.

* The Hobbit – a 1977 animated musical television special created by Rankin / Bass * The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit ( 1937 ) and The Lord of the Rings ( 1954 – 55 ).

* Washington University in St. Louis Virtual Endocasts of the " Hobbit " – Electronic Radiology Laboratory

# " Hobbit On The Rocks " – 3: 38

Heron Carvic ( 21 January 1913 – 9 February 1980 ) was a British actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born To Be King was broadcast.

# " Hobbit Motherfuckers " ( on double LP version, American version and 2005 re-issue ) – 1: 18

# " Hobbit Motherfuckers " – 1: 22

* He illustrated the scene of a dragon, a wizard and an armored archer on the first Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, " A simple composition, it shows a wand-waving magic user and a knight, his longbow drawn, squaring off against a dragon who sits – à la Smaug from The Hobbit – atop a vast pile of gold coins and jewels.

Alongside many other British and Irish actors, Nesbitt was cast in Peter Jackson's two-part film The Hobbit, as the dwarf Bofur.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Raimi had expressed an interest in directing a film version of The Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In 2011 parts of Hobbiton began to close in preparation for two new movies based around the Lord of the Rings prequel novel The Hobbit.

* The Hobbit ( film series ), a three-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, currently in production

It is also being used for filming of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy prequel films The Hobbit, also directed by Peter Jackson.

In The Hobbit, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc was used in the publication with few changes ; in The Lord of the Rings a new system of runes, the Cirth, was devised.

* The Red Book of Westmarch and a surviving copy of it called The Thain's Book, portions of which were " translated " by J. R. R. Tolkien into his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Probably the most famous user of proverbs in novels is J. R. R. Tolkien in his The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series.

While The Hobbit has been adapted and elaborated upon in many ways, its sequel The Lord of the Rings is often claimed to be its greatest legacy.

Many of the thematic and stylistic differences arose because Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children, and The Lord of the Rings for the same audience, who had subsequently grown up since its publication.

* Sting ( Middle-earth ), a sword belonging to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

A soundtrack for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings was composed by Craig Russell for the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony.

Gandalf () is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Throughout the early drafts, and through to the first edition of The Hobbit Bladorthin / Gandalf is described as being a " little old man ", distinct from a dwarf, but not of the full human stature that would later be described in The Lord of the Rings.

Then, in an event only briefly described ( in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings ), the Council " put forth its power " and drove Sauron from Dol Guldur.

As explained in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf spent the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings travelling Middle-earth in search of information on Sauron's resurgence and Bilbo's mysterious ring, spurred particularly by Bilbo's initial misleading story of how he had obtained it as a " present " from Gollum.

They are used in The Hobbit in a few names like Elrond or Bolg, in The Lord of the Rings for names ( like Galadriel or Aragorn ) and several poems (" Namárië "), and in The Silmarillion almost all names, including the title and a few sentences,

Although Tolkien never gave a fully complete description of the Wargs ( he simply noted that they were demonic wolves ), they do seem to have a regular wolf-appearance in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and they are regularly called " wolves.

While The Hobbit introduced this comfortable race to the world, it is only in writing The Lord of the Rings that Tolkien developed details of their history and wider society.

Tolkien does not describe Hobbits ' ears in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but in a 1938 letter to his American publisher, he described Hobbits as having " ears only slightly pointed and ' elvish '".

He is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings.

The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, begins with Bilbo's " eleventy-first " ( 111th ) birthday ( on 22 September ), 60 years after the beginning of The Hobbit.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins and his Hobbit companions journeyed to Rivendell, where they met with Bilbo, who had retired there after his 111th birthday, spending his time on his memoirs, There and Back Again.

Radagast appears in The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales, and is mentioned in The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.

When writing The Lord of the Rings Tolkien continued many of the themes he had set up in The Hobbit.