ltJRR Tolkien --The Hobbitgt In this reprint several minor inaccuracies most of them noted by readers have been corrected.For example the text on pages 32 and 62 now corresponds exactly with the runes on Thrors Map.More important is the matter of quotChapter Fivequot. There the true story of the ending of the Riddle Game as it was eventuallyrevealed under pressure by Bilbo to Gandalf is now given according to the Red Book in placeof the version Bilbo first gave to his friends and actually set down in his diary. Thisdeparture from truth on the part of a most honest hobbit was a portent of great significance.It does not however concern the present story and those who in this edition make their firstacquaintance with hobbit-lore need not troupe about it. Its explanation lies in the history ofthe Ring as it was set out in the chronicles of the Red Book of Westmarch and is now toldin The Lord of the Rings. A final note may be added on a point raised by several students of the lore of the period. OnThrors Map is written Here of old was Thrain King under the Mountain yet Thrain was the sonof Thror the last King under the Mountain before the coming of the dragon. The Map howeveris not in error. Names are often repeated in dynasties and the genealogies show that a distantancestor of Thror was referred to Thrain I a fugitive from Moria who first discovered theLonely Mountain Erebor and ruled there for a while before his people moved on to the remotermountains of the North. JRR TOLKIEN T H E H O B B I T Chapter I An Unexpected Party In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with theends of worms and an oozy smell nor yet a dry bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit downon or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole painted green with a shiny yellow brass knob inthe exact middle. The door opened on to a tubeshaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortabletunnel without smoke with panelled walls and floors tiled and carpeted provided withpolished chairs and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond ofvisitors. The tunnel wound on and on going fairly but not quite straight into the side of thehill - The Hill as all the people for many miles round called it - and many little round doorsopened out of it first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit:bedrooms bathrooms cellars pantries lots of these wardrobes he had whole rooms devotedto clothes kitchens dining-rooms all were on the same floor and indeed on the samepassage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side going in for these were the only onesto have windows deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond slopingdown to the river. This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived inthe neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind and