11 What were the changes made to _The Hobbit_ after _The Lord of the Rings_ was written, and what motivated them? [This question refers to the major revisions made to the Gollum chapter, "Riddles in the Dark", not to the multitude of minor changes made elsewhere.]
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This article is from the Tolkien FAQ, by William D.B. Loos loos@hudce.harvard.edu with numerous contributions by others.
11 What were the changes made to _The Hobbit_ after _The Lord of the Rings_ was written, and what motivated them? [This question refers to the major revisions made to the Gollum chapter, "Riddles in the Dark", not to the multitude of minor changes made elsewhere.]
In the original 1937 edition of _The Hobbit_ Gollum was genuinely
willing to bet his ring on the riddle game, the deal being that Bilbo
would receive a "present" if he won. Gollum in fact was dismayed when
he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing. He showed
Bilbo the way out as an alternative, and they parted courteously.
As the writing of LotR progressed the nature of the Ring changed.
No longer a "convenient magical device", it had become an irresistable
power object, and Gollum's behavior now seemed inexplicable, indeed,
impossible. In the rough drafts of the "Shadow of the Past" chapter
Gandalf was made to perform much squirming in an attempt to make it
appear credible, not wholly successfully.
Tolkien resolved the difficulty by re-writing the chapter into its
present form, in which Gollum had no intention whatsoever of giving up
the Ring but rather would show Bilbo the way out if he lost. Also,
Gollum was made far more wretched, as befitted one enslaved and tor-
mented by the Ruling Ring. At the same time, however, Bilbo's claim
to the Ring was seriously undercut.
[ Care must be taken when noting this last point. There are two
issues involved, well summarized in the Prologue: "The Authorities, it
is true, differ whether this last question was a mere 'question' and
not a 'riddle' ... but all agree that, after accepting it and trying
to guess the answer, Gollum was bound by his promise" (FR, 21). Thus,
it was Bilbo's winning of the game that was questionable. Given that
he had in fact won, albeit on a technicality, he was fully entitled to
the prize, which, in the old version, was the ring. In the new
version, however, he had no claim to the Ring at all, whether he had
won or not, because the Ring was not the stake of the game. ]
The textual situation thus reached was that there now existed two
versions of the episode. Tolkien deftly made this circumstance part
of the story by suggesting that the first time around **Bilbo was
lying** (under the influence of the Ring) to strengthen his claim.
(Bilbo had written this version in his diary, which was "translated"
by Tolkien and published as "The Hobbit"; hence the error in the early
editions, later "corrected".) This new sequence of events inside the
story is laid out clearly in "Of the Finding of the Ring" (Prologue)
and is taken for granted thereafter for the rest of the story (e.g. in
"The Shadow of the Past" and at the Council of Elrond).
_The Hobbit_ as now presented fits the new scenario remarkably
well, even though Tolkien, for quite sound literary reasons, left this
entire matter of Bilbo's dishonesty out (it was an entirely irrelevant
complication which would have thrown everything out of balance). The
present attempt to step back and view the entire picture is made more
involved by the fact that there were two separate pieces of dishonesty
perpetrated by Bilbo.
The first, made explicit, was that when he initially told his
story to Gandalf and the Dwarves he left the ring out entirely -- this
no doubt was what inspired Gandalf to give Bilbo the "queer look from
under his bushy eyebrows" (H, 99). Later, (after the spider episode)
he revealed that he had the Ring, and it must have been at this point
that he invented the rigamarole about "winning a present" (an incred-
ible action, given the circumstances). There is, however, no hint in
the text of this second piece of dishonesty (as noted above, it would
have been a grave literary mistake). Readers are therefore given no
indication that when "Balin ... insisted on having the Gollum story
... told all over again, with the ring in its proper place" (H, 163)
that Bilbo didn't respond with the "true" story, exactly as described
in Ch V. In this regard, "Of the Finding of the Ring" in the Prologue
is a necessary prelude to LotR.
"Riddles in the Dark" (Ch V);
Annotated Hobbit, 104 (Ch VI, note 2), 176 (Ch VIII,
note 11), 325-327 (Appendix A: the original
version is given here);
FR, "Of the Finding of the Ring" (Prologue);
Biography, 203 (V, 2);
RtMe, 59-60 (3, "The Ring as 'Equalizer'");
The Return of the Shadow (HoMe VI), 75, 79-81, 84-87
(First Phase, III), 261-265 (Second Phase, XV).
Contributors: WDBL, Wayne Hammond Jr
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