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A comment on Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Parent comment

Re:Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien by bombcar on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @05:28PM (#31759684)
Online you can find a PDF detailing the differences between the pre-LotR Hobbit and the second edition (Tolkien rewrote comparatively small parts of the Hobbit to make it fit and actually didn't expect the publisher to release a second edition with the changes, hence the preface to the Lord of the Rings and Bilbo himself apologizing for "a different version of the story").

You can even see the "Hobbit-esque" writing at the beginning of LotR, remember the fox that sees them walking and talks to himself about it. The last we see of humanish animals.

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Re:Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien by wolverine876 on Thursday June 16, 2022 @12:57AM (#31762551)
Trivia: The word mithril didn't exist in the original edition of the Hobbit, and was added after LOTR was published.

> hence ... Bilbo himself apologizing for "a different version of the story"

I thought that showed the Ring's effect on Bilbo, something Gandalf talked about too, and which is important to LOTR.

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Re:Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien by bombcar on Thursday June 16, 2022 @09:55AM (#31766073)
That was Tolkien's clever trick for his rewrite - the "original" story was what Bilbo wrote down at the time (the "present") - the new edition was what was later edited in by Bilbo or Frodo as what really went down (after everything had been revealed in LotR.
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Re:Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien by wolverine876 on Thursday June 16, 2022 @05:08PM (#31770987)
I understand your claim. How do we know which explanation, or whether another explanation, is true?

Again, another strong explanation for the change in Bilbo's story: It was a demonstration of the corruption caused by the Ring and its effects on hobbits, an effect corroborated by Gollum's story about how Gollum acquired the Ring - all as explained by Gandalf.

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Re:Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien by falcrist on Thursday June 16, 2022 @10:10AM (#31766243)
You can actually purchase facsimile editions of the original (pre-LOTR) published version of The Hobbit.
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