A Hobbit Inspired Campaign IV: Details About the 1937 Version of "The Hobbit"

In this post I want to highlight some specific points about the 1937 version of The Hobbit.  For this I'm going to draw on The Hobbit itself, the two blog posts that inspired my series, "The Hobbit 1937" and "1937 Hobbit as a Setting",  as well as a couple of forum threads talking about the subject, including "Using 'The Hobbit' as the only canon and starting point" and "D&D: The Hobbit".  

The Annotated Hobbit was a big help with this because it has the text of the 1937 edition in parallel with the current edition.  Also, many of these items were pointed out in the blog posts and on the forums, so most of this didn't originate with me.

• *EDIT* I seemed to have missed kind of a big one.  The Elves in particular but other races also don't seem to be fading away.  There is no mention of the Elves heading West and leaving that I recall.  This definitely changes the tone.

• The term Middle-Earth does not appear in the book.  Neither does Shire, only Hobbiton.

• Wizards are people, too.  Gandalf is just a wizard, there is no indication that he is anything more.  He visited "a great council of the white wizards" who are masters of good magic.  He has a cousin named Radagast who is also a wizard and lives near the Southern borders of Mirkwood.  Gandalf has an enemy called the Necromancer who is also a wizard.  He turned the Greenwood into Mirkwood with his evil.  That means there are evil wizards in the world.  The fact that he is called a necromancer also implies the existence of the undead.  Gandalf and the Council of White Wizards drove him out of Mirkwood.  It appears anyone can be a wizard with enough talent and practice.

• Gollum is an honorable creature.  Even though he will eat any humanoid he can.  He is not obsessed with his ring of invisibility.  He is very upset when he discovers that his ring is missing and he can't give it to Bilbo as the prize for winning the riddle contest.  He offers to lead Bilbo out of the mountain as a consolation prize.

• Rings of Invisibility are just what they seem.  And you leave a shadow when invisible.

• Orc is the Hobbit word for Goblin.  Hobgoblins are larger Goblins.

• Goblins speak the common language used by Hobbits, Men and Dwarves.

• Dragons also speak the common language.

• In fact giant spiders, trolls and some birds speak the same common language.

• Other birds, like the giant eagles, and creatures such as Wargs speak their own language that people can learn or know if they are the right bloodline.

• Heck, even troll purses are enchanted to warn their owners of theft.

• Stone Giants exist and some are friendly enough to help wizards occasionally.  Perhaps other types of giants exist, too.

• There was once a king west of the Wilderlands that people have now forgotten.

• Between Hobbiton and Rivendell "There were castles on some of the hills, and many looked as if they had not been built for any good purpose."  When I read the revised version of the line, "On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people."  I always assumed that the castles were ruins.  I'm not sure why.  I'll probably run with this assumption.

• Elrond states that the trolls may have"...come on the remnants of old robberies in some hold in the mountains of the North. I have heard that there are still forgotten treasures of old to be found in the deserted caverns of the mines of Moria, since the dwarf and goblin war.”  It sounds like there are dungeons or adventure sites to be plundered.

• Rivendell does not seem very large.  Particularly if you use Tolkien's paintings as evidence.

• Elrond is a Half-Elf thus Half-Elves exist.

• An Elf-Goblin War occurred in the far past.

• A Dwarf-Goblin War occurred in the recent past.  Many of Dain's warriors participated in it.

• Elves are not immortal. "Already behind him among the goblin dead lay...many a fair elf that should have lived yet long ages merrily in the wood."

• Elves are magical.

• Elves aren't always nice.

• Elves like to party and they get drunk.

• Elves trade with Men.

• There are larger trade networks even if the quantity of goods is small.

• Dwarves were master smiths and used to make marvelous toys, in addition tomasterful weapons and armor.

• Wicked Dwarves were known to ally with Goblins.

• Smaug is not the titanic dragon he is often depicted as.  Once again, if you use Tolkien's paintings as evidence.

• There are skin-changers/shape-changers in the Wilderlands.  And the ability is passed from generation to generation.  At least one skin-changer had animals that acted as his servants.  They even walked on their hind legs.

• Men are expanding north into the land between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, the land of the Great River of the Wildlands, settling and creating villages.

• Chain mail seemed to be the most common heavy armor.

• Golf is a game.  Originally played with a goblin's head.

Ok.  That's a lot of details.  In the next couple of posts I'll actually try to put together a setting inspired by the book and the points above.

You can find the first three posts in the series here:

You can find the first part of A Hobbit Inspired Campaign here.

You can find the second part of A Hobbit Inspired Campaign II here.

You can find the third part of A Hobbit Inspired Campaign III here.