The Quest of The Hobbit

A scholarly project to catalogue textual variants in #Tolkien's #TheHobbit and to identify those whose reading could be further corrected for a new edition 📖🐲

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

Today to celebrate #TolkienBirthdayToast this handle and a blog (still working on it) are launched to start sharing with the broader community the findings of a year long, and ongoing, analytical work on the different texts and editions of #Tolkien's #TheHobbit.

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@DigitalTolkien A perfect day to start the journey!

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

If you liked this article and you happen to have one or more U.S. (Ballantine/Del Rey) mass market paperback Hobbit, please consider take a few minutes to answer some survey questions: the ultimate goal of the survey is to gather data for every printing. 👉🏻https://t.co/Me27aFwO6h

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

To celebrate #Tolkien's 131st birthday I wrote an article on how to identify and classify the different texts and sub-texts used in the U.S. mass market paperbacks #TheHobbit 🐉🧙🏻‍♂️ (please note that more loci will be added later).
#TolkienBirthdayToast
👉🏻 https://t.co/zD8S7WbdKr

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

In the A3h text of the 3rd edition (Unwin paperback/Longmans), and only there, it's WHERE and not WHEN in that sentence (§ 02.028), and there are reasons to believe that it *could possibly be* the legitimate reading #Tolkien intended.
👉🏻 https://t.co/D85nVbbfa1 #TheHobbit

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

A Punctuation Party. ���🏻‍♂️ In #Tolkien's #TheHobbit (5β text) there are only 7 loci out of 1407 where punctuation marks are placed after the closing quotation marks, but only 2 of which (§ 07.121, 15.041) were in this position in the First Edition. 👉🏻 https://t.co/4W09cMejKu

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@DigitalTolkien By the way, there are two loci with fir (§ 06.074 , 07.084) but in most texts, even in the first edition, they are written differently: firtrees or fir-trees. 5β is one of the few text to have them identical (fir-trees).

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@DigitalTolkien It's funny because the last locus I registered last week (for the American mass market paperbacks) is «If you can't, hoot / It you can't, hoot»

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@The_Tolkienist @OBGHA First time I went to Oxford I totally forgot it wasn't there anymore 😓

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@DigitalTolkien The passage of the star constellation not saw by hobbits in centuries seems to point to one of the blue ones: it's destination is s place far from the Western middle earth where those stars are visible in the sky (and their presentence in the SA is canonic)

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@TolkienGuide BTW do we have a date for the online conversation with Brian Sibley?

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@MarzapRussell @TolkienGuide @DigitalTolkien Exactly. The 2001 cover has a FIFTH (1995) edition text (5α-2001) while the 2000 one (the one you have) a (derivative of) THIRD edition text.
But they both have the preface Tolkien wrote for the SECOND edition 😂

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@Trotter_Tolkien @theoneringnet A version of the 1995 text is still published in the Del Rey mass market paperbacks, although they still have the preface wrote by Tolkien for the second edition.

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@Trotter_Tolkien @theoneringnet Well, actually the 1988 annotated is not a 5th edition. It has a slightly modified text of the American 3rd hardcover edition.
There are 2 "fifth editions": the 1995 reset and the 2001/2002 text. The most recent resetting of the 2001 text was first published by HC in 2020.

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

@MylaMalinalda @Trotter_Tolkien https://t.co/dUvBU7HDWf

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

Happy 85th anniversary to #TheHobbit!
Do you have a Ballantine / DelRey mass market paperback edition of #Tolkien book? Please consider spending a minute of your time to take this SURVEY! Thank you very much!
👉🏻 https://t.co/Zswyjydb57
#TheRingsOfPower #RingsofPower #Hobbit #LOTR

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

And don't forget to take this survey 🐲👇🏻 https://t.co/Kl2xyYt1qa

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

Happy 85th anniversary to #TheHobbit!
Do you have a Ballantine / DelRey mass market paperback edition of #Tolkien book? Please consider spending a minute of your time to take this SURVEY! Thank you very much!
👉🏻 https://t.co/Zswyjydb57
#TheRingsOfPower #RingsofPower #Hobbit #LOTR

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

85 years for my 110 hobbits: it's mostly a "working" collection rather than a pure "collectible" collection, but I'm quite proud of it (english editions: https://t.co/olq6E5IffN)
110 - in front and behind - and counting...
Happy #TheHobbit anniversary day to everyone!
#Tolkien

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

Happy 85th anniversary to #TheHobbit!
Do you have a Ballantine / DelRey mass market paperback edition of #Tolkien book? Please consider spending a minute of your time to take this SURVEY! Thank you very much!
👉🏻 https://t.co/Zswyjydb57
#TheRingsOfPower #RingsofPower #Hobbit #LOTR

[Tolkien Society @TolkienSociety]

On this day in 1937: J.R.R. #Tolkien's The Hobbit was published.

The book tells of a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, and his journey with thirteen dwarves to recover their treasure from a dragon, Smaug. It's sold over 100 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books of all time

[The Quest of The Hobbit @quest_thehobbit]

I'm not presumed dead like Bilbo was, I've just been very busy but I'm still collecting loci and making new comparisons with editions. Right now I'm doing 5α and 5β 👇🏻