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Madeleine S. Killacky, PhD Candidate, Medieval Literature, Bangor University

How J.R.R. Tolkien's novels were inspired by Medieval poems of 'northern bravery'

J R R Tolkien JRR Tolkien Frodo Baggins England Balrog Languages British Library
Knights travel to battle in an illustration from a Medieval manuscript. British Library, CC BY-SA

In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay and scribbled, “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

This became the first line of The Hobbit (1937). From this doodle Tolkien went on to write one of the world’s most popular fantasy adventure series, The Lord of the Rings (1954).

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