"FOREWORD" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

Mifflin Company, this being the edition common to both England
and America, but I think that it will be found in fact that almost
all such references can be readily traced in any edition, since the
precise point referred to in the final form of the story is nearly
always evident from the context.
In the 'first phase' of writing, which took the story to Rivendell,
most of the chapters were title-less, and subsequently there was
much shifting in the division of the story into chapters, with
variation in titles and numbers. I have thought it best therefore to
avoid confusion by giving many of my chapters simple descriptive
titles, such as 'From Hobbiton to the Woody End', indicating the
content rather than relating them to the chapter-titles in The



Fellowship of the Ring. As a title for the book it seemed suitable to
take one of my father's own suggested but abandoned titles for the
first volume of The Lord of the Rings. In a letter to Rayner Unwin
of 8 August 1953 (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 139) he
proposed The Return of the Shadow.

No account is given in this book of the history of the writing of
The Hobbtit up to its original publication in 1937, aithough, from
the nature of its relationship to The Lord of the Rings, the
published work is constantly referred to. That relationship is
curious and complex. My father several times expressed his view
of it, but most fully and (as I think) most accurately in the course
of a long letter to Christopher Bretherton written in July 1964
(Letters no. 257).

I returned to Oxford in Jan. 1926, and by the time The Hobbit
appeared (1937) this 'matter of the Elder Days' was in coherent
form. The Hobbit was not intended to have anything to do with
it. I had the habit while my children were still young of invent-
ing and telling orally, sometimes of writing down, 'children's
stories' for their private amusement... The Hobbit was
intended to be one of them. It had no necessary connexion with
the 'mythology', but naturally became attracted towards this
dominant construction in my mind, causing the tale to become
larger and more heroic as it proceeded. Even so it could really
stand quite apart, except for the references (unnecessary,
though they give an impression of historical depth) to the Fall of
Gondolin, the branches of the Elfkin, and the quarrel of King
Thingol, Luthien's father, with the Dwarves....
The magic ring was the one obvious thing in The Hobbit that
could be connected with my mythology. To be the burden of a
large story it had to be of supreme importance. I then linked it
with the (originally) quite casual reference to the Necromancer,
whose function was hardly more than to provide a reason for
Gandalf going away and leaving Bilbo and the Dwarves to fend