Corey Olsen gets introspective with Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit

For a man who can’t remember the first time he read J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic and who freely admits that he “was not, in some ways, a stereotypical “Tolkien-nerd” as a teenager”, Corey Olsen is probably the ideal man to pen a highly detailed, in-depth guide to The Hobbit.

Written with an eye to portraying the Lord of the Rings precursor as an important work in its own right, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit takes a critical look at the original edition of The Hobbit. Published in 1937, before Tolkien revisited and revised the work to better fit it into the emerging Lord of the Rings saga, this first edition represents a purer version of Bilbo Baggins’s adventures than is seen in later versions.

Somewhat painstakingly, Olsen reveals the stories within the story, exploring how each character progresses on their own individual journey. Especially enlightening is the treatment of homeowner-turned-burglar Bilbo’s change from a character that swings between two wildly different outlooks into someone who is fully able to integrate the opposing sides of his personality into a cohesive whole. Even villains like Gollum and the trolls become a little more relatable under Olsen’s care.

Despite my familiarity with the text, though, I found myself getting lost in such a wealth of information. Because of this, I found that the book is best read alongside The Hobbit itself, chapter by chapter. Given that copies of the original edition can be hard to come by, Olsen recommends Douglas A. Anderson’s The Annotated Hobbit and John D. Rateliff’s The History of The Hobbit. Although I imagine that copies of the updated version found in most bookstores would do well enough, in a pinch.

For more Middle Earth minutia, check out Olsen’s website, his podcasts, and his online courses at the Mythgard Institute.

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