Thus we learn about Tolkien's fascination with "eagles-to-the-rescue" the development of elves from Norse and Celtic folklore, through the Middle-ages and into the late Victorian and Edwardian era Tolkien's likely source for Beorn the werebear neolithic lake towns, etc. Each chapter is then followed by Rateliff's commentaries on what we've just read, providing fascinating insight into Tolkien's sources, inspirations and useful background information. Tolkien's text is annotated to highlight the variations. The book is divided into the chapters of the published story that we're familiar with, although the draft version had no such divisions. Although the main plot is essentially the same as Tolkien's published story, there were many differences in detail and it's fascinating to see how the accumulation of such modifications affected the work as a whole. Rateliff has taken a number of fragments and drafts of The Hobbit and presents them to us with copious notes and commentaries. This is a book about a book, or more precisely a book about part of a book, as it covers about 2/3s of the action of The Hobbit. That's not to say that it's dry or boring quite the reverse, in fact. Baggins is a scholarly book and one more suited to the die-hard Tolkien enthusiast than the casual reader.
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