Annotations discussing Tolkien’s word choices usually shed light on what Tolkien was trying to get across. I found the discussions of Tolkien’s language and names surprisingly interesting. orcs in The Lord of the Rings) are based a lot on MacDonald’s in The Princess and the Goblin. Lewis, he was indebted to George MacDonald’s children’s stories-though later in life Tolkien wrote that he did not think MacDonald wrote that well. Tolkien was a fan of William Morris, the Victorian poet and artist. Of course, there are sometimes extensive quotations from medieval writings-especially Icelandic sagas but including Old and Middle English, Welsh, Irish, French, Finnish, Breton, and various Germanic sources from Gothic roots to the Brothers Grimm. Anderson quotes many fairy tales that Tolkien either read as a child or read to his children.
Tolkien’s sources of inspiration are somewhat eclectic. Anderson also refers to the magisterial History of Middle Earth. A number of poems in The Hobbit originally appeared as free-standing poems or songs in literary magazines. There are also references to many other works by Tolkien. Yes, there are numerous references to The Lord of the Rings, especially to fill us in on some of Gandalf’s adventures. The references to other Tolkien works sometimes shed light on the characters, location, or background in The Hobbit. For the most part, these are the least interesting notes since the differences are usually slight, but that is what annotated editions do. The notes may also refer to the 1966 Ballantine paperbacks or differences in wording between British and American editions. Editor Anderson believes the 2001 edition has all the bugs out. But other editions have other wording from time to time-some legitimate changes, some typographical errors. Most of the variations noted are from the original 1937 edition which Tolkien revised for 1967.
The text of The Annotated Hobbit primarily follows the Houghton Mifflin 2001 edition’s revisions. The textual variations are precisely that. The notes (or annotations) fall into four main categories: (1) textual variations, (2) references to other Tolkien works, (3) sources of inspiration, and (4) language and nomenclature of Middle Earth. That is, after all, what annotated means. This is like those, with plenty of illustrations and a fairly thorough bibliography-and lots of marginal notes. In the past I have enjoyed certain annotated editions of classics such as The Annotated Ancient Mariner.
If the reader has not read The Hobbit, that is its own punishment. This is not going to review The Hobbit or even compare the book to the recent films based on The Hobbit.
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