Making Middle Earth From "The Hobbit" to "The Lord of the
Rings." Dec 15, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 14 • By DANIEL KENNELLY
Tolkien's earliest manuscripts demonstrate the vast departures
from the sequel he initially set out to write. Bilbo was
originally to be the hero of the new tale. The ring of
invisibility he obtained in "The Hobbit" was to be somehow
important to the plot of "The Lord of the Rings," but a far cry
from the overwhelming presence the Ruling Ring later became.
Aragorn, the tall, grim-faced Dunedain ranger and heir to the
throne of Gondor, began his life as Trotter, "a queer-looking,
brown-faced hobbit" who wears wooden shoes. LIKE SCAFFOLDING
left behind after a construction project, some "Hobbit"-like
elements survived the process of revision to retain a place in
"The Fellowship of the Ring." One such passage is a scene in
which a fox comes across Frodo, Sam, and Pippin camping in the
Shire at the outset of their journey: "'Hobbits!' he thought.
'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in t