JRR Tolkien compared himself to a Hobbit in unearthed letter

I’m a hobbit too! Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien compared himself to little heroes of Middle Earth in letter to fan among trove set to fetch £40K

  • Letters sent by Tolkien to fan Miss Perry date between 1953 and 1955
  • The total of four to the woman are expected to sell for nearly £40,000 

With their hairy feet, colourful choice of attire and diminutive stature, the Hobbits are perhaps the most famous inhabitants of Middle Earth.

JRR Tolkien’s creations – and their distinctively English homeland of The Shire – have brought joy to millions since they first appeared in his 1937 work The Hobbit. 

Now, newly unearthed letters which the author sent to a female fan have revealed his deep connection with the characters, to the extent that he felt like one of the ‘men so little’.

In one, written in June 1955, a year after the publication of the first instalment of sequel The Lord of the Rings, he admitted to feeling ‘alarm’ at the prospect of ‘hardship or deprivation of familiar foods (and tobacco)’, adding: ‘This sounds a fair description of a hobbit!’ 

In the same letter, written to a Miss F.L. Perry, he confessed that the Lord of the Rings was ‘laborious’ to write and likened it to ‘walking uphill in heavy boots against a strong wind with the light failing’. 

The letter is one of four to the same fan which have come up for sale in New York, where they are collectively expected to sell for nearly £40,000 ($47,000).


With their hairy feet, colourful choice of attire and diminutive stature, the Hobbits are perhaps the most famous inhabitants of Middle Earth. Now, a letter sent by JRR Tolkien (left) to a female fan has revealed how he said he felt like one of his diminutive creations. Right: Ian Holm portraying Bilbo Baggins in 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The correspondence began with Tolkien’s description of a visit to London bookseller J & E Bumpus Ltd.

He called John Gideon Wilson, the firm’s chief, ‘one of my major supporters, who has done more than any other one person to promote sales.’

Tolkien then went on to liken himself to a Hobbit, saying: ‘Alas, I love men so little — en masse — that my own desire is for empty countries, though being far more timid and unadventurous than my desires, I do not really face the prospect of hardship or deprivation of familiar foods (and tobacco) with anything but alarm. 

‘This sounds a fair description of a hobbit! But I cannot claim to be one, since I have no confidence at all that I should prove “tough at/or in a pinch”.

Responding to Miss Perry’s note that his writing ‘gave the effect of ease’, Tolkien then admitted that his most famous work was very hard to write. 

He said: ‘…the whole work was so laborious, and so often (at all points) rewritten: the actual sensation in process of composition, except for a few passages, was more like walking uphill in heavy boots against a strong wind with the light failing!”

In one, written in June 1955 a year after the publication of sequel The Lord of the Rings, he admitted to feeling ‘alarm’ at the prospect of ‘hardship or deprivation of familiar foods (and tobacco)’, adding: ‘This sounds a fair description of a hobbit!’. The correspondence began with Tolkien’s description of a visit to London bookseller J & E Bumpus Ltd

 Tolkien then went on to liken himself to a Hobbit, saying: ‘Alas, I love men so little — en masse — that my own desire is for empty countries, though being far more timid and unadventurous than my desires, I do not really face the prospect of hardship or deprivation of familiar foods (and tobacco) with anything but alarm. ‘This sounds a fair description of a hobbit! But I cannot claim to be one, since I have no confidence at all that I should prove “tough at/or in a pinch”‘

The letter is tipped to sell for up to $15,000 (£12,000).  

Miss Perry initially wrote to Tolkien nearly two years before the publication of the The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the Lord of the Ring’s three parts.

In his reply to her, dated December 2, 1953, Tolkien explained a delay in publication, saying that an illness he had suffered had stopped him from completing the book’s maps and adjuncts. 

Expressing his ultimately unfounded fears for the work and explaining some its settings, he added: ‘Alas! Having put so much into this sequel, it has grown to such a large book that size and cost alone will, I fear, keep it out of many hands that would enjoy it. 

‘But I hear the Americans are taking it up, after seeing an advance copy of Vol. I, and I am told that may make a larger issue and a lower price possible on the side of the Water … There is no more about Mirkwood, or the Northern countries, I am afraid; and the story moves away down the Great River to the Kingdoms of the South. 

Miss Perry initially wrote to Tolkien nearly two years before the publication of the Lord of the Rings. In his reply to her, dated December 2, 1953, Tolkien explained a delay in publication, saying that an illness he had suffered had stopped him from completing the book’s maps and adjuncts

Responding to her again in September 1954, Tolkien noted some of the less favourable reviews of the novel’s first installment, the Fellowship of the Ring

‘But there is a great deal of Ancient History and geography and genealogy in it: too much, I dare say, for all but the most devoted friends of Hobbits.’

The 1953 letter is expected to sell for up to $8,000 (£6,450). 

Responding to her again in September 1954, Tolkien noted some of the less favourable reviews of the novel’s first installment, the Fellowship of the Ring. 

He also mentioned a positive write-up by his friend and fellow author CS Lewis, whose own Chronicles of Narnia series were published between 1950 and 1956. 

‘However, I cannot complain, as I have had some write-ups (which even my vanity suspects of being too good) of remarkable appreciation (and length): chief the “essay” in Time and Tide by C.S. Lewis (not C. Day Lewis!), but others as widely distributed as the New Statesman, Truth, and Country Life,’ he wrote. 

He concluded the letter by telling Miss Perry how he felt as though he had not invented his works.

‘I do not think you can possibly have any inkling of what you are in for, as at the point you have reached, I had none myself,’ he said. 

‘The whole process was far more like deciphering the pages (disordered) of a history, and of finding out what was there and did happen, than of “invention.” 

‘Of that I had no experience — except in parts discarded as wrong.’

The letter is expected to sell for up to $12,000 (£9,680).

The final letter in the sale was sent by Tolkien in November 1954.

The final letter in the sale was sent by Tolkien to Ms Perry in November 1954

Ian Holm and Ian McKellen are seen starring as Bilbo Baggins and the wizard Gandalf in 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

He admitted that he had been ‘anxious’ about various points in the plot, including ‘the return of Gandalf; and generally: whether my friends would feel a falling off on a failure of their expectations; or feel they had had enough after the novelty wore off, and perhaps regret the decrease in hobbitry and elvishness: as the darkness increase and war and terror come out of the East.’

Tolkien went on to express his love for an Old English poem about the 10th-century Battle of Maldon, in which an Anglo-Saxon army failed to repel Viking raiders.

He said the poem was ‘…really on the theme which has always engrossed me and is the foundation of The Lord of the Rings: the noble and the ignoble. 

‘For hobbitry, you have the plain farmer-soldiers; for the chivalry, a young minstrel or poet.’ 

The letter could sell for up to $12,000 (£9,688).

The other Tolkien-related objects in the sale at Bonhams in New York on June 22 include a signed set of first editions of the three parts of The Lord of the Rings.

They could sell for up to $15,000 (£12,110)

The sale of the four letters is taking place at Bonhams in New York on June 22.  

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