There's no question about it. The Hobbit is still my favorite book. I reread it a couple of weeks ago and then listened to some YouTubers picking it apart saying:
"Tolkien really didn't know what he had at that point. The Hobbit lacks the epic scale of all the Incredible universe he eventually constructed. Look at the way he describes Gandalf as just some simple wizard rather than the awe-inspiring Maia that Tolkien eventually made him into. The Hobbit was so underwhelming compared to the latter Tolkien publications."
I know that everyone and their grandpa has praised Tolkien at this point, and my additional praise certainly won't add anything to his legacy. But, I can't help but feel like the guy had a plan (or at least a construction) from the start. Yea, he changed his mind about plenty of background and origin stories and all that. But, I really think he knew what he was doing and where he was going with Gandalf from the very first chapter of his literature to the last when he departs across the sea. I think he always had an underlying theme in mind.
I believe that, at the moment Bilbo met him, Tolkien already intended for Gandalf to be an enormously powerful being who was respected by the wisest elves and trusted by the highest dwarf royalty and feared by the most sinister goblins.
Yet Bilbo is all like, "Oh yea! You're that guy who used to shoot firecrackers when I was a kid. Those were cool. I had no idea you were still in business."
That's just the eternally endearing charm of the Hobbit. It's an epic, sweeping, heroic story told from the POV of an ordinary guy so sheltered from that grandeur that he doesn't get it at all.
The wise and all-powerful Gandalf the Grey? He's the firecracker guy trying to make me late for dinner.
King Thorin Oakenshield Heir to the Mountain Throne? He's the leader of some ill-mannered dwarves that ate all my cakes.
The One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All and in the Darkness Bind Them!? Yea, it's this cool ring I stole from some creepy riddle guy in a cave. Turns you invisible. It's pretty tight, I guess.
I just don't think it's a happy accident that "Gandalf and the Ring evolved beyond their original use in the Hobbit into greater things in his latter books." I really think Tolkien knew what he was doing from the start. He introduced us to his epic world in the most low-key way possible on purpose. He didn't envision a more modest world and gradually make it more epic. It was all already there.
That's why the Hobbit has the best reread value of all time. Because it's so amusing to know the intricacies of Middle Earth and its lore and characters and have all that revealed through the eyes of a pudgy little decidedly un-heroic protagonist so utterly irritated and unimpressed by all of it.
I know I've gone on too long. But, basically, I reject the most common criticism of the Hobbit which is "Tolkien's first draft with the Hobbit was overshadowed by grander concepts and more fulfilling character and thematic realizations in his latter works." That evaluation doesn't give him enough credit. The depth-of-universe was already there as was the central theme of his fiction. The Hobbit is Tolkien's preface of sorts. As if to say "Yea, my world is epic, but never forget that the little things and regular people are more important than all that."
I think the deepest and most essential theme in all of Tolkien's work is fully summarized in Thorin's dying words to Bilbo:
“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
That is literally the whole point of all Tolkien's work distilled into three sentences.
If you think the epicness is the point, you don't get it at all. Shoot, Peter Jackson definitely didn't get it. Nor do YouTubers who think that Tolkien's contribution to modern fantasy was merely sprawling, epic adult fantasy.
There's always been sprawling, epic adult fantasy. Everything from Homeric Poems to Arthurian Legends focused on the grandiose aspects of fantasy.
Tolkien's contribution was taking a step back from all that and bringing fantasy down to earth.
That's what differentiates modern fantasy from the fantasy that came before Tolkien.
With fantasy before Tolkien, the epic sprawl WAS the point. With fantasy after Tolkien, the epic sprawl ISN'T the point.
And that's why the Hobbit is still my fav.
