The Hobbit was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first completed fantasy novel published during his lifetime.
Published in 1937, The Hobbit began as a story Tolkien told and wrote for his children. It became his first major commercial success and introduced readers to Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, Smaug, and the wider setting later known as Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings followed in three published volumes between 1954 and 1955. Tolkien conceived it partly as a sequel to The Hobbit, but it developed into a much larger and darker work. The Silmarillion, by contrast, was published only after Tolkien’s death and was edited by his son Christopher.
The phrase “first completed fantasy novel” distinguishes The Hobbit from Tolkien’s earlier scholarly writing, poems, short tales, and unfinished mythological projects. It also avoids confusing publication order with the internal chronology of Tolkien’s invented history, in which many events of The Silmarillion occur thousands of years before Bilbo’s adventure.