The Hobbit was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published Middle-earth work, appearing in 1937.
The Lord of the Rings followed in three volumes between 1954 and 1955, while The Silmarillion was published posthumously in 1977. The Hobbit began as a children’s adventure centered on Bilbo Baggins, but Tolkien gradually linked it to the deeper mythology and history that had occupied him for years.
The connection became especially important through the One Ring. In the first edition of The Hobbit, the Ring’s role and Gollum’s behavior differed from the version Tolkien later revised to align with The Lord of the Rings. He changed the “Riddles in the Dark” chapter for the 1951 second edition and framed the earlier version as Bilbo’s misleading account. This publishing history explains why The Hobbit is both an accessible starting point and a foundation for the larger legendarium.