The National Review Online‘s Between The Covers program has a fascinating interview with John D. Rateliff who has authored The History of the Hobbit…
“the first time that Tolkien had written a whole book-length work of fiction; his earlier pieces were much shorter than The Hobbit. So it was a sort of ambitious undertaking for him. He got ideas, and then as the story went along, he would reject them. Originally, Bilbo would kill the dragon. . . . ”
Have a listen online, the file is in the Flash audio format (SWF) |LISTEN|.
[via The Cimmerian]
Posted by Jesse Willis