Hobbit Day

In the early 1930s, while grading examination papers, Tolkien found a blank page and was suddenly inspired to write – “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” The line became the introductory words of The Hobbit. Tolkien believed that he had coined the word ‘hobbit’ but it was later found that there is prior evidence of the word, though with a different meaning. In 1971 Tolkien stated that he remembered making the word ‘hobbit’ himself but that there was nothing but his word to support the claim. Since the 1970s the Oxford English Dictionary has credited Tolkien with the invention of the word.