What motivated Tolkien to write The Hobbit?
It was the summer of some time early in the 1930’s when Tolkien was marking school exam papers, and as he turned to a page that was left blank, for no particular reason he scribbled “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” on the blank sheet. He didn’t know what it was then, but being a scholar, he decided to investigate the story behind it. Tolkien later told of his discovery to his children and friends. The feedback was welcoming, and Tolkien was encouraged to finish the story and to have it published.
