The Riddles of The Hobbit, 2013

Riddles are threaded through The Hobbit , and are key to Tolkien's creative imagination. The Riddles of The Hobbit situates this novel and the rest of Tolkien's writing in the context of Old English riddling culture, and more modern day examples; it sets out to solve the many riddles of the novel in original and often surprising ways.

List of Illustrations Preface 1. The Anglo-Saxon Riddleworld 2. Cynewulf and the Exeter Book 3. Riddles in the Dark 4. The Riddles of the All-Wise 5. The Puzzle of the two Hobbits 6. The Riddle of Bilbo's Pocket 7. The Riddle of the Ring 8. The Lord of the Rings and the Riddle of Writing 9. The Volsung Riddle: Character in Tolkien 10. The Enigma of Genre Fantasy 11. ...And Back Again. Bibliography Index

Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is also the author of more than a dozen science fiction novels: his most recent, Jack Glass (2012) won the BSFA and Campbell awards for the year's best science fiction novel. He has published a number of critical and academic works on science fiction, 19th-century and other topics.