I am supremely confident that this is one of the greatest masterpieces of children's literature ever to have been written, although Tolkien was somewhat embarrassed by it later in life. I plan to translate this work into Latin one day (what would Tolkien think of this, I wonder? He'd have preferred Old Norse of course), if only to amuse and stimulate my own intellect. I amazed myself the other day: I wrote out the names of all 13 Dwarves, and a number of their relatives (and dates of birth - it gets scarier!) - and I didn't think I knew that much about The Hobbit, having read this work the least among Tolkien's legendary works.
From memory, the Quest of Erebor consisted of 15 persons in toto, namely: 1. Thorin Oakenshield son of Thráin II son of Thrór of the House of Durin, 2. Balin and 3. Dwalin sons of Fundin, 4. Bifur, 5. Bofur, 6. Bombur (the fat one), 7. Dori (whose name, amusingly, is Old Norse for ''borer'' - in the sense of someone who drills not a bore like me!), 8. Nori, 9. Ori, 10. Glóin and 11. Óin the sons of Gróin, and 12. Fíli and 13. Kíli, the sons of Dís, the only Dwarf-woman mentioned in the whole history of Middle-earth, the daughter of Thráin II and therefore sister of Thorin. Much of this connexion is made of in the later chapters. The 14th and 15th persons were, of course, Gandalf the Wizard (not given the title ''the Grey'' until The Lord of the Rings) and the star of the show, the professional hired ''burglar'' Bilbo Baggins, son of Bungo Baggins and the great Belladonna Took, one of the daughters of the Old Took.
I greatly enjoyed this book when I read it for the first time - I think because I liked Dragons and hunting treasure and I adored Bilbo, and wanting to find out as much as possible about Hobbits, I was brought The Lord of the Rings. I have never stopped reading it!
For the last however-many-years I have vainly wanted a signed First Edition of The Hobbit to add to my collection of Tolkien books (I'd also like the 1951 Second and the 1966 Third editions, purely for the purposes of private study and to add to my Tolkien collection) - there is one signed First Edition on sale on Abebooks for £75500.00. It's worth a browse actually, here's the link. It would make a nice Christmas present you know...
A Latin translation of The Hobbit would be very welcome indeed, and with a few letters to the Tolkien Estate, you might even be able to publish it. I know of someone who is privately working on a Latin translation of The Lord of the Rings (a much, much, *much* more difficult endeavor).
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