# The May Issue



## Jmp69 (Aug 3, 2020)

We know Bilbo and company left Bag End towards the end of April.Its well established by Tolkien himself(The opening two chapters of The Hobbit&Unfinished Tales)and by numerous other books detailing the likely timeline.Tolkien’s decision to finesse the story into the orbit of LOTR confirms the canonical integrity of late April.
We also know however that on two separate occasions in The Hobbit,Tolkien states that it was May when the journey began(Bombur’s reawakening(“that May morning”and Bilbo’s letter behind the mantlepiece(“In May”)during Thief In The Night.
I think it’s true to say Tolkien wrote the Hobbit before he had crafted his complex calendars and that”May”was originally Gregorian May.Any suggestions that Tolkien was flitting between calendars(I.e late April was actually Shire Thrimidge roughly ten days ahead)doesn’t seem likely.It was a stand alone tale in his mind and this seems strangely untidy for a children’s story.
What’s odd is that The Hobbit had several major revisions during his lifetime and yet for some reason this discrepancy was never addressed when other perhaps more minor changes were often made.
I wonder why?Was it to maintain the idea that Bilbo was an unreliable source-a sort of sophisticated in-joke,or that the newly created calendars(probably established in the 50’s)could now retrospectively imply more than one narrator?
Or remarkably was it just missed?
Is the text now “sacred”and can never be altered?


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## Deleted member 12094 (Aug 3, 2020)

I am sure that in a legendarium of such vastness, complexity and interwoven chronologies, some minor discrepancies can be lovingly forgiven. But yes, you are right: when you spot them, they nag at you, but the trouble is that a quick alteration may soon get at odds with aspects on other spots.

For the case you mentioned:

_“Thrain your father went away on the twenty-first of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday”_: that puts the arrival of Thorin and Co on Wednesday 27th April.
_“…he had forgotten everything that had happened since they started their journey that May morning long ago”_: that puts the visit on the last day of April (at the earliest).
_“Thorin’s letter that had been put under the clock on his mantelpiece in May”_: id.
_“That’s how they all came to start, jogging off from the inn one fine morning just before May”_: that puts the visit on the before last day of April (at the latest).
In addition, “The Quest of Erebor” puts this date on Wednesday 26th April. Go figure … !

There is more like this: in LotR, Bilbo mentions in his farewell speech that he had arrived by barrel in Esgaroth where he assisted at a banquet on his birthday; but TH states that Bilbo _“… had besides a shocking cold. For three days he sneezed and coughed, and he could not go out”_!

Are you keen to discover a truckload of such things? Then have a look here: it is quite entertaining at occasions!


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## Olorgando (Aug 3, 2020)

Jmp69 said:


> ...
> We also know however that on two separate occasions in The Hobbit,Tolkien states that it was May when the journey began(Bombur’s reawakening(“that May morning”and Bilbo’s letter behind the mantlepiece(“In May”)during Thief In The Night.
> ...


That's correct. I have a 2012 German translation of Douglas A. Anderson's 2002 edition of his "Annotated Hobbit".
I both cases, the text still says May - but in both cases with a footnote stating that this is wrong.
Why it has not been corrected in the text yet?
No idea. 


Jmp69 said:


> ...
> It was a stand alone tale in his mind ...
> ...


Here I will protest, at least mildly.
I'm just reading John D. Rateliff's 2011 extended edition of his "The History of The Hobbit" and have reached page 648 of 938. Rateliff makes a convincing case that in contrast to some comments JRRT made about TH being only vaguely connected to his greater legendarium, JRRT on other occasions made comments that linked it more firmly. Rateliff compares it what JRRT was writing about the 'Silmarillion legendarium' of about this time (1930-33) or had written not all too long before. And even some unexpected other cross-influences, in this case that what JRRT wrote in TH at the time changed his style of writing in the "Father Christmas Letters", another thing he wrote for his children.


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## Jmp69 (Aug 3, 2020)

There is also the interesting aspect well documented by Rateliff,that Tolkien tried to retro fit the timeline to the new Shire calendar after the invention of it during the writing of LOTR-and wasn’t completely successful.When he attempted a complete alignment with the timeframe and geography of the journey in LOTR by starting to rewrite The Hobbit in 1960 it just became too complicated and lost its fairy tale charm(it’s a fascinating read though!)
No one should expect complete consistency however this is a strange oversight.Consider:
Tolkien wrote in his preface to the 1951 Hobbit that the original edition had stated March as the the original month of the party but that it was actually late April and the mistake was as a result of”_a misreading of the difficult hand and language of the original.It is replaced by the correct reading the 21st of April a date borne out by the fact that the expedition started out on a fine morning just before May_”
He clearly wanted it sorting out and yet the two later references to the journey _starting _in May are still present to this day!!
Perhaps he wanted to maintain some but not all of the imperfect translation conceit for his own amusement!!


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## Olorgando (Aug 3, 2020)

Well, at page 648 of 938 I have just started on the Third Phase of the manuscript writing, which will bring TH to the published First Edition wording, if I have read Rateliff's hints correctly. After that, there will be a Fourth Phase, dated 1947 (which was, to JRRT's surprise, incorporated in the 1951 *printed* edition). The Fifth Phase covers the writing for the "1960 Hobbit" that I was utterly unaware of until *very* recently. Then Appendices, and then a _*Seventh*_ Phase, which made me doubt Rateliff's basic arithmetic for a second. But "of course" the Sixth Phase was the re-writing of both LoTR *and* TH to repair damage done by some scurrilous defect of US copyright law taken advantage of by Ace Books. I may return to your above comment when I have managed to read Rateliff's book to its conclusion (in the next few days, certainly). 🤓


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## Olorgando (Aug 4, 2020)

Olorgando said:


> ... the Third Phase of the manuscript writing, which will bring TH to the *published First Edition wording*, if I have read Rateliff's hints correctly. ...


Erm, not quite. It did bring the story to its conclusion, with Bilbo arriving at the auction at his house (and the epilogue with Balin and Gandalf visiting about 10 years later).
As Rateliff is dealing with the manuscript material, he does not cover the typescript JRRT made from the Third Phase manuscript for submission to GA&U (except in some text notes), in which JRRT continued to refine parts, something he continued to do even up to the stage of the page proof prior to finally approved printing. So there are still things here that deviate from the first edition printing.


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