Does the Hobbit Take Place Before or After Biblical Events?

Q: Does the Hobbit Take Place Before or After Biblical Events?

ANSWER: People often ask when the The Hobbit (and The Lord of the Rings) is supposed to take place in history. The Hobbit is, according to J.R.R. Tolkien, set in Middle-earth — which he equated with our world, the entire Earth — in “an imaginary mythical age” (Letter No. 144, April 1954). He explained the concept more fully in Letter No. 183 (written in January 1956):

I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd > middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumenē, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary. The essentials of that abiding place are all there (at any rate for inhabitants of N.W. Europe), so naturally it feels familiar, even if a little glorified by the enchantment of distance in time.

He provided some additional information in Letter No. 211 (written in October 1958):

May I say that all this is ‘mythical’, and not any kind of new religion or vision. As far as I know it is merely an imaginative invention, to express, in the only way I can, some of my (dim) apprehensions of the world. All I can say is that, if it were ‘history’, it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or ‘cultures’) into such evidence as we possess, archaeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire, for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region (I p. 12).6 I could have fitted things in with greater versimilitude, if the story had not become too far developed, before the question ever occurred to me. I doubt if there would have been much gain; and I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap^* in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for ‘literary credibility’, even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of ‘pre-history’.

I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in ‘space’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-earth is (by the way & if such a note is necessary) not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration (N[ew] E[nglish] Dictionary] ‘a perversion’) of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the oikoumenē: middle because thought of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between ice of the North and the fire of the South. O.English middan-geard, mediaeval E. middenerd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet!

^* I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years: that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

By placing the events of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit at around 6,000 years prior to the present day (Circa. 1958) Tolkien was in fact suggesting that the Third Age of Middle-earth (as measured in Years of the Sun) ended somewhat before the traditional 17th century Bishop James Usher dating of 4004 BCE for the earliest date in the Bible (Bishop Usher’s dating cycle is more precise than many others preceding it). Bishop Usher was a Protestant Irish Bishop, so I don’t know how much credence his calculations would have had in Tolkien’s Roman Catholic tradition.

Technically, The Bible (which did not exist until the 2nd Century CE) does not provide either a date for the creation of the world or a calendar system by which such a date can be calculated. The closest one may come is to add up all the years between the BEGATS in “Genesis” down to the time of Abraham and the Patriarchs and then you have a rough chronology; however, even if those ancient people really lived as long as “Genesis” (which contrary to popular mythology does not claim to have been written by Moses) suggests there is still the problem of explaining how old the “waters” mentioned in Genesis 1:1 are supposed to be. The story was not intended to be a historical record but rather a record of a tradition that had been handed down generation upon generation. The author(s) of Genesis had to fill in some gaps in knowledge (a practice documented in other parts of The Bible which don’t detract from the value of its teachings).

In any event, some people have asked if The Hobbit was set before or after the time of Jesus — perhaps because The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been inaccurately described as “medieval” works; that is, people incorrectly assume that Middle-earth is supposed to be equated with medieval Europe. There should be no question about medieval influences on Tolkien’s fiction — such influences have been documented high and low by academics across the globe. But there are other significant influences in terms of period and style that have comparable impact on these stories. The Shire, for example, is most closely inspired by rural Victorian Age England (the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE).

Hence, “dating” the world of Middle-earth in Tolkien’s fiction is rather futile. According to the chronology Tolkien himself gave virtually every technology and cultural practice described in the stories is an anachronism — chronologically inconsistent with what Tolkien himself knew of human history or prehistory Circa 4000 BCE. He was not really trying to portray a prehistoric period that would have been consistent with science’s findings (and if he had many of his ideas would have long since been upturned by research that has changed our thinking about that time period).

That is the best answer we can provide for when The Hobbit takes place in history.

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