When producing his art for The Hobbit, Tolkien borrowed from his short story Roverandom, which was written for his son, Michael Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
This earlier image was reused in Thror's Map, and on the dust jacket of The Hobbit Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
This is probably the earliest of four pictures of Smaug flying around the mountain, and is an untitled ink drawing with an elaborate sky. It appears to be set in daylight, though in The Hobbit Smaug flies only at night. The dragon is black against the mountainside, as is the front gate and Ravenhill on the south-west spur. At the bend of the river are the remains of the old bridge that Bilbo and the dwarves cross in chapter 13 (‘most of its stones were now only boulders in the shallow noisy stream’) Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
This watercolour is similar in composition to Smaug Flies Around the Lonely Mountain. Beyond the bridge are the ‘ancient steps’ by which Bilbo and the dwarves climb the ‘high bank’, and the road running around the spur to the path leading up to the look-out post. To the right are the ruins of Dale Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
The most notable change in this later view is the course of the river, which now winds ‘a wide loop over the valley of Dale’ (chapter 11). Tolkien made this alteration also in his revised Thror’s Map around the end of 1936, but made a corresponding change in the text only when The Hobbit was in proof Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
This drawing is demonstrably set at night, the dragon a stark white against a jet-black sky. Although this and The Lonely Mountain are more finished drawings, neither seems to have been offered to Allen & Unwin for publication – because they were made too late, perhaps, or because they contain varied greys or dense blacks not well suited to line-blocks Photograph: JRR Tolkien, courtesy of the Tolkien estate
