The Hobbit wasn’t originally set in middle earth. He started working on the Silmarillion in 1914 at 22, but didn’t start Lord of the Rings till much later. I don’t know if he began to set the Hobbit in middle earth before or after starting on Lord of the Rings.
Sure but hadn’t he been basically telling the story to his kid long before he actually wrote it down?
Honestly just start DMing a local D&D group and you’re half way there.
I roll to seduce the balrog
Tom Bombadil started as his children’s toy who became the narrator of his children’s bedtime stories.
Out of those, grew The Hobbit.
LotR was an intentional effort to turn the setting of the Hobbit into an epic fantasy.
The Hobbit wasn’t originally set in middle earth. He started working on the Silmarillion in 1914 at 22, but didn’t start Lord of the Rings till much later. I don’t know if he began to set the Hobbit in middle earth before or after starting on Lord of the Rings.