a b Steele, Felicia Jean (2006). "Dreaming of dragons: Tolkien's impact on Heaney's Beowulf". Mythlore (95/96) . Retrieved 3 December 2017. Stevens, David; Stevens, Carol (2008). "The Hobbit". In Bloom, Harold (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien. Chelsea House. pp.17–26. ISBN 978-1-60413-146-8.

In regard to the misidentification of the ‘wood-elves’ drawing, the correspondence between Houghton Mifflin and Allen & Unwin in January–February 1967 clearly refers to only one image sent by Austin Olney at Houghton Mifflin, received by Joy Hill at Allen & Unwin, and shown to Tolkien by Rayner Unwin: the picture of Gandalf and Bilbo. Tolkien saw it on 16 February 1967, and on 20 February Rayner wrote to Houghton Mifflin that Tolkien was not ‘wildly happy about the proportions of the figures’, Bilbo being too large relative to Gandalf. There is no indication that Tolkien saw a picture of dancing wood-elves, so any mislabelling ‘blunder’ was of no consequence. [ The Sendak Hobbit.] Campbell, Stuart (December 1991). "Top 100 Speccy Games". Your Sinclair. 1 (72): 22. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008 . Retrieved 6 July 2008. Hooker, Mark (2014). The Tolkienaeum: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien and his Legendarium. Llyfrawr. pp.1–12. ISBN 978-1-49975-910-5.Tony Di Terlizzi. ‘The Hobbit’ illustrated by Maurice Sendak? The 1960s masterpiece that could have been.

Moore, Phil (1986). Using Computers in English: A Practical Guide. Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-416-36180-3. Smaug is the main antagonist. In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf, and Tolkien uses the episode to put into practice some of the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Old English poem in its portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence. [35] Tolkien greatly prefers this motif over the later medieval trend of using the dragon as a symbolic or allegorical figure, such as in the legend of St. George. [108] Smaug the dragon with his golden hoard may be seen as an example of the traditional relationship between evil and metallurgy as collated in the depiction of Pandæmonium with its "Belched fire and rolling smoke" in John Milton's Paradise Lost. [109] Of all the characters, Smaug's speech is the most modern, using idioms such as "Don't let your imagination run away with you!" Tolkien, J. R. R. (2003) [1937]. Anderson, Douglas A. (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-713727-5. What he failed to mention is that Letter #251 is the rather ill-tempered answer Tolkien’s to a rather nonsensical interviewer from the New Statesman and is about quite a few different things – as well that he truncated the quote: Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2.Several teaching guides and books of study notes have been published to help teachers and students gain the most from the book. The Hobbit introduces literary concepts, notably allegory, to young readers, as the work has been seen to have allegorical aspects reflecting the life and times of the author. [112] Meanwhile, the author himself rejected an allegorical reading of his work. [125] This tension can help introduce readers to "readerly" and "writerly" interpretations, to tenets of New Criticism, and critical tools from Freudian analysis, such as sublimation, in approaching literary works. [126] Rayner [Unwin] shows Tolkien the sample illustration by Maurice Sendak for the proposed Houghton Mifflin illustrated Hobbit. Rayner will write to Austin Olney on 20 February that Tolkien was not ‘wildly happy about the proportions of the figures’ in the Sendak drawing (…) Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988) [1937]. Anderson, Douglas A. (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-3954-7690-1. The Hobbit (2nded.). London: George Allen & Unwin. ––– (1966). The Hobbit (3rded.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-07122-9. Austin Olney [editor with Houghton Mifflin] writes to Joy Hill, sending a sample sketch by Maurice Sendak for Houghton Mifflin’s proposed illustrated Hobbit.

What most people don’t know or don’t remember anymore is that DiTerlizzi who is an accomplished artist himself and did paint Bilbo, among other things, at Bag End, wrote about this very story in his own blog on Jan 19, 2011. However, in this post the only mention of that Sendak story is:In 1967, six years after legendary editor Ursula Nordstrom had nurtured his creative direction and four years after his iconic Where the Wild Things Are, 39-year-old Maurice Sendak was commissioned to illustrate a 30th anniversary edition of The Hobbit. But the project fell through, leaving behind only a single surviving drawing, which Open Culture unearthed. Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull. The J.R.R. Tolkien companion and guide. Vol. 1, Chronology, p. 560 ff.; Vol. 2, Reader’s Guide, p. 561. Clark, George; Timmons, Daniel (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-313-30845-1.