Yet more strange creatures sprung from the minds of Russian artists with views of hobbits unadulterated by the West. Take the one above. The hobbit is hard to see, but he’s at midcenter left, holding a sword, apparently miniaturized as he fights the spiders, who should be giant spiders. (The same scene is depicted ina full-page color spread in the interior.) It’s clear the artist saw him as some little mouselike, trollish creature, like the Irish pooka. Gollum, his evil counterpart, is depicted as a rat/cat hybrid, with a swirling, skinny tail and toothy grin. There were more whimsical pictures inside, The Hobbit being one of those rare books that can be read and appreciated by either children of adults, depending on the packaging.
And, in fact, all of the books in this post were aimed towards children. I am indebted to the Babel Hobbits site for providing publication and artist info for them, and I provided links so readers can savor the illustrations inside. All of them show Bilbo’s Russian-style hairy feet and ankles even if the covers do not.
In this book from 2004 Bilbo has grown larger. If he stood, he’d match Gandalf’s height (which is of course not accurate at all.) He also has a sneaky expression and an abnormally pointed nose, which is also wrong.
The interior illustrations were done in a Medievalesque style. I’m not fond of them, but they do have a very Slavic feel. Gollum, with his skull face, is terrifying.
Artist: E. Nitylkina
More Medievalism, this time cribbed from The Book of Kells, in this 2001 edition. Smaug, Thorin, and an unusually dour, bag-eyed Bilbo form a tight trio, with a shadow as if they were paper cutouts. Hairy legs on Bilbo but at least his feet have a tough, darkened sole as Tolkien told us. Interior illustrations here.
In this book from 2003 we have a fatfaced Bilbo, a neckless Gandalf, and a bunch of those Viking goblin/orcs again, so I guess the same translation was still in use. Note the coiled, centipede-like Smaug at the top left. My only question is, why are the orcs doing the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” thing?
A more psychedelic version, and I like it. All the elements of the story are there: dwarves, map, wizard, Gollum, Beorn, Elrond, trolls, eagle, dragon. I’ve seen other Russian children’s books with this same layout so I guess it was part of a specialized line by the publisher. Tolkien’s name is on the front but not the title, which is odd.
For all its counterculture feel — including that typeface on the cover — it was published in 1994. Interior illustrations here.
In this book from 1996 Bilbo, the writer of the tale, appears to gaze back into his past to convey it to us, within a framing device of a jewel-studded book. His feet and lower legs are hairy all over as per the Russian style and this is echoed in gorgeous full-color interior illustrations. Really, take a look. Also note that somewhere along the way it’s become standard for him to have blue eyes.
After The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001 hobbit depictions began to change. On this cover Bilbo has been inspired by Elijah Wood’s portrayal of Frodo. But it was all a bait-and-switch, as the interior illustrations do not match. Moreover, the artist gave the elves of Mirkwood fairy wings!
This edition looks very recent and so does Bilbo, who is almost completely human now and quite handsome. But he’s also not as fun.
