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dreamflowerI know the common idea is that when JRRT first started writing The Hobbit, that it did not really have much to do with his world of the Silmarillion, but that gradually crept into it. However, it seems pretty clear that he knew all along that The Hobbit was set in Arda, as this bit from his first draft shows:
(Remember that in this early draft, *Thorin* was named Gandalf, and *Gandalf* was named Bladorthin. Also, the parts between [] show where he added or changed things.]
"'What were you doing there' said Gandalf with a shudder, and all the other dwarves [went>]shivered.
'Never you mind' said Bladorthin: 'I was finding things out, and a nasty dangerous business it was. Even I only just escaped. However I tried to save your father, but it was too late. He was witless and wandering, and had forgotten almost everything except the map'.
'The goblins of Moria have been repaid' said Gandalf; 'we must give a thought to the Necromancer'.
'Don't be absurd,'said the wizard. 'That is a job quite beyond the powers of all the dwarves, if they could be all gathered together again from the four corners of the world. And anyway [others>] his castle stands no more and [his>] he is flown [added: to another darker place] --Beren and Tinuviel broke his power, but that is quite another story.'"
But it seems the chronology was quite different then.
(Remember that in this early draft, *Thorin* was named Gandalf, and *Gandalf* was named Bladorthin. Also, the parts between [] show where he added or changed things.]
"'What were you doing there' said Gandalf with a shudder, and all the other dwarves [went>]shivered.
'Never you mind' said Bladorthin: 'I was finding things out, and a nasty dangerous business it was. Even I only just escaped. However I tried to save your father, but it was too late. He was witless and wandering, and had forgotten almost everything except the map'.
'The goblins of Moria have been repaid' said Gandalf; 'we must give a thought to the Necromancer'.
'Don't be absurd,'said the wizard. 'That is a job quite beyond the powers of all the dwarves, if they could be all gathered together again from the four corners of the world. And anyway [others>] his castle stands no more and [his>] he is flown [added: to another darker place] --Beren and Tinuviel broke his power, but that is quite another story.'"
But it seems the chronology was quite different then.