The Hobbit

Gygax spent years downplaying Tolkien's importance to the game, and the paperwork disagrees with him. The 1974 rules use hobbits, ents and balrogs by name; the Tolkien Estate objected, and TSR renamed them halflings, treants and the balor. All three words are still in the game, and each one is a scar left by a legal letter. Beyond the names, the debt is the premise the whole hobby rests on: a mixed party of races travelling together on a long expedition to a dungeon, which is The Hobbit's plot and was not a standard fantasy shape before it. Pointed at The Hobbit rather than at The Lord of the Rings, which the graph already holds separately. The Hobbit is the one with a burglar hired by a party, an underground expedition, and a dragon on a hoard.

Direct adaptation of the story from the book into a trilogy, although the filmmakers stretched the story a bit using appendixes and notes from Tolkien's other books.

Narrative: Bilbo steals a cup from Smaug's hoard, just as a thief steals a cup from the dragon in Beowulf, provoking the dragon's wrath. Character: Smaug's intelligence, pride, and possessiveness owe much to the Beowulf dragon. Théoden embodies the ideal of the Anglo-Saxon king, ruling from a great hall and inspiring loyalty through generosity and courage. Worldbuilding: Meduseld, the Golden Hall of Rohan, strongly recalls Heorot, King Hrothgar's great hall in Beowulf. The Rohirrim's language, poetry, and social customs are deliberately based on Anglo-Saxon culture. Thematic: Both works dwell on the transience of kingdoms, the inevitability of death, and the enduring value of honour in the face of loss. Stylistic: Tolkien adopts an elevated, archaic register in many speeches and songs, echoing the diction and rhythm of Old English verse.

Smaug was directly inspired by Fáfnir, the intelligent, treasure-hoarding dragon whose greed defines the Völsunga Saga.

Tolkien admired Lord Dunsany, although his own style became more grounded in Norse and Anglo-Saxon traditions. Shared elements include:

• secondary worlds that feel ancient and complete,
• a mythic narrative voice,
• magic treated as mysterious rather than mechanical.