Thror’s Map I. This version (‘Copied by B. Baggins’) retains the northward orientation of Fimbulfambi’s Map.
The ‘home manuscript’ version of the Mirkwood/Wilderland map, with Bilbo’s outward journey marked in red.
The Long Lake and Lonely Mountain. One of the set of maps accompanying the ‘home manuscript’.
A schematic view of the Lonely Mountain from the West looking East.
‘One Morning early in the Quiet of the World’: Gandalf (and adventure) approach the unsuspecting Bilbo’s door.
Gandalf on the doorstep at Bag-End.
‘The Hill: Hobbiton’, showing the path Bilbo ran down from his front door in the distance to the Great Mill in the foreground.
‘Trolls’ Hill’: a mood piece showing the distant firelight that lured the dwarves to near-disaster.
‘The Three Trolls are turned to Stone’: note Bilbo caught in the bushes left of centre.
‘Riding down into Rivendell’: Elrond’s valley revealed among the desolate lands all around.
The 1932 Father Christmas Letter.
Detail showing Smaug painted on the cave wall and Gollum peering around the corner.
‘Firelight in Beorn’s house’: an alternate view, directly based on a re-creation of Hrolf Kraki’s Hall (Heorot).
The lost Mirkwood halftone, based on Tolkien’s earlier picture of Taur-na-Fuin.
Detail showing a Mirkwood spider.
Night-time view of the Elf-hill in Mirkwood. Note the cobwebs to left and right.
Barrel-rider: unfinished pastel of Bilbo’s arrival at the huts of the raft-elves.
‘Esgaroth’: alternate image of Lake Town. Note the dwarves’ heads emerging from the barrels to the left.
‘The Back Door’: A flurry of dwarven activity in the hidden bay on the western side of the Mountain.
‘View from Back Door’: companion piece to the preceding, showing the view from inside the secret tunnel looking out towards the setting sun.
Dwarves marching, with sketch of Smaug flying overhead.
‘The Front Door’: the Lonely Mountain by daylight. Note the smoke-rings above the Mountain, the river looping around the ruins of Dale, and the opening on Ravenhill.
‘Smaug flies round the Mountain’: a night-time scene in muted colour. Note placement of Dale and aberrant phase of the moon.
‘Conversation with Smaug’: Bilbo’s meeting with the Dragon in a picture full of significant detail. Note the dwarven curse on the jar to the lower left.
‘The wrong way to do it’: even before he began writing The Hobbit, Tolkien was thinking about dragons, and this drawing from 1928 shows one of the ‘creeping’ kind being attacked in ‘the wrong way’.
‘Death of Smaug’: Tolkien’s annotated sketch showing the destruction of Lake Town.
‘Not competent produce drawings required. Can send rough sketch and directions [to] artist’: previously unpublished sketch of Bilbo.
‘The Coming of the Eagles’: this rough sketch shows the only known depiction of the Battle of the Five Armies, with the figure in the foreground possibly that of Bilbo.