Though we know him today as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—the creator of the fantastic Middle Earth, the inventor of hobbits and orcs and Elvish, indeed the “father of modern fantasy literature”—Tolkien was also a respected medieval scholar and professor. He worked briefly for The Oxford English Dictionary, taught at Leeds University and then Oxford, and produced a landmark lecture on Beowulf. For whom did Tolkien write The Hobbit? Discuss