Hobbit Virtues

by Christopher A. Snyder

Info

Date Finished: 5/26/2026

First Sentence: In the darkly satirical novel Candide (1759), written by the philosophe Voltaire, the young hero goes on a quest in part to discover the meaning of life.

Last Sentence: We Hobbits need merely discover them, plant them in new soil, tend our little garden with care, and wait with sunlit hope for them to spring leaf and flower again in a new age.

Companion Album:

New Cover

A book cover for "Hobbit Virtues" by Christopher A. Snyder. The background is a soft, watercolor-painted scene on paper. The top shows a watercolor blue sky, and the bottom features a lush, watercolor green rolling hill containing the rounded front and door of a hobbit-hole. A path leads from the door to the right, where a simple, watercolor illustration of a small, walking figure in a purple tunic is waving. The title is at the top in large, whimsical dark brown font, with the author and descriptive subtitle below it in a smaller serif font.

A Few Thoughts

I really wanted to like Hobbit Virtues. I thought it'd be a cozy little book telling you how to live like a hobbit. Instead, it's a dry series of essays tying virtue ethics (something I don't know much about) to Tolkien's works.

The best parts are learning more about Tolkien’s life and how his experiences informed his beliefs and, therefore, his writing. Tolkien famously dislikes allegory applied to his work in Middle Earth, of course, but seeing his beliefs through the virtue ethics lens provides some connective tissue between, say, his time serving with brave officers in WWI and how he writes Faramir.

And yet, I found it dull. A real slog to get through. But you might like it! It's worth giving a shot. But be warned, if you don't like it from the get-go, it'll just be more of the same.

Cover Notes

I painted this one and made a few mistakes, but I think it's OK? Bit off a bit more than I could chew. The scan wasn't the best, so lesson learned there. I modeled the hobbit on this cover illustrated by Cees Kelfkens.