These Bilbos are all from foreign editions of The Hobbit. Behold the wonder of Bilbo Baggins filtered through other cultures. The first Bilbo is from the 1962 Portuguese edition, drawn by Antonio Quadros. Tolkien called these illustrations "hideous."
The second Bilbo is by Tamas Szecsko, from the 1975 Hungarian edition. This Bilbo looks like the English character actor Robert Morley to me.
The third Bilbo is by Livia Rusz, from the 1975 Rumanian edition. I love these illustrations, but wonder about Bilbo's sugar-loaf hat. Perhaps it just went in her mind with "the Little People" kind of thing.
The fourth Bilbo is by Mikhail Belomlinskiy from the 1976 Russian edition. Apparently (according to notes cited in Douglas Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit) the common Russian language does not differentiate between the terms for "legs" and "feet" which accounts for this Kruschev-lookalike Bilbo's hairy lower appendages.
The fifth Bilbo is by an illustrator known only as "Chica," from the 1976 French edition. This Bilbo looks so French and so 70's I'm surprised he's not wearing a neck-scarf. The striped pants are particularly groovy.
1 comment:
Damn. That is a stupid take on Bilbo. Morley's Best is some fine tobacco.
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