The Hobbit as an epic

Though the tone of the story is more comparable to children stories, The Hobbit is still an epic and shares many characteristics of traditional epics.

One characteristic is a sense of tradition, as is seen through multiple characters and objects. The most obvious example is that hobbits do not like adventure, a tradition that Bilbo breaks on account of the reverse tradition carried on by his mother’s family. Another example could be found in regards to the swords that the party takes from the trolls’ lair, as Elrond points out that they were made by the elves and goes on to explain their history.

Another characteristic that The Hobbit shares with traditional epics, such as Beowulf, is that the characters face challenge after challenge against objectively evil antagonists. We are only 4 chapters into the story and already the party has nearly been killed twice, only to be saved by Gandalf at the last minute. This also brings up the idea that, even though Bilbo slowly grows to fit his position as a hero, Gandalf could be compared to Beowulf or Odysseus, as time and time again he proves himself to be the only one capable of defeating the antagonists.

Why do you think Tolkien chose to make The Hobbit come off as more of a children story instead of making it more mature?