'In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit': J. R. R. Tolkien jotted that memorable first sentence down more than 75 years ago, and in doing so, the Oxford professor and WWI veteran gave birth to a whole genre of literature -- inspiring everyone from the hippies of the Sixties to D&D fanatics, and a whole lot of folks who just love, as director Peter Jackson tells RS, "a great cracking yarn." (Introduction]

A lazy homebody with a love of good food, cheer and smoking pipe weed, Bilbo Baggins might be the most unlikely hero to ever set out on an epic adventure.