Tolkien explains on BBC how he started The Hobbit

[Lengsel]

On a pole in the sky, lived an eyeball.

[andreas]

Teacher: Do nOT leAve BLAnK PagEs yoU WIll LOSE MarkS!
Toklien: Extra 5 marks and a preview of my book!

[visheshabeyratne]

I love that mischievous glint in his eye as he recalls how the sentence that started it all occurred to him. Glorious.

[redpyramid]

Toklien with a big smile on his face: "There was a page on this particular paper left blank. Glorious!"

The unparalleled enthusiasm an artist has, when they see a an empty space where they can create.

[trande]

Imagine being the student that left that blank page. You’d have likely thought your Professor was making it personal, calling you a slur you had never heard before.

[siriondil]

During World War 2 when paper was most scarce, Tolkien did some of the drafting of Lord of the Rings literally across the written on pages of examinations too, not just the blank pages as usual. Imagine your test being used for drafting of a landmark piece of writing of the century.

[whisperingbardasmr]

Whenever I submit a paper, I always leave a blank page at the end in case my professors want to write a story.

[elzector]

Tolkien created Middle-earth with one simple sentence. “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” Gives me goosebumps.

[abcdef]

"In a school on England, there was a bored teacher... And the rest is History".

[MollymaukT]

God bless the student who left a blank page

[roygfs]

That student had an extremely valuable piece of history!

[joepalooka]

He was a monumental genius. To have conceived and written not just "The Hobbit" but the Lord of the Rings trilogy---- JRR Tolkien has always been one of my most admired writers and creative artists, ever since I discovered him back in the 1960s as a teenager.

[guynxtdork]

I can't believe how soft spoken this man was. So so soft spoken.

[ozybeastias]

Apparently, Ian McKellan based his performance of Gandalf on Tolkien himself. Having finally watched this interview (or any interview with him), I can definitely see the similarities, specifically in the voice.

[GabeOli]

The way he moves his eyebrows to emphasize his joy over the blank paper is phenomenal!

[happyoutside]

Tolkien's world was so beautiful that you'll gonna be lost in fantasy.

[viktorkolaric]

I imagine that student just threw the paper away, never knowing what he had.

[cyaeli]

Sounds like bilbo baggins on the movie😅

[gaiseric]

You can see the sparkle in his eye when that fond memory of an explosion of creativity came to his mind.

[nicholasmaude]

Tolkien's target audience for the Hobbit was his children.