Tove Jansson's Illustrations to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

This lecture examines Tove Jansson's illustrations to J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit in the Swedish translation from the 1960s: how they were created, how they relate to Jansson's other work, and how the translation history of the Swedish editions influenced their development. The illustrations are well known in Finland and Sweden, but will be published in an English-language edition for the first time in autumn 2026. The presentation draws on archival materials.

The lecturer is Sonja Virta (MA), a founding member of the Tove Jansson Society and its first press officer. She is also a former chair of the Finnish Tolkien Society Kontu and is writing her doctoral dissertation on Tolkien translations at the University of Turku's Department of Translation Studies. She has been studying Jansson's Hobbit illustrations since 2014.