I plan to spend the rest of today exploring differences in word use between Chapter 5 of The Hobbit as we all know and love it and Chapter 5 as it was published in 1937.  At that time, Tolkien didn’t conceive of Gollum’s ring as anything other than a small magical ring with invisibility powers.  Once he began work on The Lord of the Rings, however, he knew the ring to be far more.  He rewrote Chapter 5 and managed to get the whole book re-published.

‘Very well,’ said Bilbo. ‘I will do as you bid. But I will now tell the true story, and if some here have heard me tell it otherwise’ – he looked sidelong at Glóin – ‘I ask them to forget it and forgive me. I only wished to claim the treasure as my very own in those days, and to be rid of the name of thief that was put on me. But perhaps I understand things a little better now. Anyway, this is what happened.’

What we begin with:

I’ll report back  in with the list of which paragraphs are identical as well as the number of uncommon words in each chapter soon, Word Fans.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (2012-02-15). The Lord of the Rings: One Volume (p. 249). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.