 He was gullum, as dark as darkness. For J.R.R. Tolkien, the Hobbit began when he was marking exam papers as an Oxford College professor, when, in a moment of boredom, he scribbled on a blank page what would become one of the most famous lines in children's literature. In a hole, in the ground, there lived the Hobbit. Here are the facts. Like his old gullum...