Did Tolkien write the Hobbit, as a criticism response by his son?

[herlig9]

Someone online told me. That Christopher Tolkien sorta said Tolkien was inconsistent about some of his stories. And so he wrote The Hobbit as a response to that.

Or am i wrong? But if true. Then thats kinda amazing ^^

 

[Starbrow]

Here is what I found on Tolkien Gateway.


Tolkien recollects in a 1955 letter to W.H. Auden (Letters, no. 163) that, in the late 1920s, when he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, The Hobbit began when he was marking School Certificate papers, on the back of one of which he wrote the words "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit" which evolved into a story like the ones he was making up for his children. He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years he drew up Thrór's map, outlining the geography of the tale.

The tale itself he wrote in the early 1930s. It was mostly enjoyed by his eldest son John (13) than the younger ones. His peers at Oxford also "forced" him to lend copies to read.[2] As early as age four and five, young Christopher was concerned with the consistency:

[O]n one occasion I interrupted: 'Last time, you said Bilbo's front door was blue, and you said Thorin had a golden tassel on his hood, but you've just said that Bilbo's front door was green and that Thorin's hood was silver'; at which point my father muttered 'Damn the boy,' and then 'strode across the room' to his desk to make a note.
Christopher Tolkien, foreword to The Hobbit

 

[Eldacar]

Someone online told me. That Christopher Tolkien sorta said Tolkien was inconsistent about some of his stories. And so he wrote The Hobbit as a response to that.

Or am i wrong? But if true. Then thats kinda amazing ^^

Is this perhaps pertaining to the anecdote by Christopher Tolkien in the 50th anniversary edition of the Hobbit?

“He also remembered that I (then between four and five years old) was greatly concerned with petty consistency as the story unfolded, and that on one occasion I interrupted: ‘Last time, you said Bilbo’s front door was blue, and you said Thorin had a gold tassel on his hood, but you’ve just said that Bilbo’s front door was green, and the tassel on Thorin’s hood was silver’; at which point my father muttered ‘Damn the boy,’ and then ‘strode across the room’ to his desk to make a note.”

I've seen this quote used as evidence online, that the attentive nature of Christopher was the reason Tolkien wrote the story of the Hobbit down, but that's either a misunderstanding or sensationalism. I don't have the edition here and gathered this quote from an article, but I think what Christopher wanted to illustrate with that, was the nature of how his father worked and the importance of details to him. Not to show his own importance in the origin of the story. Your friend probably read this polished version of the anecdote and took it at face value. I did too, some years ago. It's quite lovely.