For 64 years, the most unique set of Hobbit illustrations most English readers have never seen existed only in Swedish and Finnish. That’ll change this autumn.
HarperCollins will publish The Hobbit: Illustrated by Tove Jansson in the UK on September 24, 2026, and in the US on October 6, 2026. Comics Beat has the announcement details. It’s the first time these illustrations will appear alongside an English text of the novel.
Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was the Finnish-Swedish artist and writer behind the beloved Moomin series, one of the defining works of 20th-century children’s literature. Her pen-and-ink style, bold and expressionist with deep roots in Nordic folk tradition, looks nothing like the Alan Lee and John Howe paintings that have defined Middle-earth visually since the 1990s. That’s exactly what makes this edition worth having.
The commission came in 1960 from an unexpected source: Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking, who was then an editor at Swedish publisher Rabén & Sjögren. Jansson spent nearly two years on the project. The result, published in 1962 as “Bilbo – en hobbits aventyr” and used in the Finnish translation “Hobitti,” included 12 full-page black-and-white drawings, roughly 10 half-page illustrations, and smaller chapter decorations throughout.
The most striking detail belongs to Gollum. In Jansson’s drawings, he’s enormous, towering over Bilbo. When Tolkien saw the Swedish edition, he reportedly recognized something he’d never addressed in the text: he had never actually specified Gollum’s size. He made corrections in subsequent editions, pulling the creature down to the small, skulking figure readers picture today. It’s a rare case of a foreign illustrator’s interpretation looping back into the canonical text itself.
The timing fits neatly into a larger moment. The Hobbit turns 90 on September 21, 2027. This English edition arrives just ahead of that milestone, giving readers something genuinely new.
