Rare Tolkien Book Fetches $270,000

A RARE first edition of JR Tolkien's The Hobbit including an inscription written in Elvish has sold at a London auction for $A270,000.

A rare first edition of JR Tolkien's The Hobbit has sold at a London auction for $A270,000.

A FIRST edition of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit - complete with a handwritten note from the author in Elvish - has sold at auction for STG137,000 ($A270,030).

THE book, which went under the hammer at Sotheby's in London on Thursday, was originally given by Tolkien to one of his students from Leeds University, Kitty Kilbride.