Can you explain the sentence structure 'In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit'? Why put the verb before the subject?
The opening sentence to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien reads,
In a hole in the ground there lived [verb] a hobbit [subject].
I wonder if there are accepted stylistic purposes for such a structure. When is it natural, and when is it unnatural?
Tales traditionally begin with a slight delay – usually a formula like “so heisst es” or “Once upon a time” or even “Wance upon a time, an’ ’twas nayther my time nor your time, but ’twas somebody’s time” – which takes a grip on the audience and provides them a cue to become quiet and attentive before the first event or character is introduced. Tolkien knew this as well as anybody: he was famous for the resounding “Hwæt!” with which he opened his Oxford lectures on Beowulf.
He was, moreover, an accomplished poet in traditional metres; and it’s hard to imagine that that crafty decelerando from the urgent anapaests to solemn iambs transforming in mid-flight into trochees was anything but a deliberate device to throw the emphasis onto the final word, hobbit.
˘ ˘ ¯ ˘ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘
It's an issue of fluidity and aesthetics.
If you rewrite the sentence,
"A hobbit lived in a hole in the ground."
it does not sound nearly as pretty, does it?
This is called subject–verb inversion, and is done for a variety of reasons. The referenced Wikipedia article mentions four sorts:
- Locative inversion
- Directive inversion
- Copular inversion
- Quotation inversion
This one is locative inversion, because the sentences starts with a location specification, a “where” phrase. This is completely common in English.
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At the back of the closet stood a secret door.
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Down the street came the ice cream truck.
I once made a study of the inversions in Tolkien (whom you have quoted above without attribution), and it is a distinctive style choice in some cases, especially in the copular inversion. Furthermore, the inversions vary in number and type depending on whether you are looking at The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, or The Lord of the Rings.