The Hobbit (Middle Earth, #0)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers).

It's rare these days for authors to use the true omniscient narration voice. Usually it's either first-person or third-person. The distinction between third-person and omniscient can be a bit fuzzy at times. Both involve a floating narrator who is not a character in the story. Third-person limits itself to the point-of-view of a character in the scene. So, while the story isn’t told directly by the character (as in first-person), you are only told about things that the character knows or perceives. The focused-upon character can change from scene to scene. Omniscient narration has no such bounds. An omniscient narrator can tell you anything it wants. Even things the characters don’t know. This is the voice used in “The Hobbit”. And this is a good example of it. Bilbo has no way of knowing Balin and Dwalin are brothers. The danger of the omniscient voice is you can fall into the dreaded trap of “telling not showing”. The reader doesn’t like to simply be told a fact. They want to experience it. And Tolkien is guilty of "telling" here. But it works because of the happy tone and bubbly information that is given, plus his general prose style is wonderful so the reader doesn't mind. It takes a lot of skill to write in the omniscient voice. That’s why I write in first person. :)