Rateliff mentions in the interview:
Quote:
Q: I find myself intrigued by your claim of the strong connections between The Hobbit and Silmarillion. Care to provide any examples, or do I have to wait for publication?
Well, there's the mention of Beren and Luthien in the draft of Chapter One, for starters. The wizard says they don't need to worry about seeking revenge on the Necromancer because Beren and Tinuviel have already thrown down his dark tower. That's a pretty explicit reference to the events of 'The Lay of Leithian', and a pretty good indication to me that Bilbo's world and their world were thought of as one and the same from the very beginning.
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Well, to me the mention of Beren & Luthien is hardly a 'pretty good indication' that TH was intended to be part of the Legendarium from the start. If we take a reference to B&L as 'evidence' of that, then we have to take similar references to 'Faerie in the West' as evidence that Roverandom was intended to take place in the same world as TH & LotR. Without LotR TH would have no connection to the Legendarium beyond a few shared names. All the reference to B&L indicates is that Tolkien made use of the Legendarium as it then existed to provide background for the story. And a more significant point is that Tolkien removed the reference.