Beyond the Canon of Fantasy Illustration: Tove Jansson's 1962 Illustrations of The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954) were instrumental in establishing fantasy as publishing genre. At the outset, however, there were no established models or conventions for how (or even if) fantasy should be illustrated, and Tolkien’s own writings on the aesthetics of fantasy, as well as his own illustrations, came to serve both as inspiration but have also led to a visual orthodoxy and process of canonization on how Middle Earth and its inhabitants should be portrayed. In this paper it is argued that it is only by looking at the early translations and transmediations of Tolkien’s work that we can get a glimpse of alternative ways in which his work can be (and was) interpreted. It is also shown that today there is a new openness to unorthodox ways of visualizing fantasy, and a growing acceptance of the pioneer illustrators of the 1960’s. The paper focuses in particular the expressive and non-realistic artistry of work of Tove Jansson for the 1962 Swedish edition of The Hobbit. Ultimately, the article makes a plea for a reassessment of Jansson’s Hobbit-illustrations on the basis of the visual diversity evident in much present day fantasy.