‘’The Hobbit’ Hobbit’ NYT Mini Crossword Aug. 4 answer and hints

It seems today’s New York Times Mini Crossword stumped many players, with multiple tricky clues tripping up word game fans around the world. Perhaps the most confusing one of the bunch was the one testing your fantasy knowledge.

If you’re not quite sure what “‘The Hobbit’ Hobbit” refers to in the Aug. 4 New York Times crossword, we have got you covered.

‘The Hobbit Hobbit’ NYT Mini Crossword hints and answer

• Hint 1: Think Lord of the Rings.
• Hint 2: It’s the name of a key character.
• Hint 3: Baggins, but maybe not the one you’re thinking of.
• Hint 4: The name sounds a bit like “Babble”.

Still stumped? Final spoiler warning before we reveal the answer below.

The answer to five across in the Aug. 4 NYT Mini Crossword is “BILBO.” Bilbo Baggins is the hero of The Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga. The star of that particular show, Bilbo Baggins, is his second cousin once removed.”

‘The Hobbit Hobbit’ NYT Mini Crossword difficulty rating

This NYT Mini Crossword clue warrants a two out of five difficulty rating. It’s a bit of a binary one: if you are not familiar with Tolkien’s works, you will struggle to guess with one, even after you get a handful of letters by solving other clues. If you are a LoTR fan, however, or even if you have just a cursory understanding of the story, this one is easy as pie.

NYT Mini Crossword (Aug. 4) answers

If you are looking for the full slate of solutions, here you go:

Across 

• 1A The first blank in this phrase: From ____ to ____ — HEAD
• 5A “The Hobbit” Hobbit — BILBO
• 6A A 16 seed beating a 1 seed, e.g. — UPSET
• 7A Feeling of ill will — SPITE
• 8A The second blank in this phrase: From ____ to ____ — TOE

Down

• 1D Creature able to hold its breath underwater for up to 30 minutes — HIPPO
• 2D Name that sounds like the twelfth and third letters of the alphabet — ELSIE
• 3D Help with a crime — ABET
• 4D Pour love (on) — DOTE
• 5D Opposite of boom, on Wall Street — BUST

How to play other word games like the NYT Mini Crossword

If you want to play word games similar to the NYT Mini Crossword, you can try the crosswords offered over at the LA Times and the Washington Post every day. For different kinds of word games, NYT’s Strands and Spelling Bee are super fun.