Excellent points! I had read that about The Hobbit but had forgotten. What a dad! What lucky kids. I think just for me I remember hoping as a child I would one day find a wardrobe, and both my older children told me they were really disappointed when they didn't get a Hogwarts letter. I loved The Hobbit and all the Lord of the Rings books, but I never thought of being in the world. It does, though, like you say, have a feeling of an ancient history.