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An Unexpected Journey . . . (Part 2)

chauvelin2000
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Mar 31 2015, 12:03am

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A Philologist's Delight – Part III . . .

Among the most astonishing of Tolkien's original character-names as found in the Pryftan Fragment is the one he chose for the character of Thorin's grandfather, who we know today as King ThrórFimbulfambi(!) But perhaps even more astonishing than the name itself is its meaning'great fool, or idiot'(!!) Thank goodness for change . . .

Thror
, 'last King Under the Mountain' [< Fimbulfambi* 'Great Fool or Idiot'(!)] ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 9, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24



* Old Norse Names for many characters in THE HOBBIT originate (as mentioned in part I of 'A Philologist's Delight', under Part 1 of this 'An Unexpected Journey' post) from the Elder (Poetic) Edda's Dvergatal and the Younger (Prose) Edda's Gylfagining — the names of all of the members of Thorin & Company, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains who accompany Bilbo of the Shire on the Quest of Erebor, come (directly, or as slight variations) from the ancient Norse list of the Dvergatal 'Dwarf-tally', which is an interpolation to the Völuspá ('The Prophecy of the Seeress', c. 1000 AD), the first poem in the Elder, or Poetic, Edda — and from the Gylfaginning 'The Deluding of Gylfi' (another version of the Dvergatal) in Snorri Sturluson's Younger, or Prose, Edda (1223 AD). From these lists come also the names of Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield's father, Thráin II son of Thrór (and, it goes without saying, of their ancient forefather, Thráin the Old, or Thráin I, the original 'King Under the Mountain'). Likewise, the original name of Thorin's grandfather ThrórFimbulfambi — the last King Under the Mountain before the coming of the dragon, is Old Norse, derived from the bit of eddic lore known as Hávamál. ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 9, 12, 15, 23-25; Appendix III, pp. 866-871.



Origin of the dwarf-names . . .

While some may be quite taken back at the dramatic differences in character-names as Tolkien originally conceived them, particularly of Gandalf (the wizard Bladorthin) and Thorin (the Chief dwarf Gandalf), comforting is the fact that in the top margin of the sixth and final page of the Pryftan Fragment, Tolkien wrote the following list (preceding Gandalf's name) of what he had already determined would be his additional, and also final, dwarf-names:

Dwalin Balin Fili Kili Dori Nori Ori Oin & Gloin
Bifur Bofur Bombur Gandalf
~ History of THE HOBBIT, p. 11

As mentioned in the above note (*), Tolkien took these names of the dwarves from verses (collectively called the Dvergatal 'Dwarf-tally' — Hauksbók manuscript, 1302-1310 AD) of the very ancient Norse poem, the Völuspá (the first poem of the Elder Edda), where many dwarf-names are given, and among them Gandalf (Tolkien himself noted: 'The dwarf-names, and the wizard's, are from the Elder Edda,' History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 857, 866).

Authorial embellishments came later of adding diacritical signs, or acute-accent marks (í, ó), to four of these names — all of them dwarves of the House of Durin the Deathless: Fíli and Kíli (nephews and 'attendants' of Thorin Oakenshield: his courtiers, or honor-guard), and brothers Óin and Glóin (with Balin and Dwalin, also proud descendants of Durin through Náin II; Glóin is the father of Gimli, one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring). Brothers Dori, Nori, and Ori, remote kinsmen of Thorin, were also of Durin's line; but Bifur and his cousins, brothers Bofur and Bombur,** though descended from the Dwarves of Moria, were not of Durin's line (LOTR, p. 1079; see also History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 322-23n; Annotated HOBBIT, pp. 77-79).

** bombur = 'drum' in Old Norse, which can be translated as 'tubby'; rotund Bombur is 'left ... to mind the ponies as best he could' when the other dwarves depart to inch their way towards the distant troll-fire in the 1960 Hobbit (but the fat dwarf falls fast asleep whilst 'on duty' and the ponies are lost; in Peter Jackson's film the ponies 'bolt' during the Warg attack before Rivendell), but later, in Tolkien's book (though not in Jackson's movie), Bombur stoutly carries Bilbo on his back when pursued by Goblins in the dark tunnels of the Misty Mountains (as Fate would have it, however, he also loses Bilbo; even so, Fate and Róhald,*** Gandalf's steed, look after the ponies and Bilbo both: 'they'll be all right', Gandalf reassures the company, speaking of the lost ponies: 'my Rohald is looking after them'). ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 784n, 798, 800, 807n-808n; Annotated HOBBIT, p. 77

*** Róhald: Gandalf's white horse, which dates back to the earliest pages of Tolkien's Phase II manuscript, is (in the 1960 Hobbit) first given a name — 'Rohald' [S: ro 'horse', hald 'high, exalted; veiled, shadowed']. The fate of Róhald is suggested by Tolkien's note at the end of the New Chapter III ('Arrival in Rivendell') fragment: 'Also insert the white horse Róhald belonged to Rivendell, & had been lent by Elrond to Gandalf' (History of THE HOBBIT, p. 803) — for since the horse was from Rivendell, Gandalf presumably left him there when Thorin & Company departed and headed up into the mountains — that is, the elven horse is left behind when the company sets out again (with their ponies, whose marked 'Goblin' fate is clearly less fortunate) to attempt the mountain-passes. ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 791, 793-94, 803n, 805n, 809-810


Notwithstanding the rather jolting naming differences mentioned so far, yet present in Tolkien's Pryftan Fragment (the earliest of HOBBIT manuscripts) are names and components that are now very familiar indeed to most readers (despite the fact that the Fragment is also a work already beset with Tolkien's famous anachronismswhistling steam engines or express-trains, golf! — which go on in the future to include others, from mantle clocks, tea kettles, top hats, pop-guns, matches and tinder-boxes to policemen, lilliputians, and bicycles! — even Christmas). But within Tolkien's brief Pryftan Fragment also, observes John D. Rateliff, are those names or motifs that are almost immediately recognizable to modern HOBBIT readers:

Bilbo Baggins
of Bag-End Under-Hill (pp. 7-11, 14-17, 23-24; see also pp. 44-48), The Water (p. 7), the Unexpected Party motif (pp. 7-8, 14), the Dwarves' lost-treasure song (pp. 7, 14), the Took / Baggins dichotomy (pp. 7-8, 14), Gandalf-Bladorthin's blue-lit staff (p. 8), The Old Took and Bullroarer (complete with the dramatic tale of the Goblin-king's beheading and the beginnings of not only Golf but also Chess! - pp. 8, 12, 15-16, 24-25), Burglar Baggins' sought-after service in the Company as its 14th member (pp. 8-10, 14), the Withered Heath ('whence came the Great Worms', pp. 9, 786n), Dale Town, Running River, Long Lake (p. 10), and along with Bilbo's love of maps (p. 10) even the first version of 'Thror's Map' ('Fimbulfambi's Map') of the distant Mountain, harbouring deep within it Great Dwarven Halls — complete with Runes & the Pointing Hand, the Secret Door opening upon a hidden passage, the Front Gate & Side (< Back) Door, and the Great Dragon himself (though not actually on the map that we see in the Fragment, it is rather curiously stated by Balin only in the text as being an actual feature on the map: 'a dragon in red on the Mountain', he states) — not to mention the Forest River and Lake Town, as well as other map features that hark back to THE SILMARILLION: Mirkwood & the Withered Heath stand as twin-descendants of Taur-nu-Fuin and Dor-nu-Fauglith (Anfauglith) in THE SILMARILLION; and Elbereth the Star-queen's 'Heavenly Sickle' that Men in the SILMARILLION mythos called the 'Burning Briar' (known in latter times as the Big Dipper) Tolkien places here at the North-point of the map's compass rose! Taniquetil the Mountain of the World in the Uttermost West, the Southern Sun, and the Gates of Morn in the far East occupy the compass's other SILMARILLION-derived points ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 7-26, 44-48, 71, 786n; and the first volume's Frontispiece: 'Fimbulfambi's Map.'

Taur-nu-Fuin / Mirkwood, homes of The Necromancer = Sauron < Thû < Gorthû of the SILMARILLION mythos, who as Melkor-Morgoth's mightiest servant took the shape of a vampire Bat, 'great as a dark cloud across the moon, and he fled, dripping blood from his throat upon the trees, and came to Taur-nu-Fuin' ... 'a new throne and darker stronghold there to build' ... and he 'dwelt there, filling it with horror' ~ The History of Middle-earth III: The Lays of Beleriand, p. 255; The Silmarillion, p. 172; History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 20, 73 — a cancelled manuscript reference early in Phase II of the writing makes explicit that the Necromancer whose tower Beren and Lúthien destroyed and the Necromancer in whose dungeons Gandalf encountered Thorin's father are one and the same. ~ History of THE HOBBIT, p. 20; for Tuar-nu-Fuin and Dor-nu-Fauglith, see also the entry for 'The wandering wizard Gandalf the Grey' in part I of 'A Philologist's Delight', under Part 1 of this 'An Unexpected Journey' post

The home of the Necromancer's new lairhis 'Mirkwood renewed' in Middle-earth's Third Age — was by Tolkien in his original Pryftan Fragment, however, called 'the Wild Wood' . . .

Mirkwood 'gloomy, murky, wicked, hellish wood' [< Wild Wood] — part of the great primeval forest that once covered most of Europe. ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 9, 15, 18-20

On 29 July 1966 Tolkien wrote to this grandson:
'Mirkwood is not an invention of mine, but a very ancient name, weighted with legendary associations. It was probably the Primitive Germanic name for the great mountainous forest regions that anciently formed a barrier to the south of the lands of Germanic expansion. In some traditions it became used especially of the boundary between Goths and Huns. I speak now from memory: its ancientness seems indicated by its appearance in very early German (11th c.?) as mirkiwidu although the *merkw- stem 'dark' is not otherwise found in German at all (only in O[ld] E[nglish], O[ld] S[axon], and O[ld] N[orse]), and the stem *widu- > witu was in German (I think) limited to the sense of 'timber,' not very common, and did not survive into mod[ern] G[erman]. In O.E. mirce only survives in poetry, and in the sense 'dark', or rather 'gloomy', only in Beowulf [line] 1405 ofer myrcan mor: elsewhere only with the sense 'murky' > wicked, hellish. It was never, I think, a mere 'colour' word: 'black', and was from the beginning weighted with the sense of 'gloom' ... It seemed to me too good a fortune that Mirkwood remained intelligible (with exactly the right tone) in modern English to pass over: whether mirk is a Norse loan or a freshment of the obsolete O.E. word...' (Letters, pp. 369-370; the name Mirkwood, as a great forest with similar associations, was used earlier in a novel that Tolkien knew well: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings [1888] by William Morris, Annotated HOBBIT, p. 183).




Dark Dwarvish Deliberations . . .

from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey . . .


Balin: What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?
Thorin: Aye, envoys from all Seven Kingdoms.
Balin [pleasantly surprised]: All of them!
Dwalin [still hopeful, but with a hint of pessimism]: And what did the Dwarves of the Iron Hills say?Is Dain with us?
Thorin [not wishing to answer the question, saddened]: They will not come ... They say this quest is ours, and ours alone.
Bilbo [eavesdropping, having just stepped from the atrium-hallway to the entrance of the Bag-End dining room, where Thorin sits at the head of the table surrounded by Gandalf and the full company of thirteen dwarves]: — You're going on a quest?
Gandalf: Bilbo, my dear fellow! ... Let us have a little more light ... [Gandalf draws forth Thrór's Map, places it on the table, and points to the Mountain as Bilbo draws near with a candle, leaning in to read the map] … Far to the eastover ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelandslies a single, solitary peak ...
Bilbo: ... 'The Lonely Mountain'
Gloin: Aye, Oin has read the portents, and the portents say: It is time.
Oin: Ravens have been seen flying back to the Mountain as it was foretold! ... 'When the Birds of Yore return to Erebor, the Reign of the Beast will end' ...
Bilbo: — Uh ... What beast?
Bofur: Well, that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, 'Chiefest and Greatest Calamity of our Age'airborne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat-hooks, extremely fond of precious metals.
Bilbo: Yes, I know what a dragon is . . .
[The dwarves begin to argue amongst themselves about how 'fitted' they perceive themselves to be — (Balin: 'the task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, but we number just thirteen, and not thirteen of the best ... nor brightest.' Fili: 'we may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!') including any merits the wizard might have (Dori: 'how many dragons have you killed? ... Go on, give us a number!') — to the grave task at hand; but as emotions rise, and tempers flare and begin to erupt, Thorin stands to bring order to the meeting by crying (in their native language, Khuzdûl:) Atkât! 'Silence!’]
Thorin: If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them, too? ... Rumors have begun to spread: The dragon Smaug has not been seen for sixty years. Eyes look east to the Mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk ... Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected — Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance ... to take back Erebor! [in native Khuzdûl:] Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr! [‘To arms! To arms!’]
Balin [as Thorin's longtime councilor, confidante, and friend — ever the voice of reason and caution amongst the dwarves — the elder diplomat of Durin's Folk, in response to this over-zealous call-to-arms, quickly quiets the heightened emotion in the room with a sobering observation]: You forgetthe Front Gate is sealed! There is no way into the Mountain.
Gandalf: That, my dear Balin ... is not entirely true.
[Gandalf pulls from his garments a Key (which bears the futhark rune inscription 'Durin's Heir', matching the Mannish runic inscriptions of Thrór's Map, the Dwarves preferring not to use their secret language Khuzdûl in writing) and holds it aloft for all to see]
Thorin [utterly astonished to see the wizard in possession of such a secret heirloom of his royal House, held last by his father and grandfather]: How came you by this?
Gandalf: It was given to me by your fatherby Thráinfor safe-keeping ... It is yours now [handing the Key to Thorin, who solemnly accepts it].
Fili: If there is a key, there must be a door!
Gandalf: These runes speak of a hidden passage to the Lower Halls.
Kili [smiling, with a 'what great luck is ours' expression]: There's another way in!
Gandalf [pragmatically]: Well, if we can find it ... but Dwarf-doors are invisible when closed [sighing, then thoughtfully, resolutely:] — The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map, and I do not have the skill to find it ... but there are others in Middle-earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But if we are careful and clever, I believe that it can be done.
Ori: That's why we need a burglar.
Bilbo [pensive, though utterly captivated by such intriguing dwarven prospects of encoded maps and secret keys, invisible doors and wizard-directed stealth, at the outset of this perilous quest to reclaim 'dragon' treasure]: Hmm ... and a good one, tooan expert, I'd imagine.
Gloin: And are you?
Bilbo [looking about, to see who it is that Gloin is addressing, only to realize that the question is being directed to none other than himself]: ... Am I what?
Oin [hard of hearing, his ear-horn cocked but misinterpreting Bilbo's response]: ... He said he's an expert! Ah-hey!
Bilbo: WhaMe?! ... No! No-no-no-no! ... II'm not a burglar!I've never stolen a thing in my life.
Balin [looking doubtfully to his brother Dwalin, then to Thorin, who'd earlier called Bilbo a 'grocer']: Well, I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He's hardly burglar material.
Dwalin: Aye [nodding knowingly to Thorin:] — the Wild is no place for gentle-folkwho can neither fight nor fend for themselves ... [as Bilbo's Bagginsish side happily nods with the naysayers]
Kili [to Thorin]: ... He's just fine!
Gandalf [increasingly agitated by the gathering voices that would frustrate Fate's choice, the Istari-wizard rises in the majesty of his Maia might, his voice thunderous in its great authority and ominous power]: Enough!If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is!Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet ... In fact, they can pass unseen by most, if they choose. And, while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of Dwarf, the scent of a Hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage [to Thorin:] — You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr. Baggins. There's a lot more to him than appearances suggest. And he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know [to Bilbo:] — including himself... [quietly, leaning in, to Thorin:] You must trust me on this.
Thorin [reticent, but recognizing the wizardly foresight that so clearly was just made manifest]: Very well. We'll do it your way.
Bilbo [his Bagginsish side in protest, amidst equally reticent murmurs from a few of the dwarves]: No, no
Thorin [speaking over everyone, including Bilbo]: Give him the contract.
Bofur: —We're in! ... We're off!
Bilbo [the Baggins in him imploring desperately one last time]: Please
Balin [rising to his feet — with what seems to be a deficit of confidence in their new 'burglar' of 'choice' — to present to Bilbo an extremely lengthy, written contract of employment]: It's just the usualsummary of out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth
Bilbo: —Funeral arrangements?! [Bilbo takes the document and trepidatiously steps into the open space of the atrium-hallway to peruse its contents]
Thorin [leaning in, privately to Gandalf]: I cannot guarantee his safety.
Gandalf: ... Understood.
Thorin [gravely resolute]: Nor will I be responsible for his fate.
Gandalf [tentatively, yet understanding the trade-off]: ... Agreed.



LUCK and THE HOBBIT . . .

Chapter I of THE HOBBIT introduces a motif that frames the entire Dwarvish 'Quest of Erebor'. Gandalf tells the dwarves that if they think he made a mistake in choosing Bilbo, they can stop at thirteen and have all the 'bad luck' they like — thus framing the whole quest by the question of luck . . . (see Devin Brown, The Christian World of THE HOBBIT [2012], pp. 43, 81-86).

Tolkien, of course, calls ‘luck’ by a different name from what others in Middle-earth may call it. For the Professor, luck was really the workings of Providence or Fate in tandem with Free Will. For nothing of truly great import occurred in the world, or ‘befell’ a person, simply by ‘chance or ‘accident, or by mereluck’, be it good or bad.

Ironically enough, however, Tolkien’s own early life focuses on this very question ofluck’ — especially (‘as luck would have it,’ but unfortunately) as its 'bad luck' dimension directly comes to bear. Most germane is the fact that the young Tolkien read and was entranced by the Finnish Kalevala [1835 / 1849] as a teenager, identifying with the unlucky Kullervo, who was the inspiration for Tolkien's story of Túrin Turambar [1919]. Misfortune met Tolkien very early with the death of his father Arthur Reuel Tolkien on 15 February 1896; his mother Mabel Suffield died 14 November 1904, when Ronald was on the threshold of his thirteenth year (an unlucky number indeed); and, as if that wasn't 'fill' enough of 'bad luck', he lost many of his classmates and dear friends in the ravages of the Great War [1914-18].

As a professional Medievalist and expert on Anglo-Saxon literature, Tolkien knew well the Boethian ideas of Fortune (what Boethius and Tolkien both callchance’ — for which the absence of any ‘fated plan’ is essential) and, alternatively, of Fate or, as writers in ancient times called it, wyrd — the working out through time of the timeless, foreordained, and unchangeable will of the Fates or the Gods — or, as Tolkien understood this to be, the divine plan of Providence. For Tolkien, however (who in his writing introduces to medieval philosophy the idea of Free Will), that same Fate, although based upon an overall ‘unchangeable plan’ of a Higher Power, mustn’t at all times and in all circumstances remain static, but may, according to the free choice of individual persons, be re-tailored to adjust in the short term, and, according to Providential wisdom and will, to change. Although, ultimately, the final outcome of Divinity's greater overarching plan or immutable decree remains the same.

For Tolkien, in his SILMARILLION mythos as well as in THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, when it comes to significant events, especially those of the world-impacting variety, there is no room for pure ‘chance’ — although Men and other denizens of his secondary world may call it by that name. For all meaningful events therein are based rather on a Providential plan (that which finds its genesis in the Grand Theme of Ilúvatar’s Great Music) that yet works in concert with Free Will — which is the power of individual agency, or choice. Still, in Tolkien’s legendarium, it is the hero’s role or ‘task’, just as it was for the ancient classical heroes or those of the medieval literature that he so admired and loved, to ‘accept the decisions’ of Fate — both the good or the 'lucky' and the bad or the 'unlucky' — and ‘act in a way worthy of a great warrior…’ (see Kathleen E. Dubs, ‘Fortune and Fate’, J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, pp. 214-15; as well as 'The Music of the Ainur' of The History of Middle-earth I: The Lost Tales; 'The Ainulindalë' of The Silmarillion; and Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy).



Dwarves and the Jewish Connection . . .

'Elf, gnome, goblin, dwarf are only approximate [modern English] translations of the Old Elvish names [quende, noldo, orc, naug, respectively] for beings of not quite the same kinds and functions', wrote Tolkien to The Observer in January 1938. 'These dwarves are not quite the dwarfs of better known lore. They have been given Scandinavian names, it is true; but that is an editorial concession. Too many names in the tongues proper to the period might have been alarming. Dwarvish was both complicated and cacophonous [much like ancient Hebrew]. Even early elvish philologists avoided it, and the Dwarves were obliged to use other languages, except for entirely private conversations...' — much like the Jews.

In fact, John D. Rateliff points up Dwarvish similarities not only with the historic Germanic Langobards 'Longbeards' > Lombards, but also with the Semitic Jews [famed lenders, spenders, merchants, bankers; and — reclamist Zionists — a passionate, warlike people of great intellect, craftsmanship, and 'love of the artefact' who, though driven from their homeland — suffering a diasporasettled among foreign folk while preserving their own culture and a hope for vengeance and eventual 'return.'

As pertaining to many Jews of modern times (analagous to the 'good' Dwarves of Belegost as presented in THE HOBBIT and its sequel), Tolkien believed them to be, on the whole, a 'gifted people'. When asked in 1938 by a German publisher to confirm his arisch (Aryan) ancestry, Tolkien wrote to his own publisher (and to his own credit): 'I should object strongly to any such declaration appearing in print. I do not regard the (probable) absence of all Jewish blood as necessarily honourable [the German publisher obviously having an Elven-like bias towards those whom he perceived, as it were, to be the 'evil' (or petty-like) Dwarves of Nogrod]; and I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine.' To the German publishers on 25 July, he retorted 'if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people' (Letters, p. 37). ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 76-80, 86-87n

The Dwarvish-Jewish comparison is made by Tolkien himself in a 1965 BBC interview with Denys Gueroult (much to the interviewer's astonishment): 'The Dwarves of course are quite obviously a — wouldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? All their words are Semitic, obviously; constructed to be Semitic. There's a tremendous love of the artefact. And of course the immense warlike passion of the Jews too, which we tend to forget nowadays...' This is not to say necessarily that THE HOBBIT is an allegory of 20th-century Zionism; rather that Tolkien, according to John D. Rateliff, 'drew selectively on the history of the medieval Jews when creating his dwarves. Some elements, such as the secret ancestral language (Khuzdûl, Hebrew) reserved for use among themselves while they adopt the language of their neighbors (Common, Yiddish) for everyday use, were layered on later, during the Lord of the Rings stage. But others were clearly present already. Like the ancient Hebrews, the Dwarves have been driven from their homeland and suffered a diaspora; settling in scattered enclaves amongst other folk, yet still preserving their own culture. Their warlike nature could have come straight from Joshua, Judges, or First & Second Maccabees, while their great craftsmanship harkens back to the Jewish artisans of medieval Iberia, whose work was renowned throughout Christendom. Gandalf's phrase about 'money to lend and to spend' could apply equally to the Lombard-Longbeards, as we have already seen, and to the Jews — banking and money-lending being one of the reserved occupations for the Jews in most Christian countries. To his credit, Tolkien has been selective in his borrowings, omitting pervasive anti-Semitism of the real Middle Ages...' Rateliff believes this curious motif of partial identification of the Dwarves, in Tolkien's mind, with the Jewish people was 'already present by the time this first chapter of The Hobbit was completed'; Tolkien also compared the Dwarves, with their wandering nature mentioned in the early parts of LOTR, with the Gypsies; Letters, pp. 383-84; Annotated HOBBIT, pp. 339-340; History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 79-80, 86-87n, 757-58).




Songs of Dale, Dwarvensmiths, and Devouring Dragons



'There was the city of Dale': Men below the Mountain . . .

Old Bilbo
, as Narrator: . . . It began long ago . . . in a land far away to the East, the like of which you will not find in the world today . . . There was the city of Daleits markets known far and wide, full of the bounties of vine and vale, peaceful and prosperous . . .

~ from Peter Jackson's Prologue of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey


Tolkien references in the paragraphs of Dwarvish history from the 1960 Hobbit the establishment of the 'merry town of Dale in the valley overshadowed by the [Lonely] Mountain'; its lords [> kings] would send for the Dwarvensmiths 'and reward even the least skillful most richly', and its 'fathers would beg [the Dwarves] to take their sons as apprentices, and pay [them] handsomely [> especially in (food and wine >) food-supplies, which (the Dwarves) never bothered to grow or find for (themselves)]. The land was fat and fruitful then ... and the least [> poorest (among the Dwarves)] had gold [> money] to spend and to lend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fun of it [> for (their) delight, not to speak of the most] marvellous and cunning [> magical] toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world today ... and the toy-market of Dale was [the wonder of the North]...'

A nice touch in Peter Jackson's filmic rendering of THE HOBBIT is his inclusion in the first film's opening Prologue-montage (which briefly recounts the history of the Dwarves of Erebor) the unforgettable images of Dwarf-merchants (including Tolkien's bearded Dwarf-women!) in Dale's 'toy-market', and further shows, in a stroke of brilliance, children flying their 'dragon' kites just before Smaug's attack on that city, with those same kites just a few frames later tragically incinerated (as well as a child's doll, shown burning on the cobblestone street) in dragon-fire . . .

Of scenes such as this the dwarves gravely sing amidst the fire-lit darkness of Bilbo's parlour following their grim deliberations concerning their Lonely Mountain quest . . .

Smaug descended on Erebor in the year 2770 of the Third Age, 180 years after Thrór had re-established the Kingdom Under the Mountain and 171 years before the time in which THE HOBBIT is set.
~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 73, 80-81, 648, 751n-756n, 756-58, 778-80, 785n-788n, 789-90, 857; LOTR, pp. 1071-77, 1079; Annotated HOBBIT, pp. 54-55




Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold . . .
. . . To claim our long-forgotten gold

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

For ancient king and elvish lord
There many
a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.

On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, in twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun.

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.

The pines were roaring on the height,
The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.

The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low
their towers and houses frail.

The mountain smoked beneath the moon;
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled their hall to dying fall
Beneath
his feet, beneath the moon.

Far over the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!


The Hobbit, An Unexpected Party

'Here is some of the best balladry* in all of Tolkien's verse-laced fictionfor instance, when the approaching dragon is described through his effects: wind and fire in the trees before he bodily appears. The effect is at once cinematic and reminiscent of Beowulf and other medieval poetry. If you want mainstream poetry, look elsewhere, but here is mastery of a traditional craft...' (William H. Green, The Hobbit: A Journey Into Maturity [1995], p. 49).

*Dwarvish music — As for the dwarven musical instruments used in the evening ballads at Bag-End, as per the original story, Tolkien expressed dissatisfaction with their inclusion in queries and reminders to himself at the end of his 1960 attempt to bring THE HOBBIT into accord with its sequel: 'What happened to the musical instruments used by the Dwarves at Bag-end? Why did they bring them to B-end?' But Tolkien then gave no hint of how he might have resolved the problem (one of both logic and logistics, in light of some of the instruments' bulky size). Given his attempt throughout the 1960 Hobbit to reduce the whimsy and comic touches of the original 'children's' story, however, it seems likely that in the end this bit of dwarven exuberance would have been sacrificed to probability and all but the most portable instruments deleted; a penciled note to the typescript of 'The Quest of Erebor' [c. 1953-54] supports this: 'Nothing is said to justify the musical instruments that the Dwarves brought to Bag-Endnor to explain what became of them...' ~ History of THE HOBBIT, pp. 36, 589n, 809-810, 836, 837n; Annotated HOBBIT, p. 377n



Film-maker Peter Jackson in his HOBBIT films does allow Bofur a flute (and a vocal solo!), and elven harpists serenade the company at Elrond's dinner table (as do the Lake-men of the Master's municipal band at Lake Town), but otherwise all fiddles (Fili / Kili), drums (Bombur), clarinets (Bifur / Bofur), viols (Balin / Dwalin), harps (Thorin / Fili / Kili) and other such instruments as originally played by the dwarves of THE HOBBIT are silenced, much as Tolkien may have done had he been able to complete his 1960 book revisions.



Bilbo went to sleep with [the dwarves' song] in his ears, and it gave him very uncomfortable dreams . . .

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Party


Snuggled down beneath the bedclothes, staring sleepless into the darkness, Bilbo put forth one last effort to make sense of the absurd events of the past six hours. 'Dwarves!' he fumed. 'Dwarvish racket! Dwarvish talk of journeys and dragons and treasures and burglaries! Dwarves on the doorstep and dwarves in the parlor! Dwarves demanding seed-cakes and raspberry tarts — not to mention my best ale!' He snorted in disgust. What would his father, the respectable Bungo Baggins, have said? 'It's a wonder the pantry wasn't left completely bare!' [though it nearly was].

'Ah! But then you've been known to hobnob with Dwarves before this', cautioned a voice from the other side of his brain — a voice suspiciously reminiscent of his grandfather, the scandalous Old Took. 'In fact, you've acquired something of a reputation for associating with outlandish folk of all sorts. It's rumored you've even been seen with Elves'.

'That's beside the point', protested the practical Baggins part of him. 'It was thoughtless of Gandalf. Not that I want to appear inhospitable. But an uninvited crowd at [supper]-time is quite enough to push any hobbit beyond his limits!'

'Limits?' the Took side of him laughed softly. 'What do you know of limits? How will you ever know if you don't step outside the door and leave your pantry behind?' A breath of wind caught the curtains. Outside the crickets had raised a chorus in the hedge. Was it really a hint of Elvish music that Bilbo heard wafting on the breeze? A scent of spring and wakening earth and approaching summer stirred a nameless longing deep within him; and the Took side, seeing its chance, stung him with an unforgiving pang of wanderlust. Bilbo sighed and turned his face to the wall.

'You're right, of course', he muttered miserably. 'It's what I've always wanted! But in middle age a hobbit realizes that some dreams just have to remain private'.

'Private or not', the Took side said, 'I have a feeling that your dream is about to come true'. Out in the parlor the dwarves had taken up their song again: Far over the misty mountains cold ... To dungeons deep and caverns old ... We must away, ere break of day ... To claim our long-forgotten gold . . . Bilbo moaned and drew the covers up over his head . . . ~ from 'A Dream Come True?' in Finding God in THE HOBBIT [2012] by Jim Ware, pp. 1-3; emphasis mine.





Bilbo, as the child of two very different families, the Tooks and the Bagginses, has a dual nature; his Baggins side and his Took side push him in very different directions, and it is this very interaction between his Tookish and Bagginsish impulses and desires that are central to his character.

Bilbo's Took side, which lurks just beneath the surface, 'comes out' to a degree never before experienced (and this — following Bilbo's passing of many 'respectable', 'peaceful', 'predictable', 'unadventurous' adult Baggins years in his comfortable, even luxurious, hobbit-hole) 'in response to poetry, when the dwarves sing their song about their treasure and their quest.' He sees in their eyes, as it were, a bright light kindled, when they speak of valuable family heirlooms and the making of fine, handcrafted things by Dwarvensmiths and artisans of incomparable skill: makers and lovers of all things beautiful and bright.

Somehow the image of many-faceted jewels sparkling in deep-delved Dwarvish halls puts him in mind of the gemlike stars of heaven. Not that he is ignorant of the dangers of greed: which particular 'vice' is but a good impulse gone wrong — he is old enough to feel the threat of that festering menace. Yet there is something noble and right, he senses, in the passion of Thorin and his kin for ancestral treasures and the works of their own hands. Now, strangely, that 'something' revives in him the old desire to walk beneath pines, leap over waterfalls, sleep under the watchful eye of the moon — all because their richly expressed lore moves him deeply.

In the dwarves' songs Bilbo (at this point in the story) can hear no hint of any dark or twisted obsession, but what comes to his mind instead is a faint echo of the thought of Aulë, the immortal craftsman and 'sub-creator' of the Dwarf-race, who longed to make and possess in order that he might give and love and teach (to which prospect of racial sub-creation Eru Ilúvatar 'the One, Father of All' relented, allowing the Dwarves, through Aulë, a place in Middle-earth). Somehow the prospect of seeing, touching, and experiencing beautiful things — things skillfully contrived and lovingly fashioned for the pleasure of heart and mind and soulwoke up 'something Tookish ... inside him,' so that 'he wished to go and see the great mountains ...'

In short, an appreciation for this affecting Dwarvish affection for all that is skillfully wrought and fair helps to rekindle in Bilbo his longing for errantry. Corey Olsen, a Tolkien scholar and medievalist, explains:

'The dwarves' music brings him outside his own experience for the first time, opening before him a world beyond the simple, comforting place that he has been trying to cling to [his Baggins roots or 'grounding'] ... Bilbo [is] 'swept away into dark lands under strange moons, far over The Water and very far from his hobbit-hole under The Hill'. He is transported into the land of the dwarves, and their song even brings him to share for a moment their own perspective and experience. As they sing, he 'felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of the dwarves'. [As Bilbo] is moved by the music and the poetry of the dwarves [and] steps imaginatively out of his little world and into their story ... 'something Tookish woke up inside him [and] he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick'...' (Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT [2012], pp. 6, 23-26, 34, 41; emphasis mine).

As Bilbo listens to the dwarves sing their spellbinding, profoundly soul-stirring song — about enchanted gold and caverns old and the dangers of the long and winding roadthe hobbit trembles (as 'something Tookish' awakes within), then shudders, when suddenly his Baggins side gets the better of him and a mundane fire in the distance outside his window interrupts his nostalgic, youthful imaginings (by causing him to suddenly think of the dangers of 'plundering dragons') and 'sends the Took side of him into full retreat' (a retreat reinforced by Bilbo's 'hysterics' episode in which, after Thorin speaks in grim prose about the proposed adventure's suicidal risks, the hobbit collapses in terror on the mat).

Yet Bilbo soon makes a rather rash-bold decision, kindled to full flame by his Tookish will (a will that regains the ascendancy and rises up in force when dwarvish insults to his character make him wish to be thought of as 'fierce' and able to face danger), and he bolts out his round hobbit-door the very next morning in pursuit of the dwarves and the 'dark business' of their adventurous Lonely Mountain quest to reclaim their 'long-forgotten' treasure from the dragon Smaug: 'the Took side,' the Narrator declares, 'had won'. Yet notwithstanding, Bilbo's little brain could never have then imagined the terrors, trials, marvels, upsets, and reversals that would flow from these desiresthe desire of Dwarves as it meshed now with his own adventurous wanderlust . . .





This is a continuation of the third of a 12-part discussion focusing on various aspects of Tolkien's writing and Jackson's filming of THE HOBBIT (wherein we might also identify or discover together points of 'harmony' in book and film):

I. THE KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN and THE SEVEN HOUSES OF THE DWARVES
II. A Chance Evening Meeting at Bree and THE QUEST of EREBOR
III. An Unexpected Journey . . .
IV. Azanulbizar, Azog, and the Necromancer . . .
V. Galadriel's Telepathy with Gandalf: Ósanwe 'thought-speech' and Free-will . . .
VI. Bilbo, Sméagol-Gollum, Smaug, and the One Ring of Power . . .
VII. The White Council drives The Necromancer from Dol Guldur . . .
VIII. BALIN AND MORIA
IX. Girion's Heir: Bard's Heritage & Dynasty . . .
X. What's in a Date? Tolkien and Christian Symbolism . . .
XI. What's in a Number? Tolkien's Three and Seven . . .
XII. The Gift of Death and The Great End . . .




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