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swordwhale
Rohan
Jan 14, 7:46pm
Views: 55
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Dwarves... why did it have to be Dwarves....
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OK. I was born the same year LOTR was. I didn't discover it until a fellow Star Wars fan dumped an epic pile of reading material into my hands and intoned, "you must read this". I paled, "Lo! In my copious free time!" Nevermind that a kid behind me in art class had said; "You look like an Elf in that shirt."
????? I had the same reaction from the first crew I played D&D with. I waved my first character sheet at the DM and said, "What do I make of this?"
He went hoooom hommmm like Treebeard for a moment, then... "Play an Elf."
"What? Like Hermie, in Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer?"
"Read LOTR."
I did. Yeah, and there was this blond guy with a bow... and... I've been drawing Elves since 1978.
Now, I live in southcentral Pennsylvania (somewhere between Gettysburg, famous for its Civil War battle and Lancaster, famous for Amish who still drive horses and buggies), our first immigrants were English and German... read Hobbits and Dwarves. They like their comfort food, their farms, they are doughty, sturdy folk, stubborn, stolid, stoic... and many of them have beards. If they aren't carrying axes, they are carrying shotguns. At least during Bambi season. Which is long. They like their red meat and eye green food with uncertainty. Despite my sharing DNA with them, I never could quite relate...
Durin you Peter Jackson. Dwarves... hot steaming smouldering doughty sturdy little Dwarves.
(I quite liked Gimli, mostly because Legolas did, oh, and that John Rhys-Davies guy, what a hoot!).
Darn you James Nesbitt... and whoever designed that darn hat (really, I have to turn that sheepskin in my studio into a hat now).
For years in fantasy art (which I have perpetrated quite a lot) I have seen short fat guys with lots of beard. Bleah.
Now along comes WETA, those geniuses of design and...
...those are Dwarves???????
Those are Dwarves!!!
I am mindblown. I am enamored of the gorgeous costumes, and the way the designers have turned a tall Elvish (Mr. Armitage) guy into a short stout dwarf with the cut of the clothes and some cool boots. And some powerful movement. I love the details. I love the various designs for hair and beard.
I truly want that hat... and so, apparently do a lot of other women. A "Hobbit" search on tumblr reveals a number of postings for "Bofur's hat". Many have deciphered the pattern and built their own, or modified ushankas and lumberjack hats they've found in stores.
I identify with the Elves, with their nature-centric, nature spirit, talking to trees and riding horses without saddle or rein (see: book, Legolas, Riders of Rohan), with The Sea Longing, and with Legolas riding back into the Huorn Wood in wonder because he saw "eyes in the trees"...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH!
Kidnapped by Dwarves.
These characters are awesome. The films have developed them so wonderfully from the simple list of rhyming names in the book. The evocation of culture is wonderful: Erebor, the miners on bosun's chairs, the one Dwarf holding up a glowing hot thingie and the two ginormous hammers smashing it (that takes some guts), the Dwarf women (finally, a costume I'd look good in), the beard ornaments, the clothes, did I mention the clothes???
WETA has broken the stereotypes, stereotypes set mostly by interpretations of Tolkien's work. We see variety, diversity, character. Real people who happen to be short. Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too tall.
I must pause to defend FiliandKili. My first reaction was (including Thorin) ...??? Then I thought about it. Thorin is a central character, his kingly, lionlike appearance makes sense (or, as Richard Armitage opined, look at the diversity in the Human race, now, apply that to Dwarves). FiliandKili are young. Pedomorphosis. Juvenile characteristics. All young humanoids look pretty similar. Elves age to thirtyish and stop. Humans go on. Dwarves go on longer, getting gnarlier and tree-rootier as they age. FiliandKili aren't there yet. They are still what young humans think of as cute.
There was great posting, somewhere on tumblr, from a young lady who had a poster of Bofur on her wall. Said young lady was likely a high school or college student. ...
"So my mother just walked in my room and noticed my poster of Bofur. Of which I am quite proud of, he is by far my favorite Dwarf. She proceeds to ask me…
“Who is that ugly pirate? And why do you have him on your wall? He’s ugly!”
“Excuse you! That there is a sexy Dwarf, not a pirate.”
*looks closer at the poster*
“He’s still ugly.”
“Really? Thanks a lot, I find him quite attractive!”
“Ugly.”
Sometimes I think she does this on purpose."
This is a woman who could be obsessing over sparkly vampires with no frontal lobes. She clearly has taste. So do a lot of other folk.
Because Tolkien wrote a terrific tale. And Peter Jackson and Crew interpreted it wonderfully.
And made me love the Dwarves. All of them.
Why do I think Balin looks like Father Christmas....
Go outside and play...
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