In the fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien , the Dwarves are a race inhabiting Middle-earth , the central continent of Arda in an imagined mythological past. They are based on the dwarfs of Germanic myths who were small humanoids that lived in mountains, practising mining , metallurgy , blacksmithing and jewellery . Tolkien described them as tough, warlike, and lovers of stone and craftsmanship.
151-523: The origins of Tolkien's Dwarves can be traced to Norse mythology; Tolkien also mentioned a connection with Jewish history and language. Dwarves appear in his books The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), and the posthumously published The Silmarillion (1977), Unfinished Tales (1980), and The History of Middle-earth series (1983–96), the last three edited by his son Christopher Tolkien . The medievalist Charles Moseley described
302-405: A Bildungsroman rather than a traditional quest. The Jungian concept of individuation is also reflected through this theme of growing maturity and capability, with the author contrasting Bilbo's personal growth against the arrested development of the dwarves. Thus, while Gandalf exerts a parental influence over Bilbo early on, it is Bilbo who gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact
453-416: A Ring of Power are destined to "fade" more rapidly, as the rings unnaturally preserve their life-span turning them into wraiths . Invisibility is a side-effect of this, as the wearer is temporarily pulled into the spirit-world. Men live only in the world (Arda), are able to die from it, have souls, and may ultimately go to a kind of Heaven, though this is left vague in the legendarium . The case of Elves
604-464: A Semitic language influenced by Hebrew phonology . Like medieval Jewish groups, the Dwarves used their own language only among themselves, and adopted the languages of those they live amongst for the most part, for example taking public names from the cultures they lived within, whilst keeping their "true-names" and true language a secret. Tolkien further underlined the diaspora of the Dwarves with
755-459: A 1955 letter to W. H. Auden , Tolkien recollects that he began The Hobbit one day early in the 1930s. While he was marking School Certificate papers, he found a blank page. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." By late 1932 he had finished the story and then lent the manuscript to several friends, including C. S. Lewis and a student of Tolkien's named Elaine Griffiths. In 1936, when Griffiths
906-481: A binding, but Tolkien objected to several elements. Through several iterations, the final design ended up as mostly the author's. The spine shows runes: two " þ " ( Thráin and Thrór) runes and one " d " (door). The front and back covers were mirror images of each other, with an elongated dragon characteristic of Tolkien's style stamped along the lower edge, and with a sketch of the Misty Mountains stamped along
1057-467: A boy by Samuel Rutherford Crockett 's historical novel The Black Douglas and of basing the Necromancer— Sauron —on its villain, Gilles de Retz . Incidents in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are similar in narrative and style to the novel, and its overall style and imagery have been suggested as having had an influence on Tolkien. The Tolkien scholar Mark T. Hooker has catalogued
1208-555: A classic in children's literature and is one of the best-selling books of all time , with over 100 million copies sold. The Hobbit is set in Middle-earth and follows home-loving Bilbo Baggins , the hobbit of the title, who joins the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves of Thorin's Company , on a quest to reclaim the dwarves' home and treasure from the dragon Smaug . Bilbo's journey takes him from his peaceful rural surroundings into more sinister territory. The story
1359-535: A company of thirteen dwarves . Thorin Oakenshield is the proud, pompous head of the company of dwarves and heir to the destroyed dwarvish kingdom under the Lonely Mountain . Smaug is a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarvish kingdom of Thorin's grandfather and sleeps upon the vast treasure. The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of
1510-421: A cup from the dragon's hoard, rousing him to wrath—an incident directly mirroring Beowulf and an action entirely determined by traditional narrative patterns. As Tolkien wrote, "The episode of the theft arose naturally (and almost inevitably) from the circumstances. It is difficult to think of any other way of conducting the story at this point. I fancy the author of Beowulf would say much the same." The name of
1661-476: A desire to create and control things of his own. Melkor creates Orcs in mockery of Elves, or by corrupting Elves he had captured in his northern Middle-earth fortress of Udûn. Shippey writes that Tolkien's Middle-earth writings embody the ancient Christian debate on the nature of evil . Shippey notes Elrond 's Boethian statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron
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#17327661664221812-462: A gap in the ancient dragon's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruders, flies off to destroy the town. A thrush overhears Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and tells Lake-town resident Bard. Smaug wreaks havoc on the town, until Bard shoots an arrow into the chink in Smaug's armour , killing the dragon. When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds
1963-672: A group of godlike or angelic beings, the Ainur , consisting of the powerful Valar and their assistants, the Maiar . These assisted in the creation of the universe through a holy music and chanting called the Ainulindalë or "Music of the Ainur". "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to
2114-511: A handful of children's books that have been accepted into mainstream literature, alongside Jostein Gaarder 's Sophie's World (1991) and J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series (1997–2007). Tolkien intended The Hobbit as a "fairy-story" and wrote it in a tone suited to addressing children; he said later that the book was not specifically written for children, but had rather been created out of his interest in mythology and legend. Many of
2265-475: A language he had devised for them. Ilúvatar , creator of Arda , is aware of the Dwarves' creation and sanctifies them. Because they had been made by a Vala, Dwarves lacked souls until granted them by Ilúvatar. Aulë sealed the seven Fathers of the Dwarves in stone chambers in far-flung regions of Middle-earth to await their awakening. Each of the Seven Fathers founds one of the seven Dwarf clans. Durin I
2416-651: A lengthy series of parallels between The Hobbit and Jules Verne 's 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth . These include, among other things, a hidden runic message and a celestial alignment that direct the adventurers to the goals of their quests. Tolkien's portrayal of goblins in The Hobbit was particularly influenced by George MacDonald 's The Princess and the Goblin . However, MacDonald's influence on Tolkien
2567-496: A linguistic shifting in level from the inanimate to animate. Tolkien saw the idea of animism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth: "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them the whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'." As in plot and setting, Tolkien brings his literary theories to bear in forming characters and their interactions. He portrays Bilbo as
2718-474: A list of names and meanings called the Qenya Lexicon . Christopher Tolkien included extracts from this in an appendix to The Book of Lost Tales , with mentions of specific stars, planets, and constellations. The Sun was called Anor or Ur. The Moon was called Ithil or Silmo. Eärendil's Star denotes the light of a Silmaril, set on Eärendil 's ship Vingilot as it flew across the sky, identified as
2869-453: A man who can assume bear form; and Bard the Bowman , a grim but honourable archer of Lake-town . Gandalf tricks Bilbo Baggins into hosting a party for Thorin Oakenshield and his band of twelve dwarves (Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur), who go over their plans to reclaim their ancient home, Lonely Mountain , and its vast treasure from
3020-441: A modern anachronism exploring an essentially antique world. Bilbo is able to negotiate and interact within this antique world because language and tradition make connections between the two worlds. For example, Gollum 's riddles are taken from old historical sources, while those of Bilbo come from modern nursery books. It is the form of the riddle game, familiar to both, which allows Gollum and Bilbo to engage each other, rather than
3171-483: A moral sense (though they are unable to keep to it), they cannot be described as wholly evil or lacking sentience . All of this implies, as various scholars have commented, a hierarchy of races comparable with the Medieval great chain of being . Several scholars have likened the implied cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium to that of his religion, Roman Catholicism , and that of Medieval poetry. Tolkien used
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#17327661664223322-668: A sense of humour. Tolkien achieves balance of humour and danger through other means as well, as seen in the foolishness and Cockney dialect of the trolls and in the drunkenness of the elven captors. The general form—that of a journey into strange lands, told in a light-hearted mood and interspersed with songs—may be following the model of The Icelandic Journals by William Morris , an important literary influence on Tolkien. Tolkien's works show many influences from Norse mythology , reflecting his lifelong passion for those stories and his academic interest in Germanic philology . The Hobbit
3473-733: A sketch of the idea of historical continuity connecting the Elvish mythology of the First Age with the classical Atlantis myth, the Germanic migrations , Anglo-Saxon England and the modern period, presenting the Atlantis legend in Plato and other deluge myths as a "confused" account of the story of Númenor. The cataclysmic re-shaping of the world would have left its imprint on the cultural memory and collective unconscious of humanity, and even on
3624-695: A veteran may well be summed up by Bilbo's comment: "Victory after all, I suppose! Well, it seems a very gloomy business." On its publication in October 1937, The Hobbit was met with almost unanimously favourable reviews from publications both in the UK and the US, including The Times , Catholic World and New York Post . C. S. Lewis , friend of Tolkien (and later author of The Chronicles of Narnia between 1949 and 1954), writing in The Times reports: The truth
3775-623: A writing system originally created by Elves in Beleriand to write Sindarin, and later more fully developed by Daeron, an Elf of Doriath. The Cirth runes are adapted by Dwarves for writing Khuzdul. The Dwarves keep their language secret and do not normally teach it to others, so they learn both Quenya and Sindarin to communicate with the Elves, especially the Noldor and Sindar . By the Third Age
3926-432: Is "ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men" in an unnamed fantasy world . The world is shown on the endpaper map as "Western Lands" westward and " Wilderland " as the east. Originally this world was self-contained, but as Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings , he decided these stories could fit into the legendarium he had been working on privately for decades. The Hobbit and The Lord of
4077-576: Is Company" in The Fellowship of the Ring that Borgil is a red star which appears between Remmirath (the Pleiades) and before Menelvagor (Orion). Larsen and others write that Aldebaran is the only major red star to fit the description. Helluin (also Gil, Nielluin and Nierninwa) is the dog star, Sirius , while Morwinyon is Arcturus . As with the planets, a few major constellations are named in
4228-477: Is a motif explicitly borrowed from Morris. The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns writes that Bilbo's character and adventures match many details of Morris's expedition in Iceland. She comments, for instance, that the humorous drawings of Morris riding through the wilds of Iceland by his friend the artist Edward Burne-Jones can serve well as models for Bilbo on his adventures. Tolkien wrote of being impressed as
4379-833: Is different. They may inhabit the "undying lands" of Valinor, home of the Valar, effectively, according to the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey , an " Earthly Paradise " as envisaged for Elves in the Middle English South English Legendary . Other Elves are in Middle-earth; the Elf-queen Galadriel indeed is expelled from Valinor, much like the fallen Melkor, though she is clearly good, and much like an angel. Shippey considers whether Elves have souls. He reasons that since they can not leave
4530-576: Is illustrated with many black-and-white drawings taken from translations of the story into some 25 languages. Tolkien's use of runes, both as decorative devices and as magical signs within the story, has been cited as a major cause for the popularization of runes within " New Age " and esoteric literature, stemming from Tolkien's popularity with the elements of counter-culture in the 1970s. The Hobbit takes cues from narrative models of children's literature , as shown by its omniscient narrator and characters that young children can relate to, such as
4681-581: Is no exception to this; the work shows influences from northern European literature, myths and languages, especially from the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda . Examples include the names of the dwarves, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Dwalin, Balin , Dain, Nain, and Thorin Oakenshield, along with Gandalf which was a dwarf-name in the Norse. But while their names are Norse,
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4832-552: Is not taken away, they could refuse the summons. If allowed by Mandos, the fëa may be re-embodied into a new body identical to the previous hröa . The situation of Men is different: a Mannish fëa is only a visitor to Arda, and when the hröa dies, the fëa , after a brief stay in Mandos, leaves Arda completely. In The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien justifies the nature of the Ring by explaining that Elves and other immortal beings dwell in "both worlds" at once (the physical and
4983-431: Is portrayed by Richard Armitage , with Ken Stott as Balin, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Aidan Turner as Kíli, Dean O'Gorman as Fíli, Mark Hadlow as Dori, Jed Brophy as Nori, Adam Brown as Ori, John Callen as Óin, Peter Hambleton as Glóin, William Kircher as Bifur, James Nesbitt as Bofur, and Stephen Hunter as Bombur. Jackson's films introduce a story arc not found in the original novel, in which Kili and
5134-545: Is reshaped as a round world. Scholars have compared the implied cosmology with that of Tolkien's religion, Catholicism , and of medieval poetry such as Pearl or Dante 's Paradiso , where there are three parts, Earth, Purgatory or the Earthly Paradise , and Heaven or the Celestial Paradise . Scholars have debated the nature of evil in Middle-earth , arguing whether it is the absence of good –
5285-402: Is that in this book a number of good things, never before united, have come together: a fund of humour, an understanding of children, and a happy fusion of the scholar's with the poet's grasp of mythology... The professor has the air of inventing nothing. He has studied trolls and dragons at first hand and describes them with that fidelity that is worth oceans of glib "originality." Lewis compares
5436-599: Is the "Phalanx" , similar to its Greek counterpart. The Hobbit The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien . It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book is recognized as
5587-661: Is the eldest, and the first of his kind to awake in Middle-earth. He awakens in Mount Gundabad , in the northern Misty Mountains , and founds the clan of Longbeards (Durin's Folk); they found the city of Khazad-dûm below the Misty Mountains, and later realms in the Grey Mountains and Erebor (the Lonely Mountain). Two others lie in sleep in the north of the Ered Luin or Blue Mountains, and they found
5738-564: Is the material universe as a realisation of the vision of the Ainur. The Quenya word is from the existential to be in its aorist form. Eä was the word spoken by Eru Ilúvatar to bring the universe into actuality. The Void ( Kúma , the Outer Dark) is the nothingness outside Arda. From Arda, it is accessible through the Doors of Night. The Valar exiled Melkor to the Void after his defeat in
5889-469: Is told in the form of a picaresque or episodic quest ; several chapters introduce a new type of monster or threat as Bilbo progresses through the landscape. Bilbo gains a new level of maturity, competence, and wisdom by accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey, and adventurous sides of his nature and applying his wits and common sense. The story reaches its climax in the Battle of Five Armies, where many of
6040-564: The Ancrene Wisse (which Tolkien had written on in 1929), and a Christian understanding of Beowulf . Shippey comments that Bilbo is nothing like a king, and that Chance's talk of "types" just muddies the waters, though he agrees with her that there are "self-images of Tolkien" throughout his fiction; and she is right, too, in seeing Middle-earth as a balance between creativity and scholarship, "Germanic past and Christian present". The overcoming of greed and selfishness has been seen as
6191-596: The Boethian position, or equally as powerful as good – the Manichaean view. Eru is introduced in The Silmarillion as the supreme being of the universe, creator of all existence, including the world, Arda, and its central continent, Middle-earth . In Tolkien's invented Elvish language Quenya , Eru means "The One", or "He that is Alone" and Ilúvatar signifies " Allfather ". Eru first created
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6342-575: The Elves —who are the imagined "authors" of the myths, and are therefore biased against Dwarves. Tolkien was inspired by the dwarves of Norse myths and of later Germanic folklore (such as that of the Brothers Grimm ), from whom his Dwarves take their characteristic affinity with mining, metalworking, and crafting. In The Hobbit , Dwarves are portrayed as occasionally comedic and bumbling, but largely as honourable, serious-minded, and proud. Tolkien
6493-621: The First Age , Eru alone created Elves and Men , the "Children of Ilúvatar". The race of the Dwarves was created by Aulë , and given sapience by Eru. Animals and plants were fashioned by Yavanna during the Music of the Ainur after the themes set out by Eru. Arda ends in the apocalyptic battle of Dagor Dagorath , which Tolkien stated owed something to the Norse myth of Ragnarök . In
6644-563: The Hebrew Bible . Medieval views of Jews also saw them as having a propensity for making well-crafted and beautiful things, a trait shared with Norse dwarves. The Dwarf calendar invented for The Hobbit reflects the Jewish calendar 's Rosh Hashanah in beginning in late autumn. In The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien continued the themes of The Hobbit . When giving Dwarves their own language, Khuzdul , Tolkien decided to create an analogue of
6795-633: The Menegroth , Khazad-dûm , and Erebor . Among the many treasures they forge are the named weapons Narsil , the sword of Elendil , the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin and the necklace Nauglamír, the most prized treasure in Nargothrond and the most famed Dwarven work of the Elder Days. In The Hobbit , Thorin gives Bilbo a Mithril coat of linked rings of mail . In Grey-elvish or Sindarin
6946-482: The Misty Mountains , they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground . Although Gandalf kills the goblin king and rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then encounters Gollum , who engages him in a game, each posing a riddle until one of them cannot solve it. If Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him
7097-645: The Second Age , Eru buried King Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor and his army when they invaded Aman , trying to reach the Undying Lands , which they wrongly supposed would give them immortality . He caused the Earth to take a spherical shape, drowned Númenor, and caused the Undying Lands to be taken "outside the spheres of the earth". When Gandalf died in the fight with the Balrog in The Fellowship of
7248-965: The Two Trees of Valinor . These gave rise to the Ages of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees , however the Ages of the Stars did not conclude until the creation of the Sun. During the Years of the Trees, shortly before the Awakening of the Elves , Varda created the Great Stars: "new stars and brighter" and constellations. Ilúvatar created Arda according to a flat Earth cosmology. This disc-like Arda has continents and
7399-585: The Valar ", is Ursa Major (the Plough or Big Dipper) which Varda set in the Northern sky as a warning to Melkor. Wilwarin, meaning "Butterfly", is taken to be Cassiopeia . In his 2020 book Tolkien's Cosmology , the scholar of English literature Sam McBride suggests a new category, "monotheistic polytheism", for the theological basis of Tolkien's cosmology, insofar as it combines a polytheistic pantheon with
7550-517: The Völuspá . Tolkien took it for the name, Thráin, of two of Thorin Oakenshield 's ancestors. It suggests this may have been a philological joke on Tolkien's part. Dwarves were long-lived, with a lifespan of some 250 years. They breed slowly, for no more than a third of them are female, not all marry, and they have children only late in life. Tolkien names only one female, Dís, Thorin's sister. They are still considered children in their 20s, as Thorin
7701-584: The War of Wrath . Legend foretells that Melkor will return to Arda just before the apocalyptic battle of Dagor Dagorath. The void is not to be confused with the state of non-being that preceded the creation of Eä. When Arda (the Earth) was created, "innumerable stars " were already in existence. To provide greater light, the Valar later created the Two Lamps in Middle-earth, and when these were destroyed they created
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#17327661664227852-556: The flat Earth paradigm, along with the modern spherical Earth view of the Solar System . The created world, Eä , includes the planet Arda, corresponding to the Earth . It is created flat, with the dwelling of the godlike Valar at its centre. When this is marred by the evil Vala Melkor , the world is reshaped, losing its perfect symmetry, and the Valar move to Valinor , but the Elves can still sail there from Middle-earth . When Men try to go there, hoping for immortality, Valinor and its continent of Aman are removed from Arda, which
8003-415: The genetic memory of individuals. The "Atlantis" part of the legendarium explores the theme of the memory of a 'straight road' into the West, which now only exists in memory or myth, because the physical world has been changed. The Akallabêth says that the Númenóreans who survived the catastrophe sailed as far west as they could in search of their ancient home, but their travels only brought them around
8154-437: The nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle . His creative endeavours at this time also included letters from Father Christmas to his children—illustrated manuscripts that featured warring gnomes and goblins , and a helpful polar bear —alongside the creation of elven languages and an attendant mythology, including The Book of Lost Tales , which he had been creating since 1917. These works all saw posthumous publication. In
8305-413: The " Doctor Dolittle Theme" in The History of The Hobbit , and cites the multitude of talking animals as indicative of this theme. These sapient beings include ravens, a thrush, spiders and the dragon Smaug, alongside the anthropomorphic goblins and elves. Patrick Curry notes that animism is also found in Tolkien's other works, and mentions the "roots of mountains" and "feet of trees" in The Hobbit as
8456-464: The Arkenstone to the besiegers, hoping to head off a war. When they offer the jewel to Thorin in exchange for treasure, Bilbo reveals how they obtained it. Thorin, furious at what he sees as betrayal, banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable when Dáin Ironfoot , Thorin's second cousin, arrives with an army of dwarf warriors. Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men and elves band together, but only with
8607-407: The Arkenstone, the most-treasured heirloom of Thorin's family, and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men request compensation for Lake-town's destruction and settlement of old claims on the treasure. When Thorin refuses to give them anything, they besiege the mountain. However, Thorin manages to send a message to his kinfolk in the Iron Hills and reinforces his position. Bilbo slips out and gives
8758-421: The Chasm of Ilmen on its return. Tolkien's legendarium addresses the spherical Earth paradigm by depicting a catastrophic transition from a flat to a spherical world, in which Aman, the continent where Valinor lay, was removed "from the circles of the world". The only remaining way to reach Aman was the so called Old Straight Road , a hidden route leaving Middle-earth's curvature through sky and space which
8909-405: The Dwarves are called Naugrim ("Stunted People"), Gonnhirrim ("Stone-lords"), and Dornhoth ("Thrawn Folk"), and Hadhodrim . In Quenya they are the Casári . The Dwarves call themselves Khazâd in their own language, Khuzdul . Khuzdul is created for them by Aulë, rather than being descended from an Elvish language, as most of the languages of Men are. They write it using Cirth runes ,
9060-408: The Dwarves are estranged from the Elves and no longer routinely learn their language. Instead, they mostly use the Westron or Common Speech, a Mannish tongue, in communicating with other races. Each Dwarf has two personal names, a secret or "inner" name in Khuzdul, which is used only among other Dwarves and is never revealed to outsiders, and a public "outer" name for use with other races, taken from
9211-403: The Early Sun in His Eyes , Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves and Conversation with Smaug , which features a dwarvish curse written in Tolkien's invented script Tengwar , and signed with two "þ" ("Th") runes. The additional illustrations proved so appealing that George Allen & Unwin adopted the colour plates as well for their second printing, with exception of Bilbo Woke Up with
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#17327661664229362-469: The Early Sun in His Eyes . Different editions have been illustrated in diverse ways. Many follow the original scheme at least loosely, but many others are illustrated by other artists, especially the many translated editions. Some cheaper editions, particularly paperback, are not illustrated except with the maps. "The Children's Book Club" edition of 1942 includes the black-and-white pictures but no maps, an anomaly. Douglas Anderson 's The Annotated Hobbit
9513-499: The Elf Tauriel (a character also invented for the films) fall in love. In Iron Crown Enterprises ' Middle-earth Role Playing (1986), Dwarf player-characters receive statistical bonuses to Strength and Constitution, and subtractions from Presence, Agility and Intelligence. Seven "Dwarven Kindreds", named after each of the founding fathers—Durin, Bávor, Dwálin, Thrár, Druin, Thelór and Bárin—are given in The Lords of Middle-earth—Volume III (1989). In Decipher Inc. 's The Lord of
9664-403: The Elven Rings out of a desire to preserve the physical world unchanged; as if it were in the Undying Lands of Valinor, home of the Valar. Without the rings they are destined to eventually "fade", eventually becoming shadows in the physical world, prefiguring the concept of Elves as dwelling in a separate and often-underground (or overseas ) plane in historical European mythology. Mortals who wear
9815-413: The Enemy of free will, whatever the tales of Men alleged. For Men of old lusted after their wealth and the work of their hands, and there has been enmity between the races. The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia considers Tolkien's use of the adjective " thrawn ", noting its similarity with Þráinn , a noun meaning "obstinate person", and a name found in the Norse list of Dwarf-names, the Dvergatal in
9966-605: The Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic." This raises the question, examined by Rebecca Brackmann in Mythlore , of whether there was an element of antisemitism , however deeply buried, in Tolkien's account of the Dwarves, inherited from English attitudes of his time. Brackman notes that Tolkien himself attempted to work through the issue in his Middle-earth writings. The philologist Helge Fauskanger analyses Khuzdul, finding in it features of Semitic languages . The original editor of The Hobbit "corrected" Tolkien's plural "dwarves" to "dwarfs", as did
10117-451: The Legendarium, and can be equated with real constellations seen in the Northern hemisphere. Eksiqilta (also Ekta) is Orion's Belt . Menelvagor (also Daimord, Menelmacar, Mordo, Swordsman of the Sky, Taimavar, Taimondo, Telimbektar, Telimektar, Telumehtar) is Orion the hunter and was meant to represent Túrin Turambar . Remmirath (also Itselokte or Sithaloth), "the Netted Stars", is the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Valacirca, "the Sickle of
10268-502: The Old Norse words for "raven" and "rook", but their peaceful characters are unlike the typical carrion birds from Old Norse and Old English literature. Tolkien is not simply skimming historical sources for effect: the juxtaposition of old and new styles of expression is seen by the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey as one of the major themes explored in The Hobbit . Maps figure in both saga literature and The Hobbit . Themes from Old English literature , especially from Beowulf , shape
10419-420: The Ring , it was beyond the power of the Valar to resurrect him; Eru himself intervened to send Gandalf back. Discussing Frodo's failure to destroy the Ring in The Return of the King , Tolkien indicates in a letter that "the One" does intervene actively in the world, pointing to Gandalf's remark to Frodo that " Bilbo was meant to find the Ring , and not by its maker", and to the eventual destruction of
10570-444: The Ring despite Frodo's failure to complete the task. Fëa and hröa are the " soul " and "body" of Elves and Men. Their hröa is made out of the matter of Arda ; for this reason hröar are marred or as Tolkien wrote, contain a " Melkor ingredient". When an Elf dies, the fëa leaves the hröa , which then dies. The fëa is summoned to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor, where it is judged; however as with death their free-will
10721-448: The Rings , the part of the Dwarf Gimli was voiced by David Buck . In Peter Jackson 's live action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , Gimli's character is from time to time used as comic relief, whether with jokes about his height or his rivalry with the elf Legolas . Gimli is played by John Rhys-Davies , who gave the character a "Welsh-derived" accent. In Jackson's three-film adaptation of The Hobbit , Thorin
10872-756: The Rings became the end of the " Third Age " of Middle Earth within Arda . Eventually those tales of the earlier periods became published as The Silmarillion and other posthumous works. Tolkien's correspondence and publisher's records show that he was involved in the design and illustration of the entire book. All elements were the subject of considerable correspondence and fussing over by Tolkien. Rayner Unwin, in his publishing memoir, comments: "In 1937 alone Tolkien wrote 26 letters to George Allen & Unwin... detailed, fluent, often pungent, but infinitely polite and exasperatingly precise... I doubt any author today, however famous, would get such scrupulous attention." Even
11023-491: The Rings , in order to explain why the Dwarves had Norse names, he created an elaborate fiction that many of the languages used in the book were "translated" into real-life languages for the benefit of the reader, roughly retaining the relationships of the languages among themselves. Thus, Westron was translated into English, the related but more archaic language of the Rohirrim was translated into Anglo-Saxon ( Old English ), and
11174-671: The Rings Roleplaying Game (2001), based on the Jackson films, Dwarf player-characters get bonuses to Vitality and Strength attributes and must be given craft skills. In the real-time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II , and its expansion , both based on the Jackson films, Dwarves are heavily influenced by classical military practice, and use throwing axes, war hammers, spears, and circular or Roman-style shields. One dwarf unit
11325-471: The Valar, Maiar, and beings such as Tom Bombadil , alongside an evidently monotheistic cosmos created by one god, Eru Ilúvatar. In his view, the Valar "cannot be reduced either to spirit-beings or earth-forces; they encompass both simultaneously". McBride shows how Eru's actions can be seen in the creation of the world (Eä) and the Valar through which he acts, and more ambiguously in the Third Age where
11476-658: The ancient world which Bilbo stepped into. Tolkien, a scholar of Beowulf , counted the epic among his "most valued sources" for The Hobbit . Tolkien was one of the first critics to treat Beowulf as a literary work with value beyond the merely historical, with his 1936 lecture Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics . Tolkien borrowed several elements from Beowulf , including a monstrous, intelligent dragon. Certain descriptions in The Hobbit seem to have been lifted straight out of Beowulf with some minor rewording, such as when
11627-676: The background: the hobbits know even less of the Valar than Men do, and Eru is not mentioned at all. Scholars have noted that Tolkien seems in later life to have hesitated and drawn back from the flat earth cosmology of Arda in favour of a round world version , but that it was so deeply embedded in the entire Legendarium that recasting it in what Deirdre Dawson, writing in Tolkien Studies , calls "a more rational, scientifically plausible, global shape", proved unworkable. The Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft states in Mythlore that
11778-539: The boats of Ulmo. The ships of the Númenóreans that tried to sail on it sank, drowning the sailors. The Sun passes through Ekkaia on its way around the world, warming it as it passes. Ilmen is a region of clean air pervaded by light, before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. The stars and other celestial bodies are in this region. The Moon passes through Ilmen on its way around the world, plunging down
11929-713: The book to Alice in Wonderland in that both children and adults may find different things to enjoy in it, and places it alongside Flatland , Phantastes , and The Wind in the Willows . W. H. Auden , in his review of the sequel The Fellowship of the Ring , calls The Hobbit "one of the best children's stories of this century". Auden was later to correspond with Tolkien, and they became friends. Il%C3%BAvatar The cosmology of J. R. R. Tolkien 's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics with pre-modern cosmological concepts in
12080-488: The central moral of the story. Whilst greed is a recurring theme in the novel, with many of the episodes stemming from one or more of the characters' simple desire for food (be it trolls eating dwarves or dwarves eating Wood-elf fare) or a desire for beautiful objects, such as gold and jewels, it is only by the Arkenstone's influence upon Thorin that greed, and its attendant vices "coveting" and "malignancy", come fully to
12231-501: The characters and creatures from earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict. Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of the story, along with motifs of warfare. These themes have led critics to view Tolkien's own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the story. The author's scholarly knowledge of Germanic philology and interest in mythology and fairy tales are often noted as influences, but more recent fiction including adventure stories and
12382-468: The characters of the dwarves are based on fairy tales such as Snow White and Snow-White and Rose-Red as collected by the Brothers Grimm , while the latter tale may have influenced the character of Beorn. Tolkien's use of descriptive names such as Misty Mountains and Bag End echoes the names used in Old Norse sagas . The names of the dwarf-friendly ravens, such as Roäc, are derived from
12533-554: The columns, where the light of the lamps mingled, the Valar dwelt on the island of Almaren in the midst of a Great Lake. When Melkor destroyed the lamps, two vast inland seas (Helcar and Ringil) and two major seas (Belegaer and the Eastern Sea) were formed, but Almaren and its lake were destroyed. The Valar left Middle-earth, and went to the newly formed continent of Aman in the west, where they created their home called Valinor . To discourage Melkor from assailing Aman, they thrust
12684-404: The company ; two types of elves : both puckish and more serious warrior types ; Men ; man-eating trolls ; boulder-throwing giants; evil cave-dwelling goblins ; forest-dwelling giant spiders who can speak; immense and heroic eagles who also speak; evil wolves, or Wargs , who are allied with the goblins; Elrond the sage; Gollum , a strange creature inhabiting an underground lake; Beorn ,
12835-406: The content of the riddles themselves. This idea of a superficial contrast between characters' individual linguistic style, tone and sphere of interest, leading to an understanding of the deeper unity between the ancient and modern, is a recurring theme in The Hobbit . Smaug is the main antagonist. In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf , and Tolkien uses
12986-760: The continent of Middle-earth to the east, thus widening Belegaer at its middle, and raising five major mountain ranges in Middle-earth: the Blue, Red, Grey, and Yellow Mountains, plus the Mountains of the Wind. This act disrupted the symmetrical shapes of the continents and seas. Ekkaia, also called the Enfolding Ocean and the Encircling Sea, is a dark sea that surrounds the world before the cataclysm at
13137-584: The cup-thief and the dragon's intellect and personality. Named swords of renown, adorned with runes, similarly have Old English connections. In using his elf-sword, Bilbo finally takes his first independent heroic action. By his naming the sword " Sting " we see Bilbo's acceptance of the kinds of cultural and linguistic practices found in Beowulf , signifying his entrance into the ancient world in which he found himself. This progression culminates in Bilbo stealing
13288-504: The day of the last new moon of autumn. However, in his first drafts of the book, Durin's Day was the first new moon of autumn. After he had finished writing the book, Tolkien went back and changed all occurrences of the date to the last new moon, more in keeping with the real-world Celtic calendar , but overlooked one mention in Chapter IV, which still named the date as the first new moon. Tolkien never noticed this inconsistency, and it
13439-429: The development of high fantasy, and further credits the 1960s paperback debuts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as essential to the creation of a mass market for fiction of this kind as well as the fantasy genre's current status. Tolkien's prose is unpretentious and straightforward, taking as given the existence of his imaginary world and describing its details in a matter-of-fact way, while often introducing
13590-479: The divine will is at most hinted at. The theologian Catherine Madsen writes that Tolkien found it impossible to make his many drafts and revisions of The Silmarillion consistent with The Lord of the Rings , leaving it unpublished at his death. Its cosmology is glimpsed: she notes that the tale of Earendil is recited, and it serves as background to Frodo and Sam's use of the Phial of Galadriel , which contains some of
13741-481: The dragon Smaug . Gandalf unveils Thrór's map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself. The group travels into the wild. Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell , where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. When they attempt to cross
13892-547: The dragon stretches its neck out to sniff for intruders. Likewise, Tolkien's descriptions of the lair as accessed through a secret passage mirror those in Beowulf . Other specific plot elements and features in The Hobbit that show similarities to Beowulf include the title of thief , as Bilbo is called by Gollum and later by Smaug, and Smaug's personality, which leads to the destruction of Lake-town. Tolkien refines parts of Beowulf 's plot that he appears to have found less than satisfactorily described, such as details about
14043-452: The dwarves could not bear to acknowledge. The analogue of the " underworld " and the hero returning from it with a boon (such as the ring, or Elvish blades) that benefits his society is seen to fit the mythic archetypes regarding initiation and male coming-of-age as described by Joseph Campbell . Chance compares the development and growth of Bilbo against other characters to the concepts of just kingship versus sinful kingship derived from
14194-493: The dwarves from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain , the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town , who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition reaches the mountain and finds the secret door. The dwarves send a reluctant Bilbo inside to scout the dragon's lair. He steals a great cup and, while conversing with Smaug, spots
14345-555: The dwarves of Tolkien's legendarium as " Old Norse " in their names, their feuds, and their revenges. In the appendix on "Durin's Folk" in The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien describes dwarves as: a tough, thrawn race for the most part, secretive, laborious, retentive of the memory of injuries (and of benefits), lovers of stone, of gems, of things that take shape under the hands of the craftsmen rather than things that live by their own life. But they are not evil by nature, and few ever served
14496-516: The editor of the Puffin paperback edition. According to Tolkien, the "real 'historical' plural" of "dwarf" is "dwarrows" or "dwerrows". He described the word "dwarves" as "a piece of private bad grammar". In Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien explained that if people still spoke of "dwarves" regularly, English might have retained a special plural for the word "dwarf", as with the irregular plural of "goose", "geese". Despite his fondness for it,
14647-591: The end of the Second Age. During this flat-Earth period, Ekkaia flows completely around Arda, which floats on it like a ship on a sea. Above Ekkaia is a layer of atmosphere. Ulmo the Lord of Waters dwells in Ekkaia, underneath Arda. Ekkaia is extremely cold; where its waters meet the waters of the ocean Belegaer on the northwest of Middle-earth, a chasm of ice is formed: the Helcaraxë . Ekkaia cannot support any ships except
14798-476: The episode to put into practice some of the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Old English poem in its portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence. Tolkien greatly prefers this motif over the later medieval trend of using the dragon as a symbolic or allegorical figure, such as in the legend of St. George . Smaug the dragon with his golden hoard may be seen as an example of
14949-521: The even more distantly related language of Dale was translated into Norse. It is possible that the problem of explaining the Dwarves' Norse names was the origin of the entire structure of the Mannish languages in Middle-earth along with the fiction of "translation". Tolkien's only mention of the Dwarves' calendar is in The Hobbit , regarding the "dwarves' New Year" or Durin 's Day , which occurs on
15100-683: The extra cost. Thus encouraged, Tolkien supplied a second batch of illustrations. The publisher accepted all of these as well, giving the first edition ten black-and-white illustrations plus the two endpaper maps. The illustrated scenes were: The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water , The Trolls , The Mountain Path , The Misty Mountains looking West from the Eyrie towards Goblin Gate , Beorn 's Hall , Mirkwood , The Elvenking 's Gate , Lake Town , The Front Gate , and The Hall at Bag-End . All but one of
15251-456: The figure of the trickster occurs in every age, whether in sacred rites or picaresque stories. Jaume Albero Poveda similarly calls the "comical episodes" like the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum "typical of the picaresque novel". Tolkien wished to imitate the prose and poetry romances of the 19th-century Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris in style and approach. The Desolation of Smaug, portraying dragons as detrimental to landscape,
15402-451: The final design of two maps as endpapers, Thror's map , and the Map of Wilderland (see Rhovanion ), both printed in black and red on the paper's cream background. Originally Allen & Unwin planned to illustrate the book only with the endpaper maps, but Tolkien's first tendered sketches so charmed the publisher's staff that they opted to include them without raising the book's price despite
15553-538: The first part of The Silmarillion , the Ainulindalë or creation account, to describe his thoughts on the origin of evil in his fictional world, which he took pains to comport with his own beliefs on the subject, as accounted in his Letters . In the Ainulindalë , evil represents a rebellion against the creative process set in motion by Eru. Evil is defined by its original actor, Melkor, a Luciferian figure who falls from grace in active rebellion against Eru, out of
15704-548: The fore in the story and provide the moral crux of the tale. Bilbo steals the Arkenstone—a most ancient relic of the dwarves—and attempts to ransom it to Thorin for peace. However, Thorin turns on the Hobbit as a traitor, disregarding all the promises and "at your services" he had previously bestowed. In the end Bilbo gives up the precious stone and most of his share of the treasure to help those in greater need. Tolkien also explores
15855-668: The form "dwarrow" only appears in his writing as "Dwarrowdelf" ("Dwarf-digging"), a name for Moria. He used "Dwarves", instead, corresponding to his "Elves" as a plural for "Elf". Tolkien used "dwarvish" and "dwarf(-)" (e.g. " Dwarf-lords ", "Old Dwarf Road") as adjectives for the people he created. In Rankin-Bass ' 1977 animated film adaptation of The Hobbit , Thorin was voiced by Hans Conreid , with Don Messick voicing Balin , John Stephenson voicing Dori , Jack DeLeon voicing Dwalin , Fíli , Kíli , Óin , Glóin , Ori , Nori , Bifur , and Bofur , and Paul Frees voicing Bombur . In Ralph Bakshi 's 1978 animated film The Lord of
16006-406: The general tone is kept light-hearted, being interspersed with songs and humour. One example of the use of song to maintain tone is when Thorin and Company are kidnapped by goblins, who, when marching them into the underworld, sing: Clap! Snap! the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down down to Goblin-town You go, my lad! This onomatopoeic singing undercuts the dangerous scene with
16157-424: The hero being plucked from his rural home and thrown into a far-off war where traditional types of heroism are shown to be futile. The tale as such explores the theme of heroism. As Janet Brennan Croft notes, Tolkien's literary reaction to war at this time differed from most post-war writers by eschewing irony as a method for distancing events and instead using mythology to mediate his experiences. Similarities to
16308-501: The illustrations were a full page, and one, the Mirkwood illustration, required a separate plate. Satisfied with his skills, the publishers asked Tolkien to design a dust jacket. This project, too, became the subject of many iterations and much correspondence, with Tolkien always writing disparagingly of his own ability to draw. The runic inscription around the edges of the illustration are a phonetic transliteration of English, giving
16459-547: The initial reviews refer to the work as a fairy story. However, according to Jack Zipes writing in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales , Bilbo is an atypical character for a fairy tale. The work is much longer than Tolkien's ideal proposed in his essay On Fairy-Stories . Many fairy tale motifs, such as the repetition of similar events seen in the dwarves' arrival at Bilbo's and Beorn's homes, and folklore themes, such as trolls turning to stone, are to be found in
16610-645: The language of the people amongst whom the Dwarf lives. For example, the Dwarves of Moria and the Lonely Mountain use outer names taken from the language of the Men of the north where they lived. In reality, Tolkien took the names of 12 of the 13 dwarves – excluding Balin – that he used in The Hobbit from the Old Norse Völuspá , long before the idea of Khuzdul arose. When he came to write The Lord of
16761-459: The light of Earendil's star. In contrast, the creation myth of the Ainulindalë is not even mentioned in The Lord of the Rings , though she notes that it could have been: Beowulf offered a suitable model familiar to Tolkien, in the minstrel's telling of a creation story. By having The Lord of the Rings told from the hobbits' point of view, Madsen writes, cosmology is pushed still further into
16912-710: The lines of the Broadbeams and the Firebeards. The remaining four clans, the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots come from the East. After the end of the First Age, the Dwarves spoken of are almost exclusively of Durin's line. A further division, the even shorter Petty-dwarves , appears in The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin . Moseley likens Mîm , the last known Petty-dwarf, to
17063-496: The lost stronghold of the Mines of Moria . Tolkien elaborated on Jewish influence on his Dwarves in a letter: "I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue..." In the last interview before his death, Tolkien said "The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn't you say, that in many ways they remind you of
17214-409: The maps, of which Tolkien originally proposed five, were considered and debated. He wished Thror's Map to be tipped in (that is, glued in after the book has been bound) at first mention in the text, and with the moon letter runes on the reverse so they could be seen when held up to the light. In the end the cost, as well as the shading of the maps, which would be difficult to reproduce, resulted in
17365-470: The medieval image of Jews, whilst their warlike nature stems from accounts in the Hebrew Bible . The Dwarvish calendar invented for The Hobbit reflects the Jewish calendar which begins in late autumn. And although Tolkien denied that he used allegory , the dwarves taking Bilbo out of his complacent existence has been seen as an eloquent metaphor for the "impoverishment of Western society without Jews." The scholar of literature James L. Hodge describes
17516-604: The motif of jewels that inspire intense greed that corrupts those who covet them in the Silmarillion , and there are connections between the words "Arkenstone" and " Silmaril " in Tolkien's invented etymologies. The Hobbit employs themes of animism . An important concept in anthropology and child development , animism is the idea that all things—including inanimate objects and natural events, such as storms or purses, as well as living things like animals and plants—possess human-like intelligence. John D. Rateliff calls this
17667-491: The narrative flow with asides (a device common to both children's and Anglo-Saxon literature), has his own linguistic style separate from those of the main characters. The basic form of the story is that of a quest , told in episodes. For the most part of the book, each chapter introduces a different denizen of the Wilderland, some helpful and friendly towards the protagonists, and others threatening or dangerous. However
17818-557: The narrative voice addressing the reader directly, the narrative voice contributes significantly to the success of the novel. The scholar Lois R. Kuznets comments that the "obtrusive narrator" is part of a standard "rhetoric of childhood"; C. W. Sullivan III adds that Tolkien may have taken the idea of an intrusive narrator from the medieval texts Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Emer O'Sullivan, in her Comparative Children's Literature , notes The Hobbit as one of
17969-450: The new and fantastic in an almost casual manner. This down-to-earth style, also found in later fantasy such as Richard Adams ' Watership Down and Peter Beagle 's The Last Unicorn , accepts readers into the fictional world , rather than cajoling or attempting to convince them of its reality. While The Hobbit is written in a simple, friendly language, each of its characters has a unique voice. The narrator, who occasionally interrupts
18120-527: The other planets in the solar system, as recorded in Morgoth's Ring , but these were not used elsewhere. The names were Silindo for Jupiter , Carnil for Mars , Elemmire for Mercury , Luinil for Uranus , Lumbar for Saturn , and Nenar for Neptune . The Book of Lost Tales lists Morwen as a name for Jupiter. A few individual stars have been identified as names of real stars, whether by Tolkien, his son Christopher, or by scholars. Tolkien indicates in "Three
18271-418: The planet Venus . The English use of the word "earendel" in the Old English poem Christ I was found by 19th century philologists to be some sort of bright star, and from 1914 Tolkien took this to mean the morning-star ; he still thought so late in his life, in 1967. The line éala éarendel engla beorhtast "Hail, Earendel, brightest of angels" was Tolkien's inspiration. Tolkien created Sindarin names for
18422-456: The races of Middle-earth, Hobbits, Men, Elves, and Dwarves, all believe that there is "a literal cosmological battle between Good and Evil", all expecting a "final cataclysmic battle". Readers may, she writes, consider interpreting the Ainulindalë metaphorically, so that Melkor's attempts to destroy Arda, "raising the valleys, throwing down the mountains, spilling the seas—could be read as a symbolic representation of geological forces", but there
18573-555: The ring from him in the dungeons of Dol Guldur . The Dwarves are portrayed in The Silmarillion as an ancient people who awake during the Years of the Trees , after the Elves at the start of the First Age , but before Men when the Sun and Moon are created. The Vala Aulë , impatient for the arising of the Children of Ilúvatar , creates the seven Fathers of the Dwarves in secret, intending them to be his children to whom he could teach his crafts. He teaches them Khuzdul ,
18724-485: The seas, and the moon and the stars revolve around it. Arda was created to be the "Habitation" ( Ambar ) for Elves and Men. This world was lit by two lamps created by the Valar: Illuin ('Sky-blue') and Ormal ('High-gold'). To support the lamps, Aulë forged two enormous pillars of rock: Helcar in the north of the continent Middle-earth, and Ringil in the south. Illuin was set upon Helcar and Ormal upon Ringil. Between
18875-613: The shadow! You cannot pass." – Gandalf , speaking to the Balrog Tolkien stated that the "Flame Imperishable" or "Secret Fire" represents the Holy Spirit in Christian theology, the creative activity of Eru, inseparable both from him and from his creation. In the interpretation of Christopher Tolkien , it represents "the mystery of authorship ", the author both standing outside of his work and indwelling in it. In
19026-509: The similarly named Mime from the Nibelungenlied . As creations of Aulë, they are attracted to the substances of Arda. They mine and work precious metals throughout the mountains of Middle-earth. They are unrivalled in smithing, crafting, metalworking, and masonry, even among the Elves . The Dwarf-smith Telchar is the greatest in renown. They build immense halls under mountains for their cities. They build many famed halls including
19177-472: The small, food-obsessed, and morally ambiguous Bilbo. The text emphasizes the relationship between time and narrative progress and it openly distinguishes "safe" from "dangerous" in its geography. Both are key elements of works intended for children, as is the "home-away-home" (or there and back again ) plot structure typical of the Bildungsroman . While Tolkien later claimed to dislike the aspect of
19328-420: The spiritual, or Unseen world) and have great power in both, especially those who have dwelt in the light of the Two Trees before the Sun and Moon; and that the powers associated with "magic" were spiritual in nature. The Elves who stayed in Middle-earth where Melkor once was dominant, being in bodies and surrounded by things that are themselves marred and subject to decay by the influence of Melkor, created
19479-434: The story as picaresque , a genre of fiction in which a hero relies on his wits to survive a series of risky episodes. Hodge further likens Bilbo's admittedly unheroic business of burglary to the trickster role of some pagan gods and mythical figures: Hermes steals cattle from Apollo , Prometheus and Coyote steal fire, Odin steals the mead of poetry , and so on. Hodge quotes the psychiatrist Carl Jung as saying that
19630-507: The story of his adventures . In the early 1930s Tolkien was pursuing an academic career at Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon , with a fellowship at Pembroke College . Several of his poems had been published in magazines and small collections, including Goblin Feet and The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked , a reworking of
19781-494: The story. The book is popularly called (and often marketed as) a fantasy novel , but like Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald , both of which influenced Tolkien and contain fantasy elements, it is primarily identified as being children's literature. The two genres are not mutually exclusive, so some definitions of high fantasy include works for children by authors such as L. Frank Baum and Lloyd Alexander alongside
19932-437: The timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn, who fights in his bear form and kills the goblin general, do they win the climactic Battle of Five Armies. Thorin is fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies. Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no want or need for more, but still returns home a very wealthy hobbit roughly a year and a month after he first left. Years later, he writes
20083-420: The title of the book and details of the author and publisher. The original jacket design contained several shades of various colours, but Tolkien redrew it several times using fewer colours each time. His final design consisted of four colours. The publishers, mindful of the cost, removed the red from the sun to end up with only black, blue, and green ink on white stock. The publisher's production staff designed
20234-544: The traditional relationship between evil and metallurgy as collated in the depiction of Pandæmonium with its "Belched fire and rolling smoke" in John Milton 's Paradise Lost . Of all the characters, Smaug's speech is the most modern, using idioms such as "Don't let your imagination run away with you!" Just as Tolkien's literary theories have been seen to influence the tale, so have Tolkien's experiences. The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of World War I with
20385-546: The upper edge. Once illustrations were approved for the book, Tolkien proposed colour plates as well. The publisher would not relent on this, so Tolkien pinned his hopes on the American edition to be published about six months later. Houghton Mifflin rewarded these hopes with the replacement of the frontispiece ( The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water ) in colour and the addition of new colour plates: Rivendell , Bilbo Woke Up with
20536-454: The way out of the tunnels, but if he fails, his life will be forfeit. With the help of the ring, which confers invisibility , Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improving his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase, but the company are saved by eagles. They rest in the house of the skin-changer Beorn. The company enters the dark forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf, who has other responsibilities. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves
20687-484: The wizard Radagast is taken from the name of the Slavic deity Radogost . The representation of the dwarves in The Hobbit was influenced by his own selective reading of medieval texts regarding the Jewish people and their history . The dwarves' characteristics of being dispossessed of their ancient homeland at the Lonely Mountain, and living among other groups whilst retaining their own culture are all derived from
20838-418: The works of Gene Wolfe and Jonathan Swift , which are more often considered adult literature. The Hobbit has been called "the most popular of all twentieth-century fantasies written for children". Jane Chance , however, considers the book to be a children's novel only in the sense that it appeals to the child in an adult reader. Sullivan credits the first publication of The Hobbit as an important step in
20989-480: The works of William Morris also played a part. The publisher was encouraged by the book's critical and financial success and, therefore, requested a sequel. As Tolkien's work progressed on its successor , The Lord of the Rings , he made retrospective accommodations for it in The Hobbit . These few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition. Further editions followed with minor emendations, including those reflecting Tolkien's changing concept of
21140-477: The works of other writers who faced the Great War are seen in The Hobbit , including portraying warfare as anti- pastoral : in "The Desolation of Smaug", both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for the Battle of Five Armies later are described as barren, damaged landscapes. The Hobbit makes a warning against repeating the tragedies of World War I, and Tolkien's attitude as
21291-460: The world back to their starting points. A few years after publishing The Lord of the Rings , in a note associated with the story " Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth ", Tolkien equated Arda with the Solar System; because Arda by this point consisted of more than one heavenly body, with Valinor on another planet, while the Sun and Moon were celestial objects in their own right. Tolkien developed
21442-536: The world into which Bilbo stumbled. The work has never been out of print. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, board games , and video games. Several of these adaptations have received critical recognition on their own merits. Bilbo Baggins , the protagonist, is a respectable, reserved and well-to-do hobbit —a race resembling short humans with furry, leathery feet who live in underground houses and are mainly farmers and gardeners. Gandalf , an itinerant wizard , introduces Bilbo to
21593-534: The world, the answer would have to be no; but given that they do not disappear completely on death, the answer must be yes. In Shippey's view, the Silmarillion resolves the puzzle, letting Elves go not to Heaven but to the halfway house of the Halls of Mandos on Valinor. The problem arises again with apparently wholly evil beings such as Orcs . Since evil cannot make, only mock, Orcs cannot have an equal and opposite morality to that of Men; but since they speak and have
21744-566: Was at age 24; and as "striplings" in their 30s. Despite his young age, Dáin Ironfoot was 32 when he killed Azog , the orc chieftain of Moria . They had children starting in their 90s. The Dwarves are described as "the most redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples" – a warlike race who fought fiercely against their enemies, including other Dwarves. Highly skilled in the making of weapons and armour , their main weapon
21895-445: Was exclusively known and open to the Elves, who were able to navigate it with their ships. This transition from a flat to a spherical Earth is at the centre of Tolkien's " Atlantis " legend. The Númenóreans, growing arrogant, tried to reach Valinor, thinking that being there would confer immortality; but Eru destroyed their island and reshaped the world to prevent Men from ever reaching it. Tolkien's unfinished The Lost Road suggests
22046-452: Was influenced by his own selective reading of medieval texts regarding Jewish people and their history. The dwarves' characteristics of being dispossessed of their homeland in Erebor , and living among other groups but retaining their own culture, are derived from the medieval image of Jews, while, according to the Tolkien scholar John D. Rateliff , their warlike nature stems from accounts in
22197-416: Was more profound than the shaping of individual characters and episodes; his works helped Tolkien form his whole thinking on the role of fantasy within his Christian faith . The evolution and maturation of the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is central to the story. This journey of maturation, where Bilbo gains a clear sense of identity and confidence in the outside world, may be seen in psychological terms as
22348-458: Was not corrected until the 1995 edition of the book. The astronomer Bradley E. Schaefer has analysed the astronomical determinants of Durin's Day. He concluded that – as with many real-world lunar calendars – the date of Durin's Day is observational, dependent on the first visible crescent moon. In Tolkien's The Book of Lost Tales , the very few Dwarves who appear are portrayed as evil beings, employers of Orc mercenaries and in conflict with
22499-581: Was not so", in other words all things were created good; but this is set alongside the Manichean view that good and evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world. Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth. Brian Rosebury , a humanities scholar, interprets Elrond's statement as implying an Augustinian universe, created good. Eä , "that which is",
22650-628: Was the battle axe , but they also used bows , swords , shields and mattocks , and wore armour. Sauron gave seven Rings of Power to Dwarf lords. The Rings caused them to be wrathful and greedy for gold, but they were not brought under Sauron's domination, nor did they gain longer life. Eventually all seven Rings were destroyed or reclaimed by Sauron. One of the rings was given to Durin III, and passed down to Thrór , who gave it to his son Thráin II, father of Thorin Oakenshield . Sauron captured Thráin and took
22801-556: Was visited in Oxford by Susan Dagnall, a staff member of the publisher George Allen & Unwin , she is reported to have either lent Dagnall the book or suggested she borrow it from Tolkien. In any event, Dagnall was impressed by it, and showed the book to Stanley Unwin , who then asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to review it. Rayner's favourable comments settled Allen & Unwin's decision to publish Tolkien's book. The setting of The Hobbit , as described on its original dust jacket,
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