Thirty Days to Thorin (8) - How to properly address the King

Not that it's very likely to happen, but do you know what you're supposed to say when you meet a dwarf? Not just any dwarf, mind you, the Heir of Durin's Folk in exile, his majesty prince Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror.

"Durin, Durin!" said Thorin. "He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and my first ancestor: I am his heir."

(From: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Chapter III A Short Rest p. 69)

The word of the day could possibly help you. Although I'm far from an expert at Khuzdul, if you know this one word, at least you will be able to acknowledge his royal status:

Image courtesy of www.thehobbit.com
 

Now if you do happen to meet Thorin and you're overcome with nerves so badly that you forget the one word of Khuzdul that could possibly have saved your life, just bow as low as you can (even better if your beard touches the floor) and say: "Thorin Oakenshield, rightful King under the Mountain, I am at your service!"
You'll be fine! ;-)

Thirty Days to Thorin (7) - PJ understands me!

Yes, Peter Jackson understands me. He knows exactly what I want to see. So, when I woke up to PJ's new production video this morning, it turned out to have exactly what I needed: interesting details about the process of creating The Hobbit... and a lot of Richard Armitage and Thorin!!

So, Thank you PJ, for making my day - again!
And a special thank you to Wendy Dixon and Jonia for their excellent screencapping skills and for making the pictures available on the web.

See Peter Jackson's production video here:

 

 



As I said, there's plenty of Thorin/Richard in this video. In fact, Richard is the only member of the cast who features prominently in this behind-the-scenes video. Oh, and did I say he looks absolutely incredible, both as Thorin and as himself... or is that just stating the obvious?

 

Why don't you judge it for yourself...

 

"Elves..."
And there it was: his beautiful, deep, velvet, dip-me-in-chocolate, tingles-down-my-spine voice.
I've missed you, my precious...

 

 

Thorin in action

 

 

And then, the piece de résistance, the most beautiful picture of Thorin- He looks dark and angry and slightly mad, but still as regal as ever. I love it!

 

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the wronged King of Durin's Folk, on a quest to reclaim his homeland, his honour and his dignity

 





Thirty Days to Thorin (6) - Family resemblance

Do you see the family resemblance?

 

Glóin – the father



Gloin, as portrayed by Peter Hambleton in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy



 

Gloin is a direct descendant of Nain II, one of the kings of Durin’s Folk and a distant cousin of Thorin Oakenshield. Gloin and his brother Oin, two doughty, Northern Dwarves join the Company out of a sense of loyalty to their kin, and also because they have a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. Oin and Gloin are talented at started fires. Along with Bombur, Gloin is the only other married Dwarf in the Company (there being a shortage of female dwarves in general). His wife is an acclaimed beauty with a particularly fine beard. Gloin is the proud father of a young son, Gimli, who will go on to become part of the famous Fellowship of the Ring. Gloin is the only dwarf from The Hobbit to personally appear in The Lord of the Rings.


Gimli – the son

Gimli, as portrayed by John Rhys-Davies in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Gimli, son of Glóin, was a well-respected dwarf warrior in Middle-earth during the Great Years. He was a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, and was the only dwarf to readily fight alongside elves in the war against Sauron at the end of the Third Age. After the defeat of Sauron, he was given lordship of the Glittering Caves at Helm's Deep.

Gimli was born with a well groomed beard. He was a remote descendant of Durin the Deathless, father of the first house of dwarven people. Gimli stemmed from, but was not an inheritor of the royal line. He was also the first cousin once removed of Balin, Lord of Moria. It is also stated in the Unfinished Tales that Gimli was prevented from traveling with his father on the Quest of Erebor (in The Hobbit), because Thorin and company thought that he was too young. Gimli, being in his sixties, considered himself ripe for adventure and was disappointed to be left behind.

Thirty Days to Thorin (5) - A song

"The quays were thronged with hurrying feet. Some began to sing snatches of old songs concerning the return of the King under the Mountain; that it was Thror's grandson not Thror himself that had come back did not bother them at all. Others took up the song and it rolled loud and high over the lake."

The King beneath the mountains

The King of carven stone

The lord of silver fountains

Shall come into his own

 

His crown shall be upholden

His harp shall be restrung

His halls shall echo golden

To songs of yore re-sung

 

The woods shall wave on mountains

And grass beneath the sun

His wealth shall flow in fountains

And the rivers golden run.

 

The streams shall run in gladness,

The lakes shall shine and burn,

All sorrow fail and sadness

At the Mountain-king's return!

 

 

 

From The Hobbit Chapter X - A warm welcome - page 251

Picture courtesy of www.richardarmitagenet.com (cropped)

Thirty Days to Thorin (4) - The One Woman

I need to apologise to you. I promised you thirty days of countdown to the release of The Hobbit and I have not been very good at keeping my promise. You know how it goes: real life gets in the way: work, important life-changing decisions, busy times, family, etc. So I hope you're still with me and I promise I will make up for the lost time: I will publish all of the thirty blogposts before 12 December when The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey is released in Belgium. Today, on International Men's Day (19 November, by the time I publish this that will be yesterday), I thought I would talk about the women in Tolkien's story, and the Dwarf-women in particular.

Galadriel, as played by Cate Blanchett
Image courtesy of www.TheOneRing.net
 

With the exception of the Galadriel (who does not appear in the original story), the story of The Hobbit is quite a ‘boys club’, don’t you think? 13 male dwarves, a wizard, a hobbit, Bard the Bowman, The Master of Laketown, Beorn etc. So much so that Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh had to invent characters to inject some female energy into their films. They decided against creating more Dwarves, but went for Elves instead. That’s how the character Tauriel (played by Evangeline Lily) was born.

I guess it was a wise decision not to create female dwarves for the films: they are so elusive that their existence is even questioned. On page 411 of The Lord of the Rings - The Return Of the King, Tolkien speaks about female dwarves:

 

“It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other people cannot tell them apart. This has given rise to the foolish opinion among Men that there are no dwarf-women, and that the Dwarves grow out of Stone.”
 

I don’t know if she will even be mentioned in the films (she’s only a reference in the book), but there is one important Dwarf woman – the company of dwarves would not have been complete without her - she is the One Woman.

The youngest members of Thorin’s company of dwarves are Fili and Kili, his nephews. They are the sons of Thorin’s only sister, Dís. In fact, Dís is the only female dwarf that J.R.R. Tolkien ever mentioned by name.

The last Heirs of Durin's Folk: Fili (Left - Dean O'Gorman), Kili (Right - Aiden Turner) and their uncle Thorin Oakenshield (Middle - Richard Armitage) 

 

Dís (born Third Age 2760) was the daughter of King Thráin II and sister of Thorin and Frerin. Like her brothers she was born in the Lonely Mountain and was driven into exile in T.A. 2770 when the dragon Smaug took control of the kingdom.

The name Dís was probably derived from Old Norse -dís ("sister of") which is found in many Nordic names. So Dís is simply named as the sister of her brothers – not very gender-friendly, Professor Tolkien!

On the other hand, although it is often believed that the name Frerin came from either the Old Norse Dwarf-name Frár ("Swift") in the Völuspá, or from the Old Norse word frérinn ("frozen"), to me, it simply sounds like “frère”, the French word for “brother”. That would mean that both Dís and Frerin were named as the siblings of the heir of Durin’s Folk, Thorin.

OK, Tolkien, listen up: your stories need more women!! Thank you. That's all.

Thirty Days to Thorin (3) - New TV spot

A new TV spot fot The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has just been released. It contains some new scenes and features Thorin quite prominently. Enjoy!!

Thirty Days to Thorin (2) - the dwarves

Here's a picture of the 'Unexpected Party':

I manage to name all the dwarves quite easily these days, but I keep putting the wrong name with the wrong picture: for some inexplicable reason, I tend to get Dori & Nori and Oin and Balin mixed up, .

Anyway, what was Peter Jackson thinking when he agreed to make a film that featured a band of 13 dwarves?! They are all very similar in Tolkien's book - he only really gives Thorin a bit more of a personality. So, that's quite a challenge for a filmmaker, but it's also a great opportunity to fill in the blanks and shape the characters to fit the story that you're trying to tell.

As I discussed before, PJ didn't use the different colours that Tolkien assigns to each of the dwarves. He must be colourblind, as that would have been a perfect starting point for their character development.

But Sir Peter is smart: together with screenwriter Philippa Boyens and producer Fran Walsh, he has given the dwarves their own way of dressing, their own way of acting and fighting, their own hairstyle (and beard, of course!), their own weapons, their own history, their own reasons for going on this quest etc. And bit by bit, piece by piece, they have been feeding us these details. For the last year or so, we have had the time to get to know everything about these dwarves, so when we finally get to see the first film, we will be able to step right into the story without being distracted or confused by 'who was that again?'.

This is the official description of Thorin Oakenshield: (thanks to www.theonering.net)

Name: Thorin
Alias: Oakenshield, King under the Mountain, King of Durin's Folk in Exile
Date of Birth: T.A. 2746
Race: Dwarf, House of Durin
Date of Death: T.A. 2941
Alignment: Good
Parents: Thráin II (father)
Spouse: None
Children: None

"As a young Dwarf prince, Thorin witnessed the destruction and terror wrought when a great fire-breathing Dragon attacked the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. After slaughtering many of Thorin’s kin, the great serpent, Smaug, entered The Lonely Mountain and took possession of its vast store of gold and jewels. No-one came to the aid of the surviving Dwarves, and thus, a once proud and noble race was forced into exile. Through long years of hardship, Thorin grew to be a strong and fearless fighter and revered leader. In his heart a fierce desire grew; a desire to reclaim his homeland and destroy the beast that had brought such misery upon his people. So when fate offers him an unusual ally, he seizes the chance for revenge."



"We will seize this chance to take back Erebor!"
Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) prepares his company of dwarves for the difficult task that lies ahead.