Before you see The Hobbit, get to know the dwarves who take Bilbo Baggins on his epic adventure
Kili and his brother Fili are Thorin Oakenshield’s nephews and the youngest members of the company. Like their uncle, they have somewhat normal—perhaps even fetching—noses; in Tolkien’s questionable aesthetic universe, good looks have a lot to do with the pedigree of your lineage. Almost elf-like, Kili is also very adept with a bow.
Balin is a pretty sharp dude who seems to have a lot more wisdom than the other dwarves. Doddering my ass.
I just don't know why in the movie they made these dwarves out to be so funny loving and comical, with exception to Thorin.
Gimli was nothing like these dwarves.
Really love the movie and the entire series. Just can get lost in every single scene with the color and details and expressions. One word that describes this? BELOVED!
Great movie..heres some behind the scenes pictures from the Hobbit http://bit.ly/V038dg
Great movie,found the project with a gift for the New Year, I hope that this is itwill be my kalabashki_net promising in principle, there are people whonot only think of themselves, and contributed to, even if not to me, butto someone lucky
This article is very poorly researched.
Tolkien (who authored LOTR and The Hobbit) intended the dwarves to represent the Jews of his time. In other words, they were always having their homeland taken from them, they were greedy, had the excessive beards/facial hair, had a similar style of writing, and were always "cut short" when compared with the rest of society.
As such, the dwarves in Tolkien's mythology were meant to be a veiled commentary on the Jews of Tolkien's day.
The writers and editors at Time Magazine need to do a better job at researching their subject matter BEFORE printing their articles, or posting them online.
References:
@mrbomb13 The article is intended to be a quick guide to the 13 dwarves in the movie, not a research paper on Tolkien's writings, beliefs, and intents. If you want to get up on a soapbox and tell everyone what you know, go ahead, but don't claim the article is poorly researched because it doesn't include every little detail, as that would be a small book in itself. The purpose of the article is clear, and it fulfills that purpose. I humbly suggest you get over yourself.
@mrbomb13 Ah yes, because it's in Wikipedia, it has to be right.
Nevermind that Tolkien named the Dwarves after the Dwarves in the Volúspa, had them writing in Norse Runes, and their dragon is straight out of Norse mythology as well.
Of COURSE.
If the article was only meant to be a guide for the movie, than why would the author bother to note the, "grunting monosyllables such as Oin and Gloin, which, some Tolkien scholars suggest, are drawn from Norse mythology. It seems Tolkien was engaging a tradition of northern European legends that conjures up dwarves as impish, troublesome foils to more human protagonists."
That only tells half of Tolkien's philosophy about the Dwarves. The other half of the influence came from a study of the Jews, and that is documented in Tolkien's writings/letters. I suspect the author viewed those writings to be too controversial, and therefore conveniently omitted them from his article.
@Greekgeek @mrbomb13 As a former teacher, I would certainly agree that one should not use Wikipedia as a primary source.
However, as a researcher, one is certainly allowed to connect to the links for each Wikipedia article, and assess the validity of all source material for the given article. If you check the source material in the Wikipedia article, the Jewish influence on the development of Tolkien's Dwarves did indeed exist.
As you said, Tolkien did indeed incorporate Norse (and, more broadly, Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon) mythology into both LOTR and the Hobbit. Many interviews with Tolkien (and his son) are online, and I would highly recommend watching them. There is even one wherein Tolkien himself says that Dwarves were like the Jews of his time, and based off them.
In case Wikipedia was not enough, here is an additional article to substantiate my point:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Dwarves+are+not+heroes%22%3A+antisemitism+and+the+Dwarves+in+J.R.R....-a0227196960
The article is has Tolkien's Letters and writings as source material.
Actually, if you read Tolkien's letters, he explicitly states how he, "thinks 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..."
If you would like the exact scholarly souce, you may review the following bibliographic citation:
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 176, ISBN 0-395-31555-7
That is no 'modern interpretation;' those are the from the writings of the author himself.
@mrbomb13 @Greekgeek I think that as a researcher, you should also be aware that in Tolkien's previous articles and comments on his own works, he clearly states that there is no direct analogy or comparisons that are being made through his work. He aimed to create a mythic background or folktale for England. By implying a direct comparison between the Jews and the Dwarves you are laying your own interpretation upon the piece. Not necessarily Tolkien's. Yes he may have gained inspiration from his current surroundings but he is not making a social commentary upon the situation of the Jewish people. To assume otherwise is to believe that what an author intends to say is irrelevant and what matters is modern interpretation.
