The Hobbit is one of the most beloved children's stories of all time — but even grown-ups
might have a few questions left unanswered.
Why can Trolls talk?
Who is Beorn?
And why do the Eagles always save the day?
Keep watching to find out.
One of the strangest things about The Hobbit is the way that it presents Dwarves and Elves.
The Dwarves are seen as bumbling yet tragic heroes, trying desperately to overcome impossible
odds to recover their home.
Sure, they're willing to send a Hobbit in to do the dirty work, but overall, Thorin
and company are a fairly civil lot.
In comparison, many of the story's encounters with the Elves tend to portray them as anything
but friendly.
"And what is this horrid creature?
A goblin mutant?"
"That's my wee lad, Gimli."
In The Lord of the Rings, many of these opinions are reversed.
Dwarves are seen as decent enough, but Elves are shown in a very positive light indeed.
The author is the same in both cases, so what gives?
Did Tolkien change his mind about the two races between books?
While Tolkien's world was always evolving, the answer has more to do with perspective
than outright change.
Each of Tolkien's books is very deliberately written in a certain way.
In fact, at the end of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo gives the so-called Red Book of Westmarch
to Sam, which contains two stories: The Lord of the Rings and There and Back Again; the
latter, written by Bilbo Baggins, is essentially the story of The Hobbit.
Bilbo's perspective of Dwarves came from an experience in which he certainly noticed their
flaws, but one that was also steeped in their own cultural and political viewpoints.
Frodo had some interactions with Dwarves but definitely venerated the Elves, whom he interacted
with often, and so the two Hobbits' perspectives shine through in each of their stories.
Compared to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is a very light-hearted story.
In fact, it's generally pretty silly, goofy, and totally family-friendly.
In contrast, The Lord of the Rings is a serious, sad, and adult story with many themes that
are far too intense for children.
So why the difference?
Well, Tolkien himself has the answer to this.
In a letter to his publisher, he wrote:
"The generally different tone and style of The Hobbit is due, in point of genesis, to
it being taken by me as a matter from the great cycle susceptible of treatment as a
'fairy-story,' for children."
In another letter written to a friend, Tolkien addresses the subject of tone yet again by
saying that:
[The Hobbit] was unhappily really meant, as far as I was conscious, as a 'children's story.'
[...] It has some of the silliness of manner caught unthinkingly from the kind of stuff
I had had served to me [...] I deeply regret them.
So do intelligent children."
The distinct difference in tone between each story is very real, and even the author was
aware of the change — to the point that he outright regretted it.
When Tolkien went to write a sequel to The Hobbit, he settled on the One Ring as the
connection point between the two stories.
This led to a lot of subsequent character development and a few adjustments to the original
story.
For example, the mysterious "Necromancer" character from The Hobbit was chosen to play
a much bigger role in the new story.
Of course, that character is Sauron, but what is he doing in Mirkwood in a ghostly, non-physical
form during the events of The Hobbit?
The answer lies in Tolkien's personal obsession with world-building.
By the time The Hobbit was published, the author had already been working on what would
eventually become The Silmarillion — for two decades previous, in fact.
And when he actually sat down to write The Hobbit, he found that his then-private Silmarillion
world began to encroach on the story of Bilbo Baggins.
In one letter, Tolkien says that:
"Mr. Baggins began as a comic tale among conventional and inconsistent Grimm's fairy-tale dwarves,
and got drawn into the edge of it — so that even Sauron the terrible peeped over the edge."
Trolls are a fascinating aspect of Middle-earth's history.
In a letter written 17 years after the release of The Hobbit, Tolkien addresses the Troll
conundrum, saying simply:
"I am not sure about Trolls."
There are many different versions of these underdeveloped creatures found in Tolkien's
work, from Hill Trolls to Cave Trolls to Olog-hai, the fierce breed of Orc-like Trolls that appear
in the appendix to The Return of the King.
The Appendices also suggest that very few of these trolls actually speak, stating:
"In their beginning [...] these creatures were of dull and lumpish nature and had no
more language than beasts.
But Sauron had made use of them, teaching them what little they could learn, and increasing
their wits with wickedness."
In that aforementioned letter, Tolkien breaks down the idea that Trolls are likely only
"counterfeits" — essentially that they were made in mockery of the Ents.
Tolkien subsequently explains that, while Trolls may be able to talk, they are generally
animalistic in nature.
But where do the Trolls from The Hobbit fit into all this?
They have very English names, they live a somewhat civil lifestyle, and they can easily
talk.
"What are you, then?
An oversized squirrel?"
"I'm a burglar — a hobbit!"
"A burglar-hobbit?"
Well, it turns out that the only Trolls who are mentioned in the Appendices as being particularly
articulate are the Stone-trolls who, apparently, "spoke a debased form of the Common Speech."
Even then, this is another area in which Tolkien's opinions changed a lot over time — and yes,
unfortunately, that means there's no solid answer to this one.
Giants are rare and mystical creatures, even for Middle-earth.
They're mentioned throughout The Lord of the Rings, but only in passing: in The Return
of the King, Minas Tirith is described as looking as if it had been built by giants
"out of the stones of the earth."
In The Hobbit, they're brought up as creatures in many of Gandalf's stories, and Bilbo thinks
of them as a potential answer during his riddle game with Gollum.
And then, of course, there's that time when Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Dwarves travel over
the Misty Mountains and see some real stone-giants during a thunderstorm.
The stone-giants cause a considerable ruckus, laughing and throwing rocks at each other,
and then proceed to never be a viable presence in anything else that Tolkien ever writes.
This one's tough, since Tolkien himself seems to have done a 180 on giants in his world.
Indeed, there are many other fairly well-developed forms of giants to be found in the earlier
versions of Tolkien's mythos.
But over time, the author appears to have toned down his interest in that race, to the
point where they don't feature heavily in any of his other works.
Gollum is an odd one.
He lives alone, obsesses over his Ring, and loves to snack on any living thing that happens
to wander near his home.
So, why, when Bilbo shows up, is Gollum's first thought to start a game of riddles with
his new acquaintance?
"Games?!
We love games, doesn't we precious?
Does it like games, does it, does it?
Does it like to play?"
Well, first off, Bilbo has a sword, and when Gollum sees Sting he makes sure to be very
polite — until he figures out just who this little Hobbit is, at least.
But that still leaves another question: why riddles?
Why wouldn't he just chat with Bilbo, or stalk him, or even sit there and watch him?
It turns out that Tolkien answers this one via a quick, easy-to-miss line in The Hobbit.
Just before the game begins, the book reads:
"Riddles were all [Gollum] could think of.
Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played
with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago."
This isn't just a random interest, either, as riddles are clearly taken very seriously
in Middle-earth.
After the game, it becomes clear that Bilbo knows that the riddle-game is sacred to many,
and that even someone like Gollum would be afraid to cheat at one.
In other words, riddles aren't just a passing fancy for the peoples of Middle-earth — they're
a very serious matter indeed.
The Hobbit is full of incredible beasts and creatures, and one of the most remarkable
of all is Beorn, the skin-changer.
In the Hobbit novel, it's implied that there are many other bear-to-human creatures like
him, too.
So what's the origin of this strange group, and where do shape-shifters fit into Tolkien's
world?
Unfortunately, this is another area in which the author left little more than hints and
riddles.
As far as the ability to change shapes goes, that's nothing new in Middle-earth.
The angelic Valar and Maiar take on physical forms all the time, and, in The Fellowship
of the Ring, Gandalf describes Radagast as, quote, "a master of shapes and changes of
hue."
Even Sauron turns into a werewolf, a serpent, and a vampire bat in The Silmarillion.
But for all that shifting and changing, Beorn's specific race of skin-changers remains highly
mysterious.
All we get is Gandalf's initial description of the fellow in The Hobbit, which reads:
"Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains
that lived there before the giants came.
Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the
other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills
out of the North."
While Gandalf isn't sure himself, he apparently favors the second option.
But, as he himself also says about the matter:
"I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough."
If you've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you might be wondering how far
the seven Dwarven Rings are involved with Bilbo's adventures.
After all, The Hobbit features the Arkenstone, which is a super-jewel with its own inner
power.
The Silmarillion also explains that:
"The foundation of each of the Seven Hoards of the Dwarf-kings of old was a golden ring;
but all those hoards long ago were plundered and the Dragons devoured them."
It would seem natural, then, to suggest that the Lonely Mountain might have been home to
one of those hoards.
So, is there a Dwarven ring lying at the heart of the mountain?
Or possibly in Smaug's belly?
As it turns out: no, but kind of.
See, the Lonely Mountain is originally founded by some of the dispossessed Dwarves who are
driven out of Moria by the Balrog.
Long before that point, one of their kings receives one of the Seven Dwarven Rings — and
it stays in the family until Thorin's father loses it when he's captured by the Necromancer.
So, while there isn't a Dwarven Ring present in Erebor when Bilbo arrives on the scene,
one of the Rings of Power is likely responsible for the mass of gold and treasure on which
Smaug sleeps.
"The Eagles… the Eagles are coming!"
You've probably noticed that Eagles play an important role in Tolkien's world.
They save Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Dwarves from the clutches of the Orcs of the Misty
Mountains.
They show up to help turn the tide during the Battle of Five Armies.
Their leader, Gwaihir the Windlord, saves Gandalf when he's trapped on Orthanc — and
his Eagles swoop in to join in the battle at the Black Gate of Mordor, too.
Eagles also save the day multiple times during The Silmarillion.
So what's up with the Eagles always arriving in the nick of time?
Is it a cop-out or a lazy excuse to resolve a story?
Nope.
Tolkien's use of the Eagles to provide dramatic savior-like moments is something that he developed
specifically and intentionally.
In fact, he coined a term for this plot device: a eucatastrophe.
In Tolkien's famous essay "On Fairy Stories," the author points out that, while drama and
tragedy go hand in hand, fairy stories must come with a consolation or happy-ending.
In a letter written to his son, Christopher, the author defines the concept of a eucatastrophe
as:
"The sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I
argued is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce)."
When writing fantasy, Tolkien felt that the story must provide these moments of grace
and salvation — and the majestic Eagles remained one of his favorite ways of doing
so.
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