Trolls in Middle-earth

Last updated

Trolls are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and feature in films and games adapted from his novels. They are portrayed as monstrously large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect. In The Hobbit , like the dwarf Alviss of Norse mythology, they must be below ground before dawn or turn to stone, whereas in The Lord of the Rings they are able to face daylight.

Contents

Commentators have noted the different uses Tolkien made of trolls, from comedy in Sam Gamgee's poem and the Cockney accents and table manners of the working-class trolls in The Hobbit, to the hellish atmosphere in Moria as the protagonists are confronted by darkness and monsters. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, drew back from giving trolls the power of speech, as he had done in The Hobbit, as it implied to him that they had souls – confronting him with a sentience dilemma, so he made the trolls in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings darker and more bestial. They were supposedly bred by the Dark Lords Melkor and Sauron for their own evil purposes in mockery of ents, [1] helping to express Tolkien's combination of "fairy tale with epic, ... bonded with the Christian mythos". [2]

Appearances

The Hobbit

"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer", said one of the trolls. "Never a blinking bit of manflesh have we had for long enough", said a second.

— from "Roast Mutton" in The Hobbit [T 1]

In The Hobbit , Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarf company encountered three stone trolls on their journey to Erebor. The stone trolls captured the Dwarves and prepared to eat them, but the wizard Gandalf managed to distract them until dawn, when exposure to sunlight turned them to stone. They had vulgar table manners, constantly argued and fought amongst themselves, in Tolkien's narrator's words "not drawing-room fashion at all, at all", [3] spoke with Cockney accents, and had matching English working-class names: Tom, Bert, and William. [T 1] [4] Jennifer Eastman Attebery, a scholar of English, states that the stone trolls in The Hobbit "signify the uncouth". [3]

The Lord of the Rings

'My lad,' said Troll, 'this bone I stole.
But what be bones that lie in a hole?
Thy nuncle was dead as a lump o' lead,
Afore I found his shinbone.
Tinbone! Skinbone!
He can spare a share for a poor old troll,
For he don't need his shinbone.'

—from "The Stone Troll" in The Fellowship of the Ring [T 2]

As Aragorn and the four hobbit companions made their way towards Rivendell through the Trollshaws, they came upon the three trolls that Bilbo and the dwarves had encountered many years earlier, and had seen turned to stone at daybreak. Sam Gamgee recited a comic poem, "The Stone Troll", on the supposed dangers of kicking a troll, who has a "seat" which is "harder than stone", to cheer everyone up. [T 2] [5]

Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech. That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known... Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder than stone. Unlike the older race of the Twilight they could endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over them. They spoke little, and the only tongue that they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dûr.

Tolkien's description of the trolls in Appendix F "Of Other Races" in The Return of the King [T 3]

Cave trolls attacked the Fellowship in Moria. One had dark greenish scales, black blood, and a hide so thick that when Boromir struck it in the arm his sword was notched. However, Frodo was able to impale the "toeless" foot of the same troll with the enchanted dagger Sting. [T 4]

Mountain trolls wielded the great battering ram Grond to shatter the gates of Minas Tirith. [T 5] They fought using clubs and round shields at the Battle of the Morannon. [T 6] [6] Sauron bred mountain and cave trolls, [6] and developed the more intelligent Olog-hai that were not vulnerable to sunlight. [7]

Snow trolls are mentioned only in the story of Helm Hammerhand. When Helm went out during the Long winter clad in white to ambush his enemies, he was described as looking like a snow-troll. [T 7]

The Trollshaws is a wooded region, lying north of the East Road between the rivers Hoarwell and Bruinen, where Bilbo encountered the trolls. It is not named in the text of either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but appears on the latter's map of Middle-earth drawn by Christopher Tolkien. Described as "the Trolls' wood" in the main text, the name "Trollshaws" is derived from troll + shaw, an archaic term for a thicket or small wood. [8]

The Silmarillion

Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered...

—from "Nirnaeth Arnoediad" in The Silmarillion [T 8]

Morgoth, the evil Vala, created trolls in the First Age of Middle-earth. [T 9] They were strong and vicious but stupid; as in The Hobbit, they turned to stone in sunlight. [6] During the wars of Beleriand, Gothmog (the Lord of Balrogs) had a bodyguard of trolls. During the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, in which Morgoth defeated the united armies of Elves, Men, and Dwarves, the great warrior Húrin, a Man, faced Gothmog's trolls to protect the retreat of the Elven king Turgon. Morgoth's order to Gothmog to capture Húrin alive allowed Húrin to kill all the trolls. [T 8] Many trolls died in the War of Wrath, but some survived and joined Sauron, the greatest surviving servant of Morgoth. [T 10] [T 8]

Origins

In Norse mythology, the god Thor talked to the dwarf Alviss to prevent him from marrying his daughter Thrudr; at dawn Alviss turns to stone. Drawing by W. G. Collingwood, 1908 All-wise answers Thor.jpg
In Norse mythology, the god Thor talked to the dwarf Alviss to prevent him from marrying his daughter Þrúðr; at dawn Alviss turns to stone. Drawing by W. G. Collingwood, 1908

In Germanic mythology, trolls are a kind of giant, along with rísar, jötnar , and þursar; the names are variously applied to large monstrous beings, sometimes as synonyms. [9] [10] The idea that such monsters must be below ground before dawn dates back to the Elder Edda of Norse mythology, where in the Alvíssmál, the god Thor keeps the dwarf Alviss (not a troll) talking until dawn, and sees him turn to stone. [11] [12] [13]

Tom Shippey, a Tolkien scholar, writes that The Hobbit's audience in 1937 were familiar with trolls from fairy tale collections such as those of Grimm, and Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norwegian Folktales ; Tolkien's use of monsters of different kinds – orcs, trolls, and a balrog in Moria – made that journey "a descent into hell". [13] Attebery writes that Trolls thus moved from being grim Norse ogres to more sympathetic modern humanoids. [3] In her view, Tolkien's trolls are based on the ogre type, but with two "incarnations": ancient trolls, "creatures of dull and lumpish nature" in Tolkien's words, [T 11] unable to speak; and the malicious giants of strength and courage bred by Sauron with "enough intelligence to present a real danger". [3] The scholar of English Edward Risden agrees that Tolkien's later trolls appear far more dangerous than those of The Hobbit, losing, too, "the [moral] capacity to relent"; he comments that in Norse mythology, trolls are "normally female and strongly associated with magic", while in the Norse sagas the trolls were physically strong and superhuman in battle. [14]

Christina Fawcett, a scholar of English, writes that Tolkien synthesises materials from different eras, so his writing and his creatures can take on different qualities, from playful to monstrous; his hill-trolls "while still threatening, are primarily comic and slow-witted". [7] On the other hand, when Gandalf outwits them, these same trolls are seen as "monstrous, a warning against vice, captured forever in stone for their greed and anger." [7] All the same, Fawcett cautions that Tolkien uses tradition selectively, transferring the more positive attributes of Norse trolls, including being rich and generous, to hobbits. [7]

Analysis

Trolls in The Hobbit

Tolkien based details such as the trolls' tiredness with mutton on William Morris's travels in Iceland. Drawing of Morris cooking in Iceland c. 1870 by Edward Burne-Jones William Morris cooking in Iceland by Edward Burne-Jones.jpg
Tolkien based details such as the trolls' tiredness with mutton on William Morris's travels in Iceland. Drawing of Morris cooking in Iceland c. 1870 by Edward Burne-Jones

Shippey criticises Tolkien's class-based depiction of the trolls and goblins in The Hobbit, writing that the trolls were too close to labourers, just as the goblins were to munitions workers. Shippey notes, too, Tolkien's storytelling technique here, observing that making the troll's purse (which Bilbo attempts to steal) able to speak blurs the line between the ordinary and the magical. [16]

Marjorie Burns, a scholar of English literature, writes that the trolls' tiredness with eating mutton every day matches the fantasy writer and designer William Morris's account of his travels in Iceland in the early 1870s, one of many Middle-earth features that follows Morris, including the existence of trolls: Morris mentioned visiting places called Tröllakirkja ("Trollchurch") and Tröllahals ("Trollneck"). Burns notes, too, that the adventure with the three trolls combines Bilbo's fear of being eaten with the temptation of the "fine toothsome smell" of roast mutton. [15]

The critic Gregory Hartley notes that while in The Hobbit, Tolkien's trolls were still much like those of Norse mythology, "archetypal, stereotypical ... basking in unexamined sentience", [2] in The Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings, "Tolkien undertook the difficult task of melding fairy tale with epic, which was in turn bonded with the Christian mythos. Characters and creatures began functioning on a multiplicity of registers." [2] The entertainingly "light-hearted informality" of The Hobbit's Cockney-speaking trolls thus gave way to the "more bestial trolls" of the later works. [2] Hartley comments that the redaction effort that Tolkien threw himself into for his legendarium was driven by the way he had composed The Hobbit; and that the resulting "rich, curious roles" that trolls and other beasts play in Middle-earth would not have existed without it. [2]

Speech, sentience, and souls

Tolkien's wordless trolls have been compared to Grendel, a monster in Beowulf. Illustration by J. R. Skelton, 1908 Stories of beowulf grendel.jpg
Tolkien's wordless trolls have been compared to Grendel, a monster in Beowulf . Illustration by J. R. Skelton, 1908

Fawcett suggests that Tolkien's "roaring Troll" in The Return of the King reflects the Beowulf monster Grendel's "[fiery] eye and terrible screaming." [7] Noting that Tolkien compares them to beasts as they "came striding up, roaring like beasts ... bellowing", she observes that they "remain wordless warriors, like Grendel", although they are sentient, with intelligence and a single language, unlike the varied tongues of Tolkien's orcs. [7]

Critics including Fawcett and Hartley note that by making all the beasts in The Hobbit talk, Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, had created a serious problem for himself: if trolls and other monsters were supposed to be sentient, they would in Christian terms have souls and be redeemable rather than wholly evil. [7] [2] Tolkien acknowledged this keenly-felt question: "Of course ... when you make Trolls speak [Tolkien's emphasis] you are giving them a power, which in our world (probably) connotes the possession of a 'soul'." [T 12] Fawcett distinguishes the approach of Tolkien's narrator, who treats trolls as "wholly monstrous", from his "translator's notes" which take "a slightly more balanced view". [7] She states that Tolkien adopts a similar multiplicity of viewpoints on the in-fiction creation of trolls: Frodo tells Sam that the Shadow cannot create "real new things of its own", but all the same, she writes, the "stone-bred mockery" seems very much alive. This is, Fawcett writes, in contrast to Tolkien's intelligent dragons, which are straightforwardly a created species with the power of speech, but certainly monsters; and in contrast to orcs which, as corrupted elves, do have souls. She concludes that Tolkien's linking of souls to speech "complicates these monstrous races". [7]

Tolkien had another conceptual problem with the existence of evil creatures, as he believed that while good could create, evil could not. So he considered whether his evil creatures could have been corrupted from sentient beings, and whether they could breed, writing various and contradictory explanations of their origins. [7] [17] In The Two Towers, the leader of the Ents, Treebeard, remarks that trolls were "made ... in mockery of Ents", as Orcs were of Elves. [T 13] [18] [T 12] Friedhelm Schneidewind, writing in the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , states the precise origin of trolls "perhaps from giant apes but possibly from Men, Orcs, or 'Spirits'" is not given by Tolkien, but like Orcs, trolls were bred by Melkor and Sauron for their own evil purposes. [19] [7]

Defeat of evil

The Inklings scholar Charles A. Huttar writes that the trolls' presence, alongside orcs and the Balrog, means that "Moria not only houses inert obstacles but active monsters". [20] Burns notes that with the destruction of Sauron, trolls, like the rest of Sauron's minions, were scattered in defeat, though some survived by hiding in the hills. In Burns's view, this makes Tolkien appear both optimistic, since evil can be defeated, and pessimistic, as that defeat is never absolute. [21]

Country folk music

The Tolkien scholar David Bratman writes that even though there is no sheet music in Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, we do "surprisingly" have "a very good idea" of how some of it should sound. [22] In 1952, Tolkien recited part of The Lord of the Rings for George Sayer to record, and sang Sam Gamgee's song of the Stone Troll, unaccompanied and in a "rough and untrained" voice; but as Bratman comments, "but surely so was Sam's." [22] Sayer states in the liner notes of the LP album of the recordings that Tolkien sang the song to "an old English folk-tune called The Fox and Hens." Bratman states that this is a variant of "The Fox and the Goose" or "The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night". [lower-alpha 1] [22] He comments that Tolkien sings in a major key, like Cecil Sharp's "southern English melodies" for the song. Bratman finds this "appropriate", noting Tolkien's comment that the Shire "is in fact more or less a Warwickshire village" of around 1897. In short, Bratman concludes, Tolkien intended readers to imagine Hobbits as "English country folk singing English folk songs." [22] The poem appears also in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ; in the Tolkien critic Paul H. Kocher's words, it achieves a certain "grisly slapstick". [5]

Adaptations

Film

A cave-troll in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring Cave troll.jpg
A cave-troll in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring

Trolls are replaced by "Groans" in Gene Deitch's 1967 animated short film adaptation of The Hobbit. [24]

In Rankin/Bass's animated 1977 adaptation of The Hobbit, the trolls were voiced by Paul Frees, Jack DeLeon, and Don Messick, who all also voiced other characters. [25]

Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings follows the book faithfully in its depiction of the encounter with the cave troll in the Chamber, though the cave troll's foot has toes. Glenn Gaslin, reviewing the film on Slate , describes a clip from the film as "of ravenous trolls, [which] does no justice to Tolkien's darker elements". [26]

Trolls appear in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. In The Fellowship of the Ring , Bilbo Baggins recounts his altercation with the three stone-trolls and later on, the four hobbits and Aragorn are shown resting in the shelter of the petrified trolls. The location used was Piopio, Waitomo District, in New Zealand. [27] In the mines of Moria, a single cave troll, animated in software, is among the attackers and is depicted with two toes. [28] [29]

An armoured troll approaches Aragorn during the Battle of the Morannon in The Return of the King Trollaragorn2.jpg
An armoured troll approaches Aragorn during the Battle of the Morannon in The Return of the King

In The Return of the King , trolls fight in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, [30] and Aragorn fights an armoured troll in the Battle of the Morannon, a departure from the book; [31] [32] Jackson had at one stage intended Aragorn to fight the Dark Lord Sauron in person, but "wisely" reduced this to combat with a troll. [33]

Trolls as they appear in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, at Te Papa Trolls from The Hobbit in Te Papa (cropped).jpg
Trolls as they appear in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , at Te Papa

In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey the three stone trolls appear as in Tolkien's book. The trolls are portrayed through voice and motion capture. Bert is performed by Mark Hadlow, Tom is performed by William Kircher, and William is performed by Peter Hambleton. [34]

In The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies , trolls appear in Azog's army as shock troops. Some of the trolls have catapults mounted on their backs while others have bladed shields and other strange weaponry, such as one troll who had flails sutured to its limbs. Behind the scenes, Peter Jackson's design team added trolls to the orc army, saying that they were a "natural extension of the orcs' forces". [35] [36]

Games

Trolls have featured in many video games set in Middle-earth, including The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth , [37] The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II , The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age , [38] and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest . [39] In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king , the Angmar faction has a hill-troll hero named Rogash (voiced by Gregg Berger), [40] [41] and an Olog-hai named Brûz the Chopper (voiced by Gideon Emery) is important to the plot of Middle-earth: Shadow of War . [42]

Middle-earth trolls have appeared in tabletop role-playing games; for example, the core book for Middle-earth Role Playing , published by Iron Crown Enterprises, included rules for Normal Trolls, Olog-hai (or Black Trolls), and Half-Trolls, [43] and the publisher released an adventure module called Trolls of the Misty Mountains . [44] Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game includes trolls, while Games Workshop produce a selection of troll miniatures. [45] [46] [47] [48] [49]

Notes

  1. ↑ The melody can be heard on YouTube. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandalf</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.

In the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs by combining meanings and myths from Old Norse and Old English. In Norse mythology, a vargr is a wolf, especially the wolf Fenrir that destroyed the god Odin in the battle of Ragnarök, and the wolves Sköll and Hati, Fenrir's children, who perpetually chase the Sun and Moon. In Old English, a wearh is an outcast who may be strangled to death.

Thorin Oakenshield is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit. Thorin is the leader of the Company of Dwarves who aim to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon. He is the son of Thráin II, grandson of Thrór, and becomes King of Durin's Folk during their exile from Erebor. Thorin's background is further elaborated in Appendix A of Tolkien's 1955 novel The Return of the King, and in Unfinished Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonely Mountain</span> Fictional mountain home of dwarves and dragon in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes. In The Lord of the Rings, the mountain is called by the Sindarin name Erebor. The Lonely Mountain is the destination of the protagonists, including the titular Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and is the scene of the novel's climax.

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.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, Man and Men denote humans, whether male or female, in contrast to Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other humanoid races. Men are described as the second or younger people, created after the Elves, and differing from them in being mortal. Along with Ents and Dwarves, these are the "free peoples" of Middle-earth, differing from the enslaved peoples such as Orcs.

A Balrog is a powerful demonic monster in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, where the Fellowship of the Ring encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Mines of Moria. Balrogs appear also in Tolkien's The Silmarillion and his legendarium. Balrogs are tall and menacing beings who can shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow. They are armed with fiery whips "of many thongs", and occasionally use long swords.

<i>Unfinished Tales</i> 1980 collection of unfinished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles, but are much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms. Elsewhere, the Eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, the Battle of the Morannon or the Battle of the Black Gate, is the final confrontation in the War of the Ring. Gondor and its allies send a small army ostensibly to challenge Sauron at the entrance to his land of Mordor; he supposes that they have with them the One Ring and mean to use it to defeat him. In fact, the Ring is being carried by the hobbits Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee into Mordor to destroy it in Mount Doom, and the army is moving to distract Sauron from them. Before the battle, a nameless leader, the "Mouth of Sauron", taunts the leaders of the army with the personal effects of Frodo and Sam. Battle is joined, but just as it seems the army of Gondor will be overwhelmed, the Ring is destroyed, and the forces of Sauron lose heart. Mount Doom erupts, and Sauron's tower, Barad-dûr, collapses, along with the Black Gate. The army of Gondor returns home victorious, the War of the Ring won.

Balin is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth. A Dwarf, he is an important supporting character in The Hobbit, and is mentioned in The Fellowship of the Ring. As the Fellowship travel through the underground realm of Moria, they find Balin's tomb and the Dwarves' book of records, which tells how Balin founded a colony there, becoming Lord of Moria, and that the colony was overrun by orcs.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the real-world history and notable fictional elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe. It covers materials created by Tolkien; the works on his unpublished manuscripts, by his son Christopher Tolkien; and films, games and other media created by other people.

The fictional races and peoples that appear in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth include the seven listed in Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings: Elves, Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents, Orcs and Trolls, as well as spirits such as the Valar and Maiar. Other beings of Middle-earth are of unclear nature such as Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle-earth</span> Continent in Tolkiens legendarium

Middle-earth is the setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology and Middangeard in Old English works, including Beowulf. Middle-earth is the human-inhabited world, that is, the central continent of the Earth, in Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set entirely in Middle-earth. "Middle-earth" has also become a short-hand term for Tolkien's legendarium, his large body of fantasy writings, and for the entirety of his fictional world.

Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordor</span> Evil land in J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Ring</span> Magical ring in The Lord of the Rings

The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story The Hobbit (1937) as a magic ring that grants the wearer invisibility. Tolkien changed it into a malevolent Ring of Power and re-wrote parts of The Hobbit to fit in with the expanded narrative. The Lord of the Rings describes the hobbit Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the Ring and save Middle-earth.

Tolkien's monsters are the evil beings, such as Orcs, Trolls, and giant spiders, who oppose and sometimes fight the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Tolkien was an expert on Old English, especially Beowulf, and several of his monsters share aspects of the Beowulf monsters; his Trolls have been likened to Grendel, the Orcs' name harks back to the poem's orcneas, and the dragon Smaug has multiple attributes of the Beowulf dragon. The European medieval tradition of monsters makes them either humanoid but distorted, or like wild beasts, but very large and malevolent; Tolkien follows both traditions, with monsters like Orcs of the first kind and Wargs of the second. Some scholars add Tolkien's immensely powerful Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron to the list, as monstrous enemies in spirit as well as in body. Scholars have noted that the monsters' evil nature reflects Tolkien's Roman Catholicism, a religion which has a clear conception of good and evil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tolkien and the Norse</span> Theme in Tolkiens Middle-earth writings

Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages of Middle-earth from many sources. Among these are Norse mythology, seen in his Dwarves, Wargs, Trolls, Beorn and the barrow-wight, places such as Mirkwood, characters including the Wizards Gandalf and Saruman and the Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron derived from the Norse god Odin, magical artefacts like the One Ring and Aragorn's sword Andúril, and the quality that Tolkien called "Northern courage". The powerful Valar, too, somewhat resemble the pantheon of Norse gods, the Æsir.

References

Primary

  1. 1 2 Tolkien 1937, ch. 2 "Roast Mutton"
  2. 1 2 Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 12, "Flight to the Ford"
  3. ↑ Tolkien 1955 Appendix F "Of Other Races"
  4. ↑ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"
  5. ↑ Tolkien 1955, book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor"
  6. ↑ Tolkien 1955, book 5, ch. 10, "The Black Gate Opens"
  7. ↑ Tolkien 1955, Appendix A. II "The House of Eorl"
  8. 1 2 3 Tolkien 1977, ch. 20 "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad", p. 195
  9. ↑ Tolkien 1955 Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of Other Races"
  10. ↑ Tolkien 2007, ch. 2 "The Battle of Unnumbered Tears"
  11. ↑ Tolkien 1955, Appendix F, I, "Of Other Races", "Trolls"
  12. 1 2 Carpenter 2023 , #153, to Peter Hastings, September 1954.
  13. ↑ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 4, "Treebeard"

Secondary

  1. ↑ The idea that trolls were made in mockery of ents------https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Trolls#:~:text=Their%20exact%20origins%20are%20unknown,were%20as%20inarticulate%20as%20animals.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hartley, Gregory (2014). "Civilized goblins and Talking Animals: How The Hobbit Created Problems of Sentience for Tolkien". In Bradford Lee Eden (ed.). The Hobbit and Tolkien's mythology : essays on revisions and influences. Vol. Part III: Themes. McFarland. ISBN   978-0-7864-7960-3. OCLC   889426663.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Attebery, Jennifer Eastman (1996). "The Trolls of Fiction: Ogres or Warm Fuzzies?". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts . 7 (1 (25)): 61–74. JSTOR   43308256. The comedy is conveyed chiefly through the trolls' lower class British dialect and their clumsy handling of little Bilbo
  4. ↑ Stevens, David; Stevens, Carol D. (2008). "The Hobbit". In Bloom, Harold (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien. Bloom's Modern Critical Views. Bloom's Literary Criticism. pp. 17–26. ISBN   978-1-60413-146-8.
  5. 1 2 Kocher, Paul (1974) [1972]. Master of Middle-earth: The Achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien. Penguin Books. pp. 190–191. ISBN   0140038779.
  6. 1 2 3 Krege, Wolfgang (1999). Handbuch der Weisen von Mittelerde[Handbook of the Sages of Middle-earth] (in German). Klett-Cotta Verlag  [ de ]. p. 348-349. ISBN   3-608-93521-5.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Fawcett, Christina (February 2014). J.R.R. Tolkien and the morality of monstrosity (PhD). University of Glasgow (PhD thesis). pp. 29, 97, 125–131.
  8. ↑ Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. Houghton Mifflin. p. lxiii. ISBN   978-0-00-720907-1.
  9. ↑ Simek, Rudolf (2005). Trolle (trolls) [Middle-earth: Tolkien and Germanic Mythology] (in German). C. H. Beck. pp. 124–128. ISBN   978-3-406-52837-8.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  10. ↑ Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse myth and legend. Cassell. p. 197. ISBN   978-0304345205.
  11. ↑ Shippey, Tom (1982). The Road to Middle-Earth . Grafton (HarperCollins). p. 69. ISBN   0261102753.
  12. ↑ Burns, Marjorie (2007). "Old Norse literature". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia . Routledge. pp. 473–479. ISBN   978-0-41596-942-0.
  13. 1 2 Shippey, Tom (2001). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century . HarperCollins. pp. 12, 19–20. ISBN   978-0261-10401-3.
  14. ↑ Risden, Edward L. (2015). Tolkien's Intellectual Landscape. McFarland. p. 141. ISBN   978-0-7864-9865-9.
  15. 1 2 Burns, Marjorie (2005). Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth. University of Toronto Press. pp. 84, 159–161. ISBN   978-0-8020-3806-7.
  16. ↑ Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Third ed.). HarperCollins. pp. 85–87. ISBN   978-0261102750.
  17. ↑ Shippey, Tom (2001). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century . HarperCollins. p. 265. ISBN   978-0261-10401-3.
  18. ↑ Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. HarperCollins. pp. 76, 389. ISBN   978-0-00-720907-1.
  19. ↑ Schneidewind, Friedhelm (2013) [2007]. "Biology of Middle-earth". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment . Routledge. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-415-86511-1.
  20. ↑ Huttar, Charles A. (1975). Lobdell, Jared (ed.). Hell and The City: Tolkien and the Traditions of Western Literature. Open Court. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-87548-303-0.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  21. ↑ Burns, Marjorie (2005). Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth. University of Toronto Press. p. 176. ISBN   978-0-8020-3806-7.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Bratman, David (2010). "Liquid Tolkien: Music, Tolkien, Middle-earth, and More Music". In Eden, Bradford Lee (ed.). Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien. McFarland. pp. 140–170. ISBN   978-0-7864-5660-4.
  23. ↑ Rodgers, Jimmie. "The Fox and the Goose]". The Orchard Enterprises.
  24. ↑ Robb, Brian J.; Simpson, Paul (2013). Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage, and Beyond. Race Point Publishing. p. 4102. ISBN   978-1-93799-427-3.
  25. ↑ The Rankin/Bass Production of The Hobbit (The Complete Original Soundtrack) (Vinyl LP). Buena Vista Records. 1977. 103.
  26. ↑ Gaslin, Glenn (21 November 2001). "Hobbits on Film". Slate . Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  27. ↑ Plush, Hazel (21 September 2017). "10 epic Middle Earth locations that really exist in New Zealand". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  28. ↑ Sibley, Brian (2006). "Quest for the Ring". Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey. HarperCollins. pp. 329–387. ISBN   978-0-00-717558-1.
  29. ↑ Doyle, Audrey (February 2003). "The Two Towers". Computer Graphics World. 26 (2): n.s. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  30. ↑ O'Hehir, Andrew (18 December 2003). "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". Salon.com. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  31. ↑ Evans, Willy (3 March 2018). "15 Secrets You Didn't Know Behind The Making Of Lord Of The Rings". Screenrant. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  32. ↑ Leitch, Thomas (2009). Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 2. ISBN   978-0-8018-9187-8.
  33. ↑ Rateliff, John D. (2011). "Two Kinds of Absence". In Bogstad, Janice M.; Kaveny, Philip E. (eds.). Picturing Tolkien . McFarland. pp. 65–66. ISBN   978-0-7864-8473-7. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28.
  34. ↑ "The Hobbit Then and Now". The Insider. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  35. ↑ Gilsdorf, Ethan (19 December 2014). "Peter Jackson Must Be Stopped". Wired . Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  36. ↑ Falconer, Daniel (2014). The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Chronicles: Art and Design. New York: Harper Design. pp. 217–221. ISBN   978-0-06226-571-5.
  37. ↑ IGN Staff (12 November 2004). "Battle for Middle-Earth - Mordor, Part 2". IGN. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  38. ↑ IGN Staff (21 October 2004). "The Third Age: Forces of Evil". IGN. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  39. ↑ McCarthy, Dave (16 January 2009). "Lord of the Rings Conquest UK Review". IGN. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  40. ↑ Barratt, Charlie (23 August 2006). "LOTR: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king". GamesRadar. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  41. ↑ Adams, Dan (4 November 2006). "The Rise of the Witch-king Hands-on". IGN. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  42. ↑ Graeber, Brendan (15 March 2019). "Shadow of War's Nemesis System Took Things Way Too Far". IGN India. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  43. ↑ Charlton, S. Coleman; Ruemmler, John D. (1986). Middle-earth Role Playing . Ice Crown Enterprises. pp.  17-18. ISBN   978-0915795314.
  44. ↑ Cresswell, John; Cresswell, Mike (1986). Trolls of the Misty Mountains . Iron Crown Enterprises. ISBN   978-0915795499.
  45. ↑ "Mordor Troll Chieftain". Games Workshop. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  46. ↑ "Cave Troll". Games Workshop. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  47. ↑ "Mordor Troll". Games Workshop. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  48. ↑ "Half Trolls". Games Workshop. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  49. ↑ "Hill Troll Chieftain Buhrdur". Games Workshop. Retrieved 18 April 2019.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.