Well mostly that’s true. Most of the races of Middle Earth are characterised with broad strokes that have become incredibly familiar in popular culture. So Elves are longlived, skinny and mystical; Dwarves are short, round Miners with fiery tempers and a love of axes; Orcs are brutish and evil; Men aren’t great at anything special but decent at most things. Hobbits by this standard are stealthy and quick witted. Because Bilbo is, basically.
Geek Syndicate
omably evil and corrupting by it’s very nature. They may have become clichés but their endurance means that they’re powerful and popular ones. I don’t think Tolkien ever meant to be one of the definitive authors of the 20th century, but he undoubtedly is - there are not a lot of people who can claim to have single-handedly dominated what a genre has come to be about. So back to the films then... Oh yes. Right. One of the big plot points of The Lord of the Rings is the One Ring itself, which is found under a mountain range by a hobbit named Bilbo, who wins it in a game of riddles. It turns him invisible. It’s also a huge and powerful elemental force of Evil Will, which doesn’t really come across in The Hobbit and as such, this is probably one of the things the films will have to work on the most. So no guys in Black Cloaks riding dragons then? You mean Nazgul riding “Fell Beasts of the Air”?
all characters die and Giant Spiders, Ogres and Goblins abound. The Hobbit is an adventure story, not a struggle for the Fate of the World. Peter Jackson and his team behind the new films are attempting to close this gap with a load of new material culled from Tolkien’s wider writings - and probably their own imaginations - which is a bit of a delicate balancing act. Well I enjoyed the other films, so you’re saying at worst it’s “more of the same”? Pretty much yes. Cool. We wants it, preciousss.. Stop that. Shan’t! Nasty Hisssss....! know-it-all!
Right. Like that is it? I’ll go get a coffee then...
Matt Farr
Yeah that does sound a little familiar. But Tolkien gets there first - or rather what he lifts and condenses he does so in a coherent way that was quite new. So the trumpets of Gondor, faded remnant of a once noble and shining Empire, echo across the Fantasy Genre alongside the Shadow of Mordor, unfath6
Nerd! Fine. But no, not those guys. There is a huge tonal difference between the earlier children’s work and the later epic and even many of the recurring characters and locations are described differently. It’s a less menacing world for