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Post by Stormrider on Jul 10, 2004 4:58:02 GMT -6
After reading The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, I never pictured the Dwarves as such colorful people. They always seemed tough, rugged, plainly clad, with either white, black, or brown beards.
The Seven Fathers of the Dwarves were created by Aulë in a hall under the mountains in secret and he made them strong and unyielding.
Why are they so colorful (blue and yellow beards, brightly colored cloaks) and talented (with musical instruments!) in The Hobbit?
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Post by Desi Baggins on Jul 10, 2004 7:36:49 GMT -6
Since the dwarves are known for their fondness of jewels, I guess it is a given that they can be wealthy. Thorin does talk about the good days living in Lonely Mountain. I guess they wear the nice bright colors as a way to show off their wealth. Even though at this time they might not be wealthy because Smaug took over, they are still going back and want to show that they possess the same qualities they once had.
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Post by Greenleaf on Jul 10, 2004 9:19:39 GMT -6
From what I remember, the Dwarves usually lived underground, in vast caves inside the mountains, which they hewed and transformed into great halls of splendour and comfort. Consequently, the bright colours of their clothes seem to match their love for jewels and majesty. I admit though that this colourful appearance seems somewhat contradictive to their rather grim and stern characters. But maybe their grimness is due to the hard circumstances at the end of the Third Age. In older days, when they were a rich and prosperous folk, it seems reasonable to assume they were more cheerful and pleasant. The musical instruments they produced in Bilbo's home and their singing might be a confirmation that deep down they were a merry folk who knew how to have fun.
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Post by FIUT on Jul 10, 2004 11:49:13 GMT -6
I keep reminding myself that Tolkien's The Hobbit was first and foremost a work designed to delight and amuse his children. Its characters are drawn "simply," but boldly, and they are coloured much more brightly (metaphorically as well as physically) than their corresponding images in the other, more "adult-oriented" works like The Silmarillion, the LOTR and "The Quest of Erebor" in The Unfinished Tales. In The Hobbit, we see the Dwarves through Bilbo's wondering (childlike) eyes, and, compared to his own lifestyle and the commonplace events of his Shire, these exotic Dwarves are brightly magical indeed.
To further the sense of wonder and add the thrill of celebration to the scene, the Dwarves stage their own lively entertainment in Bilbo's "hole" and bring a sweeping air of adventure into that charming but prosaic place. Music plays a featured role in Tolkien's mythologies -- music starts, shapes, and defines the very growth of his universe -- and in almost all his festal occasions it is used to heighten the sense of wonder, to paint visual images for the characters and the readers, images that transport them and us to other times and other places. The Dwarven melodies (as we will see again at Rivendell where the sorceries of Elven song are even deeper) fill Bilbo's head with the inspiring visions of far off mountains, brilliant stars, and untrod paths that wind their ways through the Wilderness. The magic of such music plays well in Bilbo's mind, and in our's, acting as a preparatory elixir -- "Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking stick."
The fact that these instruments seem to appear from "nowhere" simply adds to the colourful magics: "flutes from somewhere inside their coats; "clarinets, not remarked on before, that just happen to be among the walking sticks; not to mention Dwarf-sized viols and a golden harp... How delightful! Yet on the road all this musical baggage simply disappears, and does not encumber anyone, or impede the "troupe's" rapid transit across the face of Middle-earth.
So, I see all this "outlandish" colour, this bright swirl of exotic, hypnotic musics as a device of delight, a means of capturing the Hobbit Bilbo, and sending him whirling off on a fantasy voyage -- a voyage that also snatches us up as readers, so that we too go hurrying along through the pages, rushing towards the story's end without so much as pausing for a pocket handkerchief.
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Post by Stormrider on Jun 26, 2012 16:28:19 GMT -6
I like how FIUT explained it! If they were to arrive on Bilbo's door step and be expected to be admitted, it would be more soothing to have bright colors and happy dwarves knocking on the door rather than grim, dark clad guests standing there.
This makes me wonder how secretive was this trip? I suppose it did not make much difference in The nutse which was far from the Lonely Mountain; but once they got closer, they may have wanted to change to the dark colors and be less conspicous to watching eyes. But I do not see that the colors were muted at all.
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