Hobbit2 - Chapter 01 - An Unexpected Party

[LadyBrooke]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Since no one else has referred to The History of the Hobbit yet, I will mention a few aspects of the book's early stages. The most significant difference is that of nomenclature. The dragon was named "Pryftan", the wizard "Bladorthin", and the chief of the dwarves was - Gandalf! The other dwarf names were as we know them, though bits of dialogue were switched. The goblin king who was killed by Bullroarer Took (simultaneously inventing the game of golf) was Fingolfin!

The different names are easily one of my favorite parts of the History of the Hobbit - especially Fingolfin as the goblin king (I especially love that one as a fanfic author). The curious thing to me is how almost all of these names show up somewhere else in Tolkien's works - Fingolfin and Gandalf are obvious, Bladorthin shows up (for one line) later in The Hobbit. Pryftan seems to be the odd one out, unless somebody else remembers somewhere I've forgotten that Tolkien used it?

Another fascinating aspect is that of magic. I discovered this when researching the dwarven instruments for my book on music. In the early version, Bombur produces a drum from nowhere and Bifur and Bofur turn their walking sticks into clarinets. Why do you think Tolkien removed all references to dwarven magic?

I think that they disappeared because even at this stage, Tolkien's mind was already turning away from such obvious instance of magic by his characters. Most of the instance in the published Hobbit that I can recall involve objects (or Gandalf making his fireworks), and not something like that. Even the instances in Mirkwood seem less in your face then that. I suppose getting a drum from nowhere would be too...I don't know the term, today I would say Harry Potterish, but Tolkien wouldn't have known that. ...and out of place with the rest of the instances in The Hobbit.

I don't know how much future events can be brought in, so I'll leave it at this - considering the other instances of "magic" in the books, I would have considered the musical instruments appearing out of nowhere to be far more elf-magic for the book's time period, and far less dwarven. After all, the main mention of the dwarves' magic in the first chapter of the published book is "...not to speak of the most marvellous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days. So my grandfather’s halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the toy market of Dale was the wonder of the North." Apparently, Dwarves were Middle-earth's answer to the "First Toymaker to the King". ;p

Apologies if the above doesn't make much sense, I'm currently miles away from my copies of History of the Hobbit.