Fattest of the Dwarves

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

I had a similar thought when studying the first chapter of The Hobbit for Music in Middle-earth, but I found an interesting bit of information in The History of the Hobbit:

Tolkien must certainly have known that and I assume he used the name deliberately.

Whoa! Nice one. Well, that makes it clear, then. Not surprising from Tolkien.

Also, playing the drum need not have indicated clumsiness - he would actually have been the one responsible for keeping time so that all musicians would stay together.

Of course. Drum, and drummers, are often underrated in the mind of a common, not specifically musically educated person, though of course they are of utmost importance and it is also nothing simple to play a drum, and a skilled drummer can do things many could dream of... But I think still, in the eyes of many, the simple association of drum with something is such one as "the drummer is unimportant, lazy guy sitting in the background and beating one thing repeatedly".