Father Christmas Letters: 1933

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

At least for now, just two short remarks...

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

The main letter and accompanying picture tell a thrilling story of a battle against goblins. This continues what began the previous year and is quite likely inspired by the tales of The Hobbit. Interesting that some of the goblins rode on bats - an early version of the Fell Beasts?!

I thought rather of the bats that came together with the goblins to the Battle of the Five Armies - the connection of bats and goblins seemed, at least at that time still, more or less on equal level as the connection of the goblins and the Wolves. Simply a logical conclusion: mounted goblins have Wolves, but by all logic there could just as well be mounted airborne goblins - who need to have something good to fly on, also some nightly creature, and what is better than a bat. Simple as that.

I don't see any necessary primal connection with the Fell Beast, since Fell Beasts had been, in my opinion, developed in order to make a creepy, a bit off-worldly, awful creature for the Nazgul to ride on. The reason why in LotR the goblins don't ride bats anymore is that it would perhaps feel too fairytale-like, you of course can't have normal-sized bats to do that and gigantic bats are somehow hard to imagine in larger numbers (and they'd have to fit into the caves in the first place). For the same reason the Nazgul aren't riding bats either - they need something more "noble", something more "special" - "exotic", if you wish.

And why do you think NPB is depicted as being so very large in the top picture?

I think it is in order to show him as the "most epic big fighting beast" in comparison to the myriad of small evil creatures.

Four words (and four articles/prepositions ) which have occured to me when seeing this picture: Beorn in the Battle of the Five Armies.

Originally Posted by TH, Chapter 18: The Return Journey

In that last hour Beorn himself had appeared - no one knew how or from where. He came alone, and in bear's shape; and he seemed to have grown almost to giant-size in his wrath. The roar of his voice was like drums and guns; and he tossed wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers.

This is what we have depicted right in front of us - what do you think?