It's time to wrap up for cast and crew lead by Peter Jackson in New Zealand, for a few of them to present The Hobbit first movie at San Diego Comic-con 2012 , and it's rather time for me to start my personal journey into The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. December 2012 is not that distant anymore.
This reading is something I planned as soon as I heard Richard Armitage was going to play Thorin Oakenshield. As it has already happened in the latest years, I'm going to approach a genre I've never been interested in , as a total newbie, to follow Mr Armitage's career with due background information and knowledge to be able to enjoy and appreciate every little aspect of his detailed acting. If it is not totally clear yet, I've just confessed I've never read Tolkien's books nor been interested in them so far. You can't imagine how many times my teenage students have asked me to read and teach Tolkien to them, but I've always had to answer : how can I teach something I don't know anything about? They could have taught me much about Tolkien and the world he created on the reverse.
However, it's never too late to start. From now on I'll post about my quest for Tolkien's Thorin from time to time. The account of my reading of The Hobbit will be divided in a few posts. Finally, if you already know everything about the book and its characters, just be patient with me and, if you don't mind, help me to notice things I may not, seen my little experience with the tales from the Middle Earth.
OK! Ready to start. What kind of character is Thorin?
What kind of a leader? What's his journey in The Hobbit like? Chapter 1.
O my! Not a regal entrance for the king of the dwarves, but a funny tumbling down and into the quiet comfortable life of Bilbo Baggins:
"an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo's mat with Bifur, Bofur and Bombur on top of him. For one thing Bombur was immensely fat and heavy. Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said nothing about service, but poor Mr Baggins said he was sorry so many times, that at last he grunted 'pray don't mention it', and stopped frowning" (p.11)
Thorin seems more the parody of a great leader than the impressive portrait of a king here. Nothing to do with the regal appearance he made in Peter Jackson's trailer announcing film one, An Unexpected Journey.
Well, let's read on and forget the film for a while. In the book Thorin has a sky-blue hood with a silver tassel, he asks for some red wine, he talks with Gandalf while the others clear up because he is too important to be engaged in that kind of chores, he blows the most enormous smoke-rings from his pipe. He orders and is obeyed by the dwarves who rush to accomplish his wishes: "Now for some music!"
Thorin plays his harp, "wrapped in a green cloth. It was a beautiful golden harp and when Thorin struck it the music began all at once, so sudden and sweet that Bilbo forgot everything else". (p. 14)
They sing and play a melancholic tune, "Far over the misty mountains cold" and, afterwards, Thorin gives his first official speech. He sounds loquacious, refined but slightly pointless:
"Gandalf, dwarves and Mr Baggins! We are met together in the house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this most excellent and audacious hobbit - may the hair on his toes never fall out! All praise to his wine and ale! ( ... ) We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices. We shall soon before break of day start on our long journey, a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return. It is a solemn moment "(p. 17)
And solemn Thorin sounds in his speech especially when he warns all the participants of the dangers they are facing undertaking that journey: they are risking their lives. This is something we must positively acknowledge: Thorin is a born-leader. No fear is conveyed through his words, no hesitancy.
After they have a look at the precious map Thorin's ancestors gave to Gandalf, which will be indispensable on their forthcoming journey, Thorin gives his second, very long, official speech:
"There was a most specially greedy, strong ad wicked worm called Smaug. One day he flew up into the air and came south. The first we heard of it was a noise like a hurricane coming from the North, and the pine-trees on the Mountain creaking and cracking in the wind. Some of the dwarves who happened to be outside ( I was one luckily...) Well, from a good way off we saw the dragon settle on our mountain in a spout of flame. Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire" (p.23)
"There was a most specially greedy, strong ad wicked worm called Smaug. One day he flew up into the air and came south. The first we heard of it was a noise like a hurricane coming from the North, and the pine-trees on the Mountain creaking and cracking in the wind. Some of the dwarves who happened to be outside ( I was one luckily...) Well, from a good way off we saw the dragon settle on our mountain in a spout of flame. Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire" (p.23)
The narration goes on (pp.22 - 24) with cinematic, almost graphic precision. The description of the distant catastrophe is powerfully before our mind's eyes. Thorin sounds painful more than resentful, he is concentrated in the narration of the events more than on his own feelings. He is a witness of the facts, but he just mentions himself once, in brackets.
If his first speech might have sounded pointless, now we have a really touching, gripping report of dragon Smaug's attack to their lands and caves and treasures. Through his words, we discover Thorin is a dispossessed king yearning to go back home after a long tragic exile, he is an outcast longing to go back to his fatherland. That makes him a romantic character from now on who doesn't search for pity, but for support and practical help from Mr Baggins: "Aren't you the burglar? And isn't sitting on the door-step long your job, not to speak of getting inside the door?"
Then Thorin orders his breakfast : "I like six eggs with my ham, when starting on a journey: fried not poached, and mind you don't break 'em" and goes to sleep in the best bedroom in Bilbo's house. The hobbit can hear him humming to himself: "Far over the misty mountains cold..."
I suspect we'll see much of the romantic, sensitive leader of the dwarves and very little of his funny, haughty ego in the two Hobbit movies. At least, this has become my conviction after watching the trailer. Thorin action figure instead hasn't got a very reassuring look! (HERE)
