1. Issue52013$35.00CDN

2. Baggins by David DelaGardelle

3. Editor in Chief L. Lara Sookoo
Submissions Editor Jo-Anna Dueck
Managing Editor Alexandra-Felicity King
Editing Team Stephanie Chan, Elijah David,
Julie Dobbins, Paulina Gibson,
Laura Hwee, Martha Kosyfi
Gerda Marz, Jessica Moritz,
Albert Nerino
Production Editor Laura Hwee
Website Stephanie Chan, Laura Hwee
notes ...
What better way to celebrate our fifth birthday than with
an issue about The Hobbit! We delve into a variety of
ways to approach the book, as well as explore various
character aspects of well-known hobbits. There are also
thoughts on new versions of the story as it makes its way
to film and to a newly illustrated edition.
Thank you so much to our contributors. Through your
eyes, we’re able to look at The Hobbit from the perspec-
tives of those who dramatize Middle-earth, who write
about this story and the greater realm to which it be-
longs, and those who bring the story to life through their
new and wonderful artistic visions.
Always, always, there is a magnificent team to thank. A
huge thank-you to our Managing Editor, Alexandra-Fe-
licity King who has done a brilliant job of bringing Issue
5 together in the most thoughtful and careful way pos-
sible. This issue would be nothing but scattered papers
without you! Another giant thanks to Jo-Anna Dueck,
our Silver Leaves Submissions Editor, for co-ordinat-
ing with our contributors and keeping things running
smoothly. Thank you and many ((hugs)) to our fantastic
editing team for contributing your time, effort and skill
to this effort. Since we’re growing up a bit (we’re not
close to being out of our tweens yet, though!) you will
notice a new look to the journal. All of our features and
content are the same but we’ve freshened things up a
bit. This beautiful new reading experience was designed
by our Production Editor, Laura Hwee, to whom I am
very grateful for her care, wisdom and vision. It’s such
an honour to be part of this staff. Hope you are proud
of the result of your wonderful work.
As the tale of Bilbo Baggins makes its way to new formats
and versions, we can’t help but search for the heart of
the story. And, as we search, we are reminded that you
cannot come to the end of things to say or ways to be
inspired by Tolkien and his works. There will never be too
many ways to celebrate simplicity, fellowship, honour,
magic, wonder, or imagination. The very things at the
heart of this story lie at the heart of our own stories. How
can we tire of exploring this landscape?
All that’s left to say, dear reader, is “Thag you very buch”
for joining us on this adventure. We’ll be looking for you
down the Road at the next inn. May the hair on your toes
never fall out, and may the stars shine ever upon you.
Lara Sookoo, Editor in Chief
Silver Leaves ... from the White Tree of Hope (ISSN 1913-0384)
is published by Oloris Publishing, a division of Middle-earth Net-
work, LLC. The artwork so powerfully gracing the front and back
covers of this issue is “Gandalf approaching Bag End,” by David
Wyatt. Our thanks to David for generously allowing us to feature
his artwork. Regular features in Silver Leaves:
Echoes of Middle-earth—Various individuals reflect on J.R.R.
Tolkien and his works, and how they have influenced their lives.
Rangers and Stewards—Stories and articles ranging from indi-
vidual acts of courage and caring to larger issues that impact our
world and our lives.
Reviews—Book, music, movie, game and live event reviews by
our readers.
Many Branches—Groves of fandoms abound, each one filled
with branches whispering stories, your stories. Here is where we
capture those stories and tell them throughout the pages of the
journal.
In the community—Reflections, announcements, discussions
or feedback submitted to us or from our community via e-mail
or Facebook or Twitter.
Everyone is welcome to submit to any of our features by sending
an email to Silver.Leaves.Journal@gmail.com. To submit articles,
essays, creative writing or artwork, please see the guidelines
below.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
NON-FICTION: Articles and essays may be up to 2,500 words in
length. An author who wishes to submit more than 2,500 words
is welcome to contact the Editor about a possible accommoda-
tion in this matter. Please follow the Modern Language Associa-
tion (MLA) referencing style (http://www.mla.org/style). Please
submit your file in Word format (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf).
You may submit a text file (.txt) but you will lose any formatting
you have applied to the document.
CREATIVE WRITING: Creative writing must not contain any ma-
terial protected by copyright. This includes character and place
names from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, including, but not lim-
ited to, names in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. For more information on
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This publication is intended for all audiences. We will not accept
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ART: Silver Leaves can accommodate artwork up to 8”x10”. The
cover will be full colour. Artwork for the cover will be selected by
the Editors. Fantasy- and mythology-inspired images will be ac-
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You may submit your artwork as a colour (CMYK) file but please
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Mail: 1201-77 Davisville Avenue, Toronto ON, M4S 1G4, Canada
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Contact SL: Silver.Leaves.Journal@gmail.com
Contact Oloris Publishing: info@olorispublishing.com
Upcoming Issue: The theme for Silver Leaves:
Issue 6 will be “Music in Middle-earth.”

4. Contents
1 Tolkienesque Reverberations / John Cockshaw
3 A Hobbit Awaits / Bernadette Barnes
4 Timeline of Hobbits in Middle-earth /
Mark Bednarowski
7 Plight of the Dwarves / Mark Bednarowski
11 A Wizard for All Seasons / Mark Bednarowski
16 Keen on Tolkien / Sultana Raza
17 The Spell of the Mead-Hall: In Praise of Nicol
Williamson’s Dramatic Reading of The Hobbit
/ David Rowe
19 Dwarves Acrostic / Kathryn Darden
20 A Clear and Distant Light: Beowulf and J.R.R.
Tolkien / Sarah Bauerle
25 Ever Skies / Missy M. McClure
26 Re-imagining The Hobbit: An Interview with
Jemima Catlin / Anastasia Green
28 Concerning Hobbits / P.R. Miller
29 The Elves of Rivendell: A Comparison of the Manuscript and
Published Hobbit / Kelly Renée Orazi
31 Evanescence / Kris Swank
32 All Middle-earth’s a Stage / Constance G.J. Wagner
37 A Sonnet for Hobbits / P.R. Miller
37 Elthaleen / Kris Swank
38 Escaping the Nursery: The Hobbit as a Coming-of-Age Novel
/ Jonathon Svendsen
42 Halfling from the Shire / Kathryn Darden
44 “It was Pity that Stayed His Hand” / Anne Marie Gazzolo
49 HobbitCon Report / Abigail Fielder
51 Fool of a Took / James Spahn
52 Frodo and Faramir: Mirrors of Chivalry / Constange G.J. Wagner
58 Mushrooms / Fortinbras Proudfoot
59 The Golden Tree / Fortinbras Proudfoot
60 Frodo Walking Under Starlight / Dan Hollingshead
62 Archetype and Signature: Tolkien and the Vedic Poets / Kelly Cowling

5. 64 Evening at the Edge of the Shire / John Cockshaw
66 Medium Rare and Back Again: An Interview with Heath Dill / Stephanie Chan
67 Goblins’ Banquet / Kris Swank
68 The Last Letter of Peter Morgan / James Spahn
70 Gardening / Bernadette Barnes
71 Spring, Cloaked / Robyn Stone
72 Half-Knight / Kris Swank
72 The Assignment / P.R. Miller
73 An Unexpected Hero / Ryan Marotta
78 The Book of Oxford / Mark Bednarowski
81 Brave: A Bedtime Poem for Young Hobbits / Constance G.J. Wagner
82 Finding My Way to Middle-earth / Joe Gilronan
85 Battle of the Mavens: A Call for Truce / Kathryn M. Colby
88 Her Face in Dreams / Kathryn Darden
89 Daring To Dream Out Loud: Kate Madison and Born of Hope / Constance G.J. Wagner
94 Shire dwelling and a well-kept garden / John Cockshaw
95 Tolkien’s Legacy / Sultana Raza
96 An Unexpected Reviewer / Lee Shamblin
98 Review of Born of Hope / Lewie Nerino
99 Over the Edge of the Wild: A Review of The Hobbit Illustrated by Jemima Catlin / Lara Sookoo
101 A New Year Begins / Alicia Angst
102 The Fellowship of the Journal
105 Many Meetings
Artwork
Front & Back Cover
Gandalf at Bag End / David Wyatt
Inside Front Cover
Baggins / David DelaGardelle
ii Balin / David DelaGardelle
ii-iii The Last Bridge / Jef Murray
iv Thorin Icon / Jay Johnstone
2 Tree-herder / John Cockshaw
6 Map of Hobbit Migrations / Mark
Bednarowski

6. E
9 Timeline of the Dwarves in The
Hobbit / Emil Johansson
10 Dwarves at Bilbo’s House /
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya
11 Gandalf / Samantha Gillogly
13 Gandalf icon / Jay Johnstone
15 Bilbo and Gandalf / Jef Murray
16-17 Hidden Valley / Sultana Raza
18 Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
/ Danielle Storey
19 Dwarf / Jef Murray
20-21 Bard the Bowman / Danielle Storey
28 On Woodland Trails / Jef Murray
29 The Elvenking / Jenny Dolfen
30 After the Elves I / Graeme Skinner
30 After the Elves II / Graeme Skinner
36 Queer Lodgings / Jef Murray
38-39 Bilbo and the Arkenstone /
Cassandra Stevens
40 Bilbo and the Eagle / Jef Murray
43 Barrel Rider / Jef Murray
44 The Riddle Game / Jef Murray
46 The Lockholes / eaneli
48 Lonely Mountain / Jef Murray
51 Hobbit Feet / Colleen Doran
52-53 Dawn at Lake-town / Jef Murray
56-57 Map of Middle-earth / Tomasz Kowal
59 The Golden Tree / Fortinbras
Proudfoot
60-61 Frodo Walking Under Starlight
/ Dan Hollingshead
62 Gandalf Head Icon / Jay Johnstone
65 Evening at the Edge of the Shire
/ John Cockshaw
67 Old Stone / Jef Murray
70-71 Beorn / Jef Murray
72 Thorin / Dave Delagardelle
73 Bilbo Icon / Jay Johnstone
74 Conversation with Smaug / Jef
Murray
75 Bilbo Meets Gollum / Alberto
Ramirez Jr.
77 Thorin Icon / Jay Johnstone
79 Mage of Rhosgobel / Jef Murray
81 The Legend of Mad Baggins / Daisy
Brambletoes
82-83Haymaking: The last Harvest /
Joe Gilronan
83 A Hobbit’s Adventure - Late for an
Appointment / Joe Gilronan
83 An Unexpected Adventure: The
Story Begins / Joe Gilronan
84 Beorn / Danielle Storey
94 Shire Dwelling and a Well-kept
Garden / John Cockshaw
96 Roast Mutton / Danielle Storey
98 Rhosgobel Doorway / Jef Murray
100 Home Again / Jef Murray
103 Hobbiton / Jef Murray
104 Gandalf’s gear / Emil Johansson
110 Radagast / Jef Murray
Inside Back Cover
Smaug Comes to the Lonely
Mountain / Chris Mills

7. 1
Issue5:TheHobbit|
My art practice is fixed upon the notion that
Middle-earth emits echoes into the real-
world. That is its vital component. These echoes
are manifest as qualities of the ‘Tolkienesque’ to be
found reverberating off architecture in the world
at large and reflecting off existing landscape. It is
a method of working, but it is also a means for
me of extending the enjoyment of J.R.R Tolkien’s
Middle-earth. These echoes are visual occurrences
to be swiftly photographed or quickly lost, and they
find their way to me as much as I am on the hunt
for them. The beauty and the pleasure are in the
pursuit, the strategic mode of looking, and the ro-
mantic mode of listening to the world to seek out
its visual treasures. Like the most intriguing echoes
when they are often faint, but potent enough to be
embellished with imaginative power. The eye and
the ear must forever be open for the way to Middle-
earth, catching reverberations as like soft, repeating
river ripples in sheltered, tree-padded woodlands.
Through the powerful and realistic written de-
scription of landscape, Tolkien’s Middle-earth
echoes strongly in the real world and it becomes
an equally real proposition to draw elements of Tol-
kien and Middle-earth’s landscape from the every-
day world. I primarily look to the heavy-set hills, the
high-peering peaks of many rugged-looking land-
scapes for these echoes. When photographed, they
will combine with other photographic elements to
be expanded and collaged into a digital compos-
ition. The reference at this point to Tolkien’s source
writing is key, and provides the descriptive clues that
a developed final piece can grow from. In terms of
having a philosophy for approaching Middle-earth
inspired art using the term ‘echo’ is quite apt. I feel
an understated approach is the right one to suit Tol-
kien’s world; create an echo or suggestion and the
imagination will provide the rest. This is precisely
why, in my work, characters are barely glimpsed
ghosts lost in epic surroundings, and any rare ex-
ception to the rule is where a character might rep-
resent a significant force of nature.
The descriptive power of Middle-earth provides a
deep-rooted believability and tangible realism; it is
a place to be seen, heard, and smelled by way of its
strength on the written page. The kind of detail that
might be of interest to an archaeologist, for example,
is in abundance and constructed from marvellous
and carefully aimed language. Upon this detailed
stage, the shocking events take greater hold because
of it. The darkest of evil powers are more immedi-
ately menacing as a result, and the light-hearted and
whimsical moments seem more hard won and well
earned in stark contrast to the darkness. The darker
the shadows in Middle-earth, the brighter comes the
lightness that follows, and in such a realistic setting
the fantastical elements are also more readily believ-
able. For me, this is another key reason why my strat-
egy for creating art involves drawing a sense of the
fantastic from real-world elements.
Tolkienesque Reverberations
John Cockshaw
Echoes of Middle-earth

8. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
2
Tolkien’slandscapewritingformsmymainpreoccu-
pation with Middle-earth and this has particularly
gifted me with a much more poetic and imaginative
response to the qualities of landscape. Whether I
enjoy landscape for its own sake or scrutinise it with
a photographer’s eye and a camera lens, there is a
strong impulse to view it through a Middle-earth fil-
ter. I believe that is largely due to Tolkien’s own love
and admiration for unspoiled countryside which is
deeply rooted in his writing. The Lord of the Rings,
by way of its intriguing spell, transforms the land-
scape into an even more poetic entity than it was
for me before. Glorious locales, grim-weathered
corners, and beauty spots all become imagined
as set, for ex-
ample, to verse
in a hearty
Hobbit travel-
ling song or
lines to be con-
tained within
a minstrel’s
song. To my
delight, I now
‘see’ landscape
as cascading
a l l i t e r a t i o n ,
full-coloured,
and endlessly
echoing in its
description.
It is now an
automatic im-
pulse to view
the world
through allit-
erative eyes and it is strange to imagine not ever hav-
ing done so. There is nothing better for a dreamer
than to be lost in worlds during waking hours, where
sounds and sights influence song-ful speech, and in-
spire me to pen poetic compositions to accompany
my photographic Middle-earth artwork.
I appreciate how Tolkien, in addition to wider
reading, has altered my perception of trees in terms
of their significance in literature and poetry, and
cultural history for that matter; forests have become
places of deeply felt terror, superstition and magic,
homely refuge and protection. The forest, and the
forms within, was of great importance to the Druids
as a place of worship with trees such as oak, haw-
thorn and beech held in honour.i
Trees branch out
into literature, art, and poetry in all manner of ways
through the work of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas
Gainsborough, Constable, the Brontes, and Shake-
speare, to name but a few. Metaphor, symbolism,
and pathetic fallacy can all easily be applied to
trees; portraying woodland and forests and the tree
as possessing human-like form is a good example
of this. Faces and human-like limbs are all too easy
to perceive on tree forms, and it does not take a
great leap of the imagination to mentally transform
a given tree into a giant, walking Ent in any wood-
ed area. ‘Ent’ derives from the Old English word
for ‘giant,’ and the image of the walking tree-like
creature recalls the notion held by English mystics
of the fifteenth
century of trees
uprooting and
walking in the
manner of men.
ii
Think of the
role of trees in
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth in the
illusion of a vast
wood coming
alive and dis-
guising an ad-
vancing army,
and the con-
nection that is
frequently cited
to this for Tol-
kien’s own use
of the forest
army concept.
I am forever
grateful to the cinematic adaptation of The Lord of
the Rings in that the scale, dedication, and craft of
the enterprise led to a loving regard for the original
writing by inspiring me to discover the books. While
it is helpful to see the films and books as separate
entities, the films nevertheless emit faithful echoes
of the books because the films are not doggedly
rigid adaptations of the source material. The won-
derful echoes of Alan Lee and John Howe’s artwork
throughout the design of the films are also import-
ant to note. My path from the books to the films
also involved the BBC Radio dramatisation of The
Lord of the Rings from the 1980s as the middle
step. A gripping and touching echo of Tolkien’s
masterpiece, it features wonderful renditions of

9. 3
Issue5:TheHobbit|
the verse and songs contained in the book. There
is the wonderful echo here spanning roughly 30
years from Ian Holm’s vocal performance as Frodo
in 1981 to his later performance of Bilbo in the
films from 2001 and his reprisal yet again as Bilbo
in 2012 as narrator in The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey. Interestingly, echoes are found to surface
in the music of these dramatic adaptations. In the
BBC Radio drama, Stephen Oliver’s music echoes
the English pastoral tradition and adds a weighty
courage to the drama, but it is in his music and
instrumentation for the Elves where it seems the
drama is stripped away in favour of echoing circu-
larity to suggest great knowledge and ancient cul-
ture. Jump ahead to Howard Shore’s film score for
The Lord of the Rings and the music for Lothlórien
echoes too: ‘Lament for Gandalf’ is sung by chorus
and soprano Elizabeth Fraser in a call and response
structure.iii
Musical echoes here give the realms of
the Elves their unique timelessness and immortality
and suitable echo Tolkien’s text.
My joy of Howard Shore’s score, itself a complex
echo of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as a dramatic
work in its own right, echoes across the landscape
and Tolkienesque vistas I encounter, and only neces-
sitates a swift return to enjoying passages of the
book and igniting just what it is that I so keenly ad-
mired about Tolkien’s Middle-earth in the first place.
The eye and the ear will forever be open for the
way to Middle-earth.
Works Cited
i. Ackroyd, P. (2004). Albion: The Origins of the English
Imagination. New York: Vintage New Ed edition.
ii. Ackroyd, P. (2004). Albion: The Origins of the English
Imagination. New York: Vintage New Ed edition.
iii. Adams, D. (2010). The Music of The Lord of
the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of
Howard Shore’s Scores. Los Angeles: Carpentier /
Alfred Music.
Like whispers are his footsteps
Across the moonlit night.
I listen for them coming,
Strain my eyes in the dim light.
For with him will come magic;
It always trails within his wake,
Adventure clinging to his cloak,
Aye, he>s a Wizard, no mistake.
For with just a single gesture,
The barest wave of his hand,
We would follow where he goes,
Though we may not understand.
Through great peril he may lead
In dank corridors and halls;
A Hobbit Awaits
Against ancient, raging foes,
Still would we follow whene’er he calls,
Far abroad he walks in darkness
Thinking ever of our good,
Fording icy mountain stream,
Braving old and powerful wood.
He stands as a guardian for us
In a world both large and wide;
A gentle hand, a guiding force,
We would gather at his side
To follow over hill and dale
To the meeting place of yore,
There to listen with eyes open wide,
To all his tales once more.
Bernadette Barnes

10. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
4
T.A. 1050 The first records of Hobbits appear in the Third Age with the coming of the Harfoots into Eriador
possibly over the High Pass. About this time a shadow falls on Greenwood and Men begin to call it
Mirkwood. Gondor is at the height of its power.
1150c The Stoors cross the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass and follow the River Bruinen south. They
settle between Tharbad and the borders of Dunland. The Fallohides enter Eriador north of Rivendell
and head south along the River Hoarwell.
1300c Hobbits begin to migrate westward and many settle in Bree. Evil begins to multiply again. Orcs attack
Dwarves in the Misty Mountains. The Nazgûl appear and their Lord dwells in Angmar.
1356 Some of the Stoors remigrate back east over the Misty Mountains into Wilderland and settle in the
Gladden Fields next to the River Anduin.
1409 The Witch-king invades Arnor. Amon Sûl is destroyed. The Men of Bree and the Periannath (a name for
hobbits that originates with the Dúnedain) of the same region maintain their independence.
T.A. 1601 In March, the Hobbit brothers Marco and Cavallo cross the great stone bridge over the River Baranduin
(Brandywine) after formal permission from King Argeleb II. With them, a host of Periannath migrate
from Bree westward. This land the Periannath or Halflings call the “Shire.” The Shire-reckoning begins
with the crossing of the Baranduin in this year. The land beyond, between the Baranduin and Emyn Be-
raid, is rich with farmlands but are now untended and falling into wilderness. King Argeleb II therefore
allowed the Halflings to settle there. They become his subjects in name but are virtually independent
and ruled by their own chieftains.
1630 The number of Hobbits in the Shire swells as the Stoors travel up from the south of Eriador and dwell
mostly near the Brandywine.
1636 The Great Plague. The White Tree dies in Minas Anor. Many parts of Eriador become desolate.
1976 After the Fall of Arnor in 1974 III, the heirlooms of Arnor are sent to Imladris. The Hobbits claim the
Shire for their own and elect a Thain to take place of the king.
2463 The White Council is formed. About this time, a Stoor named Déagol, finds the One Ring along the
banks of the Gladden Fields. He is murdered for it by one of his kindred named Sméagol.
2470 Sméagol, who becomes known as Gollum, hides in the Misty Mountains with the One Ring.
2670c In the days of the Thain Isengrim the Second, true pipe-weed is first grown in the Southfarthing by
Tobold Hornblower.
2747 The Battle of Greenfields. Bandobras Took defeats a band of Orcs lead by Golfimbul in the Northfarthing.
2758 The Long Winter. Gandalf comes to the aid of the Shire-folk. Gondor is attacked by the Corsairs and
Rohan is overrun with Easterlings and Dunlendings.
2890 Bilbo Baggins is born.
2911 The Fell Winter. White wolves invade the Shire from the north and the Horn-call of Buckland blows.
2920 Gerontonius Took dies at the age of 130. Gandalf visits the Shire to pay his respects.
2941 Bilbo has an unexpected party. He sets off on the Quest of Erebor the next day with the company of
Thorin Oakenshield. Bilbo finds the One Ring in the Misty Mountains after he becomes lost. Later, he
parleys with the dragon Smaug and then offers the Arkenstone as ransom to Bard prior to the Battle
of Five Armies.
2942 Bilbo returns to the Shire with the One Ring.
2944 Gollum leaves the Misty Mountains and begins his search for Bilbo.
2949 Gandalf and Balin visit Bilbo in autumn.
SHIRE-
RECKONING
1
30
36
376
863
870
970c
1147
1158
1290
1311
1320
1341
1342
1344
1349
Mark Bednarowski
Timeline of Hobbits in Middle-earth
THE WANDERING YEARS
THE FOUNDING OF THE SHIRE AND ITS AFTERDAYS

11. 5
Issue5:TheHobbit|
2953 The last meeting of the White Council. Jealous and afraid of Gandalf, Saruman sets spies on him and
keeps agents in Bree and the Southfarthing.
2968 Frodo Baggins is born.
2980 It is approximately at this time that Gollum reaches Mordor and becomes acquainted with Shelob.
Théoden becomes king.
2983 Samwise Gamgee is born.
2989 Bilbo makes Frodo his heir.
3000c The shadow of Mordor lengthens. Saruman learns from his spies that the Shire is closely guarded by
Rangers. Merry learns of Bilbo’s ring thus beginning a conspiracy. Gollum is captured, taken to Mordor
and held in prison where he is tortured to reveal his knowledge of the One Ring.
3001 Bilbo throws his long-expected party. Gandalf is now fearful of Bilbo’s ring and leaves the day after. He
seeks help from his friend Strider and seeks news of Gollum. The Guard on the Shire is doubled.
3017 Gollum is released from Mordor and instructed to find the Ring. A messenger comes to King Daín II
enquiring about hobbits. He returns twice more before the end of the year. Aragorn captures Gollum in
the Dead Marshes and brings him to Thranduil in Mirkwood. Gandalf reads the scroll of Isildur in Minas
Tirith and discovers Bilbo’s ring is indeed the One. Gandalf hurries north, but hearing that Aragorn has
captured Gollum, he goes to Mirkwood to interrogate him. There he learns that the creature found the
Ring nigh to the Gladden Fields some 500 years before—also that the Enemy knows the Ring is found
and was long kept in the Shire.
3018 Strange rumours are heard in the Shire of happenings in the outside world. Gandalf reaches Hobbiton
late in the day on April 12th
after not being heard of for several years. He visits Frodo and reveals the
true nature of the Ring. Gollum escapes from Thranduil and takes refuge in Moria in August, being
hunted by both the Elves and Sauron. He does not find a way to pass through the west gate. Four
Nazgûl in the guise of Black Riders enter the Shire before dawn on September 23rd
. Five Nazgûl pursue
the Rangers eastward, then return to watch the Greenway. Frodo leaves Bag End with Samwise just
before a Black Rider appears in Hobbiton at nightfall. The Horn-call of Buckland blows again when the
Nazgûl attack after tracking Frodo to Crickhollow.
3019 Frodo and Sam reach the Sammath Naur in Mordor. Gollum seizes the One Ring and falls into the
Cracks of Doom. Sauron is defeated for the second and last time on March 25th
. The Battle of Bywater.
The death of Saruman brings the War of the Ring to an end on November 3rd
.
3020 THE GREAT YEAR OF PLENTY
3021 Elanor the Fair is born on March 25th
. The Fourth Age begins in the reckoning of Gondor. Frodo, Bilbo,
and the Three Keepers of the Rings depart over the sea on September 29th
. Frodo gives the Red Book
to Samwise. Samwise returns to Bag End on October 6th
. The Third Age comes to an end.
F.A. 1 The Fourth Age began with this year and the Shire Reckoning continues.
6 King Elessar issues an edict that Men are not to enter the Shire. It is made a free land under the protec-
tion of the northern sceptre.
15 King Elessar greets his friends at the Brandywine Bridge. He gives the Star of the Dúnedain to Samwise.
Elanor is made a Maid of Honour for Queen Arwen. King Elessar dwells for awhile in Lake Evendim.
30 Elanor the Fair marries Fastred of Greenholm on the Far Downs.
31 The Westmarch is added to the Shire by gift of the king.
41 At the request of Mayor Samwise, the Thain makes Fastred the Warden of the Westmarch. The des-
cendants of Fastred and Elanor dwell at Undertowers on the Tower Hills for many generations. They
are known as the Fairbairns of the Towers.
61 Death of Mistress Rose on Mid-year’s day. Master Samwise rides out from Bag End on September 22nd
.
He bequeaths the Red Book to Elanor in the Westmarch where she dwells in the Tower Hills and is last
seen by her. Samwise passes over the sea from the Grey Havens, last of the Ringbearers.
63 Merry and Pippin are last seen in the Shire as they travel to Edoras. King Éomer dies that autumn. Merry
and Pippin travel to Gondor and spend their last years there and are laid in Rath Dínen among the great
of Gondor.
120 On March 1st King Elessar passes away. The beds of Merry and Pippin are set beside the king’s. Legolas
builds a grey ship in Ithilien and sails over the sea with Gimli. Here ends the Fellowship of the Ring in
Middle-earth.
1353
1368
380
1383
1389
1400c
1401
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1427
1436
1451
1452
1462
1482
1484
1541

12. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
6
The Hobbit, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2008
The Fellowship of the Ring, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2005
The Two Towers, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2005
The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, Appendices A, B, and C, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2005
Unfinished Tales, The Hunt for the Ring, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2000
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin Company, Great Britain, 2000
The History of Middle-earth Vol.12, The Peoples of Middle-earth, HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2002
Sources

13. 7
Issue5:TheHobbit|
In the months preceding the release of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit. I submitted two articles to the bul-
letin of the Tolkien Society: “Plight of the Dwarves”, Amon Hen #228, and “A Wizard for all Seasons”, Amon Hen #233.
Both articles dwell on the theme of motivation and try to answer what was it that drove the company to begin their quest.
As for my motivation for writing them, I wondered — like many other fans — how the film would unfold. There is of
course an ample amount of background history that can serve as a good prologue to The Hobbit. So I thought perhaps
reviewing the history of the Dwarves and digging through the Third Age might not be a bad idea.
But would a study of the relevant series of events disclose precisely how the film would tell the story? From what audiences
saw in the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, I believe it’s safe to say, probably not. However, this was not the point of
writing them. At the time, my knowledge of the names of the Dwarves alone was rusty and needed brushing up on. Besides,
it was a fun exercise; and now that the first installment of The Hobbit has been released, I found it interesting to reread
them, because we can see both how well the film conformed to parts of the story, as well as how far it strayed from the path.
It was not my intent to criticize which parts of the tale were added and which were removed, but I did note one interest-
ing point. Although the screenwriters had the creative freedom to adapt the story to film as they saw fit, they did not have
a choice in all circumstances.
Case in point — at the time of writing the articles, I was unaware that Jackson only had the rights for The Lord of the
Rings, its Appendices, and The Hobbit, but not Unfinished Tales. It is in Unfinished Tales where we learn how Gandalf comes
across the map and key and also how the Quest of Erebor culminates in the chance meeting of Gandalf and Thorin in Bree.
It would have made an excellent bridge between the Sack of Erebor and the Unexpected Party. Pity. Yet, there are still two
installments of The Hobbit to go which should be plenty to feed my motivation to write further.
I give kind thanks to Silver Leaves to reprint them in their latest issue. Namárië.
PlightoftheDwarves
MarkBednarowski
The first instalment of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy was released in De-
cember 2012, with the second part planned for release in December 2013. In
anticipation, it came to mind that brushing up on the history of the Dwarves (and
straightening out all their similar-sounding names) may be of some interest. It is
hoped that this article, largely derived from the Appendices of The Lord of the
Rings (LOTR), will provide some useful background information and help fans to
understand what drove Thorin Oakenshield to journey to the Lonely Mountain.
It should be noted that the first edition of The Hobbit was published before LOTR,
and the author did not initially intend for The Hobbit to be part of his legendarium,
The Silmarillion. It was not until Tolkien wrote the Appendices to the LOTR that he
outlined the series of events that connected The Hobbit to LOTR. Later revisions to
The Hobbit would be necessary to bring the book into compliance with LOTR. The
prime example of these revisions is the ring that Bilbo found. It changes from noth-
ing more than a useful item for a burglar, making Bilbo invisible, to something of
supreme importance—the One Ring. This means that LOTR, although published as
a sequel to The Hobbit, is, in fact, an extension of The Silmarillion.1
This story is set in the Third Age of Middle-earth and focuses on Durin’s Folk,
the Longboards. The Third Age witnessed the fading of the Eldar, and its latter
half was a time of despair for the Dwarves. Sauron had returned, and evil things
began to stir again in Middle-earth. In brief, the treasures of the Dwarves were
plundered, and the Dwarves were driven from their dwellings, becoming a wan-
dering people living in exile.
Moria—then called the Dwarrowdelf—in the Misty Mountains was the main
dwelling of the Dwarves. It was not long after the fall of the kingdom of Arnor in
1974 III that more trouble began to brew.2
Whether the Dwarves mined too deep,
or whether through the malice of Sauron, a Balrog was released. Both the king,
Durin VI, and his son, Náin I, were slain. Ultimately, in 1981 III, this horrific creature
forced the evacuation of the Dwarves’ home, in which they had dwelt for millennia.
Most of the Dwarves fled north. The next king in the line, Thráin I, founded
Erebor, or the Lonely Mountain. It was he who discovered there the Arkenstone.
Most of the other Dwarves settled in the Grey Mountains to the north. The succes-

14. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
8
sor of Thráin I was his son Thorin I (not Oakenshield
yet—that’s Thorin II). It is unclear why, but Thorin I
later departed Erebor for the Grey Mountains and
took the Arkenstone with him. Peace followed for a
while, but it was not to last.
More than three centuries passed before the
Dwarves faced new enemies—dragons—that re-
appeared in the northern wastelands next to the
Grey Mountains. Perhaps this again came from the
work of Sauron as his power slowly grew. Dáin I,
great-great-grandson of Thorin I, and his second
son, Frór, were both slain by cold-drakes. Once
again, the Dwarves were forced to abandon their
home, and evacuated the Grey Mountains. Some
returned to Erebor, including the successor of Dáin
I,Thrór. He also returned the Arkenstone to its prop-
er place, where a future daring burglar would claim
it for himself. Others founded a new home in the
Iron Hills, located to the east of Erebor. One of the
descendants of this group was Dáin II Ironfoot, who
enters the tale later.
The tragedies of the Dwarves were still far from
over. Although they had escaped the Grey Moun-
tains, dragons continued to multiple. After a time,
word reached the far north of the wealth of the
King Under the Mountain. In one hundred and
eighty years’ time, Smaug, that chieftest and great-
est of calamities, descended upon Erebor.
For a third time, the Dwarves were forced away
from their dwelling, and became wanderers.
Among them were Thrór, his son Thráin II, and his
grandchildren, one of whom was Thorin Oaken-
shield. The remainder fled to the Iron Hills. In their
escape, important items were saved: the map and
key to the secret back entrance to the Lonely Moun-
tain, and a Ring of Power.
This Ring of Power was one of the seven that was
made for the Dwarves. It was first given to Durin
III by the Elves, long ago in the Second Age, when
the true designs of Sauron were not yet known.
Through the centuries, the ring was passed down
through the line of kings of Durin’s folk, until it
came to Thrór. The story of the next tragedy to
strike the Dwarves began with him.
There came a time when Thrór made a decision to
wander off with a sole companion, Nar, and made
his way to Moria. What drove him to do this? Per-
haps it was a combination of distress over his own ill
fortune, and that of the elderly among his people. 3
Before he left, he bequeathed to Thráin II the last of
the Seven Rings, the map and the key, and his desire
for vengeance on Smaug. Perhaps Thrór’s decision
was influenced by the effects of the ring itself. Its
influence on the bearer may have grown stronger
as Sauron’s power grew. What is worse, however, is
that it may have been at this time that Sauron came
to learn who now possessed the ring.
Thrór’s journey ended in disaster. He was mur-
dered by the great goblin Azog in Moria. Nar re-
ported to his son the tragic news, which sparked
the War of the Dwarves and Goblins, yet another
tragic chapter in the Dwarves’ history. Ultimately,
the Dwarves won the war, but it was a Pyrrhic vic-
tory. The Dwarves lost more than half of their fight-
ing force in the final battle—the Battle of Nanduhir-
ion—at the east gate of Moria. Yet the Dwarves
did not re-enter Moria. Dáin II Ironfoot of the Iron
Hills told his cousin Thráin II that the “world must
change and some other power must come before
Durin’s folk walk again in Moria.” Dáin II Ironfoot
led his people back to the Iron Hills, and Thráin and
his followers returned to Dunland.4
The next set of events was the precursor to The
Hobbit. Thráin II—now in possession of the ring,
map, and key—had it in his heart to set out for
Erebor. Only two companions accompanied him:
Balin and Dwalin, both members of the future party
that would travel on the Quest of Erebor. However,
nothing was told to his son, Thorin Oakenshield.5
Once it was discovered that Thráin was abroad, the
emissaries of Sauron hunted for him. Thráin was
captured in Mirkwood and taken to Dol Guldur. Ba-
lin and Dwalin returned to report that, when they
awoke one morning, they had discovered that they
had simply lost Thráin. Thorin Oakenshield then be-
came the new leader.
When Thráin II was reported as lost, Gandalf en-
tered the picture. Thinking Thráin may be lost in
Moria, Gandalf searched for him there, but it was
in vain. Five years later, in 2850 III, Gandalf arrived
at Dol Guldur, with the intention of spying. While
there, he discovered discovered that its master—
known as “the Necromancer”—was really Sauron,
and was seeking to collect the remaining Rings of
Power, along with information about Isildur’s heirs.
While Thráin was imprisoned, his ring was taken
from him. The map and key may have been of little
interest to Sauron, and were never confiscated. This
may have been one of Sauron’s biggest mistakes.
This is vital to the stories of both The Hobbit and
LOTR. Gandalf’s possession of the map and key ul-
timately led to the Quest of Erebor, during which the
One Ring was found. This ultimately led to the Quest
of Mount Doom, and the final downfall of Sauron.

15. 9
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16. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
10
Although Gandalf found Thráin, he did not learn his
identity, probably due to the fact that the poor dwarf
was half-crazed by his imprisonment and by the loss
of his ring. He repeated over and over again, “the last
of the seven.” Sadly, after Gandalf received the map
and key, Thráin then died. His last words were “for my
son.”6
Nearly a century passed before Gandalf realised
the full significance of what he obtained from a pitiful
old dwarf locked in the pits of Dol Guldur.
The following year, Gandalf, equipped with new
knowledge, attended the White Council in Rivendell
and urged an attack on Dol Guldur. Saruman over-
ruled the decision; action would have to wait.
And that is how the story of Durin’s line unfolded
prior to the events of The Hobbit. Later, in 2879 III,
Gimli was born. In 2920 III, Gandalf visited the Shire
for the last time before that fateful spring morning
when he came to Bag End seeking a burglar to
share in an adventure.7
But also during this time, the troubles of the past
grew in the mind of Thorin Oakenshield. “The em-
bers in the heart of Thorin grew hot again” and, like
his father before him, he desired to reclaim what
was once theirs. He was likely brooding over this,
and cursing the dragon under his breath, while
nursing a pint in a dark corner of the Prancing Pony
on March 15 2941III. The inn-keep was busy serv-
ing customers while singing by the fire, when by
chance Gandalf walked in and greeted him. They
sat together and began to talk.
Notes
1. Humphrey Carpenter, ed., The Letters of J.R.R.
Tolkien (London: HarperCollins, 1995]), 136.
2. In this time, the Hobbits claimed the Shire for
their own and elected a Thain to replace the
fallen king. (Appendix B)
3. Thrór was forced to abandon both the Grey
Mountains and the Lonely Mountain because of
dragons. (Appendix A, Durin’s Folk)
4. They later made exile in the Blue Mountains near
the shores of Middle-earth in Harlindon but at the
time were in Dunland. (Appendix A, Durin’s Folk)
5. It will be of interest to see in the upcoming film how
Balin and Dwalin react when Thorin asks Gandalf
how he came to possess the secret map and key.
6. J. R. R. Tolkien, Unfinished Tales, ed. Christopher
Tolkien (London: HarperCollins, 1998]), 419.
7. He came to pay his respects for his friend the
Old Took. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit ([London:
HarperCollins, 2008]), 6.

17. 11
Issue5:TheHobbit|
AWizardforAllSeasons
MarkBednarowski
IN A PREVIOUS ARTICLE SUBMITTED to Amon Hen #228, Plight of the
Dwarves, I attempted to give more insight into the motivation of Thorin and
company for their quest of Mount Erebor, with respect to the history of the
Dwarves in the Third Age. The attempt stemmed from the anticipated release of
Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in order to refresh or famil-
iarize us with the Dwarves. But the company, of course, did not consist entirely
of Dwarves. Fairness suggests that the motivations of Gandalf and Bilbo should
not go unconsidered.
Having said that, Hobbits—not known by nature to be an excessively adventur-
ous folk—make it difficult, I think, to build a case for Bilbo. Apart from his no
longer dormant Took-side that began to crave adventure again, motivation was
scarce; while on the quest to the Lonely Mountain, the thought of sitting back in
his comfy hobbit hole having tea by the fire came to his mind more than once.
This, of course, leaves one other person.
“Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and
I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any
sort of remarkable tale.”
Indeed, a quarter of very little seems to be all we have of Gandalf’s affairs after
his arrival to Middle-earth, to the time of a key event—his encounter with Thorin
in Bree. From that meeting, Gandalf came to recognize a great opportunity from
which the quest would form.
Fortunately, we do hear more about who this wizard was and what he did,
which in itself is a remarkable tale. Yet it is not found in The Hobbit.1
The Tale of
Years in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings, along with The Silmarillion, provides
us with some significant events in the wizard’s past.

18. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
12
It was in the time that a shadow fell on the vast
forest of Greenwood the Great that Gandalf, who
later joined the ranks of the Wise, first appeared in
Middle-earth, circa 1000 III. Roughly a century later,
the Wise discovered that a stronghold, Dol Guldur,
was built within the great forest. In it dwelled an evil
power, perhaps one of the Nazgûl. Nothing is chron-
icled about this for over a millennium. It was then
that the Wise learned that the power of Dol Guldur
was growing, and Gandalf, in particular, suspect-
ed that it was Sauron. Not long after, in 2063 III,
Gandalf took action and went to the evil fortress
to investigate. As a result, Sauron retreated and
went into hiding in the east, and a watchful peace
began, but it was not to last. Almost four centuries
later, Sauron returned to Dol Guldur. Three years
afterward, the White Council was formed, of which
Gandalf was a member.
There were other later events that indicate good
relations between the wizard and other free folk.
During the Long Winter of 2758 III, Gandalf came
to the aid of the Hobbits; and in 2845 III, he began
a search for Thráin II, father of Thorin Oakenshield,
in the mines of Moria. (Thráin II had gone wander-
ing and was thought to be in Moria after he be-
came lost. He was, in fact, captured and imprisoned
by Sauron in Dol Guldur.) Gandalf’s search was in
vain. Other matters soon afterwards came to his
attention. Strangely, Gandalf did eventually find
Thráin II, but it was quite unplanned.
The shadow in the forest grew greater. Five years
later, Gandalf returned to Dol Guldur in disguise to
seek more information. The news he learned was
indeed grim. He reported back to Elrond that the
master of Dol Guldur was Sauron himself, and he
had not been idle. Sauron was trying to collect all
the Rings of Power, and to obtain any information
about the One. Furthermore, he was seeking news
on the heirs of Isildur.
Here is the strange part. While Gandalf was on this
dangerous mission, he happened to come across a
pitiful-looking dwarf trapped in the dungeons of
the fortress. The time that the prisoner had spent
there in torment had certainly taken its toll. The
dwarf had gone half-mad, and they did not recog-
nize each other. Sadly, the poor dwarf died shortly
after, but not before he passed onto Gandalf two
seemingly unimportant yet curious items: a map of
the Lonely Mountain, and a key.
“I stowed the things away, and by some warning
of my heart I kept them always with me, safe, but
soon almost forgotten.”2
He escaped Dol Guldur
with no idea who the dwarf was.
The following year, in light of new information,
Gandalf urged the White Council to attack Sauron.
Saruman then overruled the proposal, and nothing
was done. The decision did not rest easy with the
rest of the Council. This part essentially concludes
Gandalf’s history in Middle-earth prior to his meet-
ing with Thorin.
But where did Gandalf come from? What was his
interest in the quest--and who was he, anyway?
Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings informs us that
Gandalf was one of the Istari, but this account is very
brief. As for his interest in the quest, Appendix A pro-
vides an explanation, but this fills less than a page.
Tolkien did intend to include within the body of The
Lord of the Rings a more detailed account of what
happened with Gandalf and Thorin just prior to the
events of The Hobbit, but unfortunately it had to be
cut out. Yet thanks to Christopher Tolkien’s years of
work on his father’s manuscripts, this account can be
found in Unfinished Tales.3
It is learned that Gandalf
was ordained to perform a task--one that was vital to
securing the freedom of Middle-earth. No longer can
Gandalf be viewed simply as a wizard with memor-
able fireworks and a reputation for sending Hobbits
off on adventures; he is portrayed as one of the Istari
sent from Valinor charged to work against Sauron.
Deeper than this, however, is the fact that his task,
like those of all the Istari, has its roots embedded far
back in the Elder Days.
The forces of the Valar overthrew Morgoth,
Sauron’s superior, at the end of the First Age, and
they did so by intervening directly on behalf of Elves
and Men. Eönwë, the herald of Manwë himself,
was in command of the host sent to Middle-earth
to combat the might of the Morgoth. Victory was
won, but not without heavy cost; the ancient land
ofBeleriand was destroyed-- it sank under the sea.
This was the last time that the Valar attempted to
protect the Children of Éru by “their own might and
glory fully revealed”.4
Although Morgoth was cast out of Arda, evil was
not wholly vanquished. As the ages passed, tthe
Valar still kept watch over Middle-earth. They were
aware of the first downfall of Sauron at the end of
the Second Age, yet they were also aware that his
Ring had not been destroyed. This meant that there
still lingered a great danger; Sauron could return in
time to conquer the Free Peoples once again. Worse
still, the strength and power of Elves and Men
waned during the Third Age. More Elves departed

19. 13
Issue5:TheHobbit|
from Middle-earth to Valinor. In the north,
the kingdom of Arnor fell. In the south,
Gondor no longer had a king, and the
Haradrim threatened its southern borders.
The Dwarves suffered many casualties in
their war withthe Orcs, and many Dwarves
became a wandering folk. King Théoden
of Rohan was under a spell of Saruman.
The White Tree died without a seedling to
be found. Would the Free Peoples of the
Third Age have the strength to withstand
an assault from Sauron?
As predicted, Sauron began to stir
again in Middle-earth. Manwë sum-
moned the Valar and they held a council.
A decision was made, with the consent
of Éru. Beings of the Maiar order were to
be chosen as emissaries. Of all that were
chosen, five came to the north of Middle-
earth. One, known to be the wisest of the
Maiar, was named Olórin, and Manwë
himself commanded him to go; but he
was reluctant to do so. He argued that
he was too weak, and also that he feared
Sauron. Manwë retorted that that was all
the more reason to go.
To make amends for their past mistakes,
the Valar changed tactics. The chosen
were to be sent to Middle-earth to resist
Sauron by different means. The Istari were
charged to unite the enemies of Sauron
and persuade them to do good. This
method called for them to forgo might,
and to appear as mortals in order to win
the trust of Elves and Men.
Yet there was a drawback; this would
also imperil them, or “dim their wisdom
and knowledge, and confusing them
with fears, cares, and weariness com-
ing from the flesh.”5
After their arrival in
Middle-earth, Gandalf revealed only to El-
rond, Galariel, and Círdan that the Istari
came from the Undyling Lands. Círdan
had great foresight and perhaps saw the
same qualities in Gandalf that Manwë did;
Círdan entrusted Gandalf with the Ring of
Fire to aid him in his task.6
Thus began the
labours of Gandalf against the Shadow.
But what drove him to form the quest?
Late in the Third Age, the evil of Mirk-
wood grew ever deeper. But Gandalf, at
the time, was looking for a short rest.

20. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
14
After travelling abroad for some 20 years, he
began to head west toward the Shire; and on his
way there, he stayed over at an inn in Bree. Sitting
down in the parlour, next to the fire, he puffed on
his pipe and began to contemplate matters; for his
mind was burdened with troublesome thoughts.
The Wise already knew that Sauron had returned
and was gathering strength. Soon he would declare
himself. Yet Saruman hindered Gandalf’s plan to
strike at Sauron. What was his strange reluctance
to disturb Sauron in Dol Guldur? Certainly, the time
would come when Sauron will proceed to war. And
when he did, what would be his plan? There was
the possibility that Sauron could re-occupy Mor-
dor, but Gandalf knew he intended to attack the
stronghold of Rivendell once he became strong
enough. The Men of the north were not as mighty
as in the past, and it seemed likely that Rivendell
would be attacked from the old dwelling of the
Witch-king. To do that, Angmar must be reclaimed
first, Gandalf thought, as one of his smoke rings
drifted away; but what defence is there in that re-
gion of Middle-earth to counter the attack when
it comes? Now, there are only the Dwarves of the
Iron Hills not far from the Lonely Mountain. Ah yes,
the Lonely Mountain! Smaug the dragon could cer-
tainly become a powerful ally to Sauron. How to
deal with the dragon, then? (More smoke rings.)
Gandalf pondered the enemies of Smaug. Both
King Thrór and his son Thráin II had been driven
out of their dwelling under the mountain when
Smaug descended upon them long ago. Imagine
how fortunate Gandalf must have felt then when
he learned that a direct descendant of the king, Th-
orin Oakenshield, just happened to be in town!
Thorin was on his way to the Blue Mountains far
to the west, and had also stopped over in Bree.
They began to talk, and Gandalf listened with inter-
est to the dwarf’s tale of how he yearned to reclaim
his home of old. So much, in fact, that he accom-
panied Thorin on his journey. Soon after, he left Th-
orin in the Blue Mountains without a plan, because
Thorin’s mind seemed set on war and revenge on
the dragon, and Gandalf had no confidence in that
idea. He returned to the Shire in April 2941 III and
contemplated Thorin’s tale. While there, Gandalf
heard news of a particular Hobbit. He learned that
this one had the tendency at times to see the world
outside the borders of the Shire and was sometimes
seen talking to Dwarves. It was then that an idea
suddenly hit him. Gandalf had not thought of the
map and key for years. He recollected the ‘strange
chance’ of how he acquired them. Gandalf then
rightly guessed that the poor dwarf imprisoned in
Dol Guldur, some 91 years before, must have been
Thorin’s father Thráin II.7
With access to the Lonely
Mountain by a secret entrance and the services of a
soft-footed Hobbit, it now seemed quite possible to
discover what Smaug was up to. Gandalf rode back
to Thorin in haste to persuade him of his plan. The
ball began to roll.
Although Gandalf said to himself that he must
find a way to deal with Smaug, action against Dol
Guldur was needed more. It was already spring,
and Gandalf had to be at the White Council by Au-
gust at the latest or Saruman would have nothing
done. By that time, the quest should already be well
underway, so Gandalf would have to take his leave
from the company for a while at an appropriate
time. It was imperative to convince the council to
thwart Sauron’s plans.
There was only one last preparation. Gandalf
needed to assemble the entire group before they
set off. He returned again to the Shire on April 25th.
It was a lovely Tuesday morning when Gandalf ap-
proached Bilbo’s dwelling located in Bag End. He
found him smoking in front of his round green
door. “Good morning!” the Hobbit said.
Epilogue
Gandalf argued his case and finally convinced Saru-
man that they should attack Dol Guldur. “It is not
needed that the Ring should be found, for while it
abides on earth and is not unmade, still the power
that it holds will live, and Sauron will grow and have
hope. The might of the Elves and the Elf-friends is less
now than of old. Soon he will be too strong for you,
even without the Great Ring; for he rules the Nine,
and of the Seven he has recovered three. We must
strike.”8
As a result of the attack, Sauron retreated.
He returned to the Shire in April 2941 III and contemplated Thorin’s tale. Gandalf
heard news of a particular Hobbit. He learned that this one had the tendency at
times to see the world outside the borders of the Shire and was sometimes seen
talking to Dwarves.

21. 15
Issue5:TheHobbit|
Shortly thereafter, Gandalf
headed north to Esga-
roth to resume the
quest. In the end,
and not without
great loss, the
Lonely Mountain
was reclaimed,
and unexpect-
edly, Smaug fell
in battle and was a
threat no more. All
was well, at least
for the time being.
As we know, the War
of the Ring would later
follow.
If Sauron carried out his
original plan to attack
Rivendell, Gandalf be-
lieved that the outcome
would have been much
worse for the Free Peoples.
Smaug could have wreaked havoc across Eriador and
Rivendell during the War of the Ring. But without the
aid of this fearsome dragon, Sauron’s attack in the
north was averted and there was no invasion of Eria-
dor. Further, there then came Kings Dáin and Brand
in which both stood in the path of Sauron’s attack in
the battle of Dale.
As for Gandalf’s motivation in the quest of Erebor,
if not for all his work in the long years he spent in
Middle-earth, it could be blandly argued that the
direct command of a deity to perform a task ought
to be sufficient. But we also know that while in Val-
inor, Olórin often visited the Valar Nienna, and he
learned from her the quality of pity. His compassion
for those in distress overcame his fear of Sauron. In
his words to Denethor in Minas Tirith, “But I will say
this: the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor
nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things
that are in peril as the world now stands. Those are
my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of
my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything
passes through this night that can still grow fair or
bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I
also am a steward.”9
And in the end, Smaug was dead, Sauron was
later defeated for good, the king returned, and the
Dominion of Men came to be; all because Gandalf
and Thorin met in Bree one year, sometime in the
middle of March.
Notes
1. As mentioned in Plight of the Dwarves, The
Hobbit was not initially intended to be part of
Tolkien’s legendarium, The Silmarillion. Through
the success of The Hobbit and the publisher’s
subsequent demand for a sequel, which of
course became The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
made the decision to add them to his mythology.
Years later, during the preparation of the
appendices of The Lord of the Rings, and after
the first volume was published, Tolkien extended
the historic timeline of the legendarium beyond
the end of the First Age into the Third, or into the
time of The Hobbit and the War of the Ring.
2. J.R.R. Tolkien. “The Quest of Erebor,” in
Unfinished Tales, Ed. Christopher Tolkien (London:
HarperCollins, 2000), 419.
3. The Silmarillion also has an account but, as
emphasized by Christopher Tolkien in the foreword,
it is independent. Its inclusion in The Silmarillion
provides the entire history of Tolkien’s mythology
from the Music of the Ainur to the end of the Third
Age now instead of the First. It’s another fascinating
read into the affairs of Gandalf.
4. J.R.R. Tolkien. “The Quest of Erebor,” in
Unfinished Tales, Ed. Christopher Tolkien (London:
HarperCollins, 2000), 503.
5. The Blue Wizards travelled into the east and
were not heard from again. Radagast became
too preoccupied with birds and beasts. Saruman
betrayed the order. Only Gandalf held true to his
purpose.
6. “For Círdan saw further and deeper than any other
in Middle-earth,” J.R.R. Tolkien. “Appendix B” in
The Lord of the Rings (London: HarperCollins,
1995), 1060.
7. It does seem odd that Gandalf made this oversight
and did not resolve it for nearly a century. Yet
there are accounts from two sources that attempt
to explain this. One is from the The History of
Middle-earth Vol.XII (London: HarperCollins,
2002), 284; and Unfinished Tales (London:
HarperCollins, 2000), 419. To quote from the latter,
“Fortunately, I did not make any mistake in my use
of them. I kept them up my sleeve, as you say in the
Shire, until things looked quite hopeless.”
8. J.R.R. Tolkien. “Of the Rings of Power and
the Third Age,” in The Silmarillion (London:
HarperCollins, 1999) 302.
9. J.R.R. Tolkien. “Minas Tirith,” in The Lord of the
Rings (London: HarperCollins, 1995), 742.

22. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
16
In trenches, he dreamt of unusual worlds,
To the dictionary, gave new words.
Perhaps in the Battle of the Somme.
Complex dialects were soon created,
Then various worlds in which they were fêted.
Wasn’t meant to be read as allegory,
With obscure races of men and trees,
To Elves and dwarves, it gave new lease.
At magical realms, one marvels and gasps,
Have subtle connotations that later one grasps.
Aloof and regal, the women seemed to be,
Inspiring, instigating, were the plot’s key.
Their world desperately who tried to save.
Magical tools unexplained by science,
Born of Nature’s and mind’s alliance.
Elves from stars brought far-off news,
His worlds had various scents and hues.
Multi-dimensional was his approach,
Prickly topics could easily broach.
Heroes’ minds, intricate and rich,
With complex plots, could easily stitch.
Has been construed in a thousand ways,
New generations it tends to amaze.
Explores details of human nature,
In Man’s psyche, gives an aperture.
Back stories stretched for thousands of years,
Still relevant for mechanized fears.
Humans and nature, fuel and steel,
We ride the same old karmic wheel.
Can Nature prevail over Man’s iron will?
Cause the crash of industrial hill?
Keen on Tolkien
Sultana Raza
Keen on Tolkien has been published in “Ancient
Heart Magazine”, and in “Beyond Bree”

23. 17
Issue5:TheHobbit|
Each one of us stepped onto the Road, or fell down
the rabbit-hole into the wonderland of Middle-earth, in
a slightly different way. To many, the medium was text-
printed-on-paper, read in a library or a classroom or a
comfortable chair; some of us were transported by our
eyes, sitting in a darkened room watching a screen along
with hundreds of anonymous strangers; and still others
went out of our metaphorical doors whilst safely tucked
up in bed, hearing Tolkien’s words come out of a parent’s
mouth. But we were all swept away.
None of the above experiences particularly applies to
me. My stepping off point—the wardrobe through which
I stumbled into this magnificent new world—was made of
33rpm vinyl; it hissed, crackled, and occasionally skipped.
It was Argo Records’ dramatic reading of The Hobbit.
I was fortunate in that Tolkien was never forced on me: I
found Middle-earth myself. By the age of six The Box (and its
four LPs) was a familiar part of our home furniture, stacked
neatly away with my Dad’s other records, but never used.
Had I been forced to sit down and listen, I most probably
would have resented it and been swept off on a very differ-
ent, Tolkien-free road; but instead I was allowed the privilege
of discovering Middle-earth alone and (initially, at least) shar-
ing it with no one. Before long it had become normal for me
to spend hours at a time lying on the carpet, getting up only
to change the record, while the voice of Nicol Williamson
slowly swept me away with Bilbo and the Dwarves.
Williamson was considered one of the great theatric-
als of his generation (”the greatest actor since Marlon
The Spell of the Mead-Hall: In
Praise of Nicol Williamson’s
Dramatic Reading of The Hobbit
David Rowe
It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door…
You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet,
there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
[LOTR p. 72]

24. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
18
Brando,” said John Osborne), a dominating pres-
ence onstage, though now mainly known for movie
roles such as Merlin. In 1974, when he was enlisted
to read The Hobbit, he was at the height of his dra-
matic powers, and it shows. Williamson’s range
of tone—from light, warm, and quizzically welcom-
ing at Bag End, to dark and intimidating in Goblin
Town and Erebor—is masterful, as is the effortless
way in which he manages his range of accents and
voices so as to make the multiple characters easy
to identify. Smaug’s sly smoky rasp, Bilbo’s West
Country twang, the stubborn Lancastrian Dwarves,
gruff Scottish Beorn, croaking Roäc, and disturb-
ingly Welsh Gollum—all these entered instantly and
vividly into my head, and stayed there.
The only images with which I was provided were
Tolkien’s painting Bilbo comes to the Huts of the
Raft-elves on its cover, and a photograph of an old
man—the writer himself—leaning up against a tree
on the enclosed booklet. While it’s true that I stared
and stared at both, attempting to suck every last de-
tail and possibility out of them, this paucity of visual
stimulus meant that my Middle-earth was primarily
built on the vigour and verve of the dramatic voice.
Williamson even re-edited the abridgement himself
(removing the narrative asides and juvenile jokiness
which Tolkien also hated), in order that his narration
could be shaped towards theatrical performance and
away from mere reading and recitation.
Tolkien would have approved. Humphrey Car-
penter vividly describes how his series of Oxford
lectures on the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf would
begin with Tolkien in full bardic mode, thunder-
ously declaiming the poem’s opening in order to
transfix and transport his students by the peculiar
power of the spoken word. “It was not so much
a recitation as a dramatic performance,” says Car-
penter, transforming ”a lecture room into a mead
hall”. For many attendees, those lectures were a
wardrobe in themselves, opening up a new world
where drama and literature and legend intermin-
gle seamlessly and the word spell—meaning both
‘story’ and ‘sorcery’—makes complete sense.
Having discovered The Hobbit, I don’t remember
actually reading it for quite a few years. At least,
I know I started, multiple times, but my own at-
tempts felt like a famine after the Williamson’s
feast. I vastly preferred the spell cast in his mead
hall—hissing, skipping and all—to my meagre bed-
room readings, and tended to use my copy of the
book for its maps rather than its text.
But in eschewing the written version for the dra-
matic reading, I now realise that, far from emasculat-
ing Tolkien’s classic work, I was instinctively tracing
it back to its source: a dramatic tale, performed by
the bardic figure of Tolkien to his children, long be-
fore it was committed to a final, publishable form.
I had a rare privilege. We impoverished moderns,
having traded our mead halls for movie theatres,
seldom seek out storytellers. I didn’t. I got lucky,
and am still spellbound.

25. 19
Issue5:TheHobbit|
* D oughty race of axe-wielding men
* Warriors, miners, craftsmen came
*A ncestral home at Lonely Mountain
* R
* V enture to the deepest caverns
* E rect a palace in the gloom
* S anctuary or their tomb?
Kathryn E. Darden
Dwarves Acrostic

26. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
20
Nothing is ever created in a vacuum. As J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “One writes
[…] a story not out the leaves of trees still to be observed […] but […] like a
seed in the dark out of the leaf mould of the mind: out of all that has been
seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten…. [M]y mould is
evidently made largely of linguistic matter” (Carpenter 131). His works cer-
tainly attest to this statement. In creating his fictional universe of Middle-earth,
he drew from a lifetime of experience as a professor and lover of both literature
and language, especially that of the Pre-Chaucerian era. Many of the works he
studied and loved made their way into Middle-earth, and Beowulf is certainly
one of them. Tolkien regarded Beowulf as an important work in defining the
essential northern spirit that he so admired. Because of this high regard for the
work and his years of study, both general and specific elements were incorpor-
ated into his works, whether consciously or unconsciously.
In a way, these inclusions attest to the longevity and universality of Beowulf
and the ideas it contains—ideas which have been used or alluded to in mov-
ies, television shows, and countless books and novels throughout the years—,
including the ones set in the world of Hobbits. Tolkien used some elements of
the poem jokingly, as witty little inside jokes only understood and appreciated
by the well-read. But he would probably be swift to point out that his most
important references are deeper, in some cases woven into the very fabric of
his world. In these instances, they are hardly references at all, and certainly
not inside jokes. Perhaps they could best be considered as evidence that the
ideas and beliefs within Beowulf are still deeply ingrained in our cultural iden-
tity, so much so that reference to their original source almost becomes an
afterthought. When used consciously by Tolkien, however, these instances can
perhaps be viewed simply as a solemn, appreciative bow, in gratitude to the
tale that started them all.
As a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, Tolkien was in frequent
contact with this work. He usually taught it to undergraduates, as a way of
AClearandDistantLight:
BeowulfandJ.R.R.Tolkien
SarahBauerle

27. 21
Issue5:TheHobbit|
getting their feet wet before plunging
into some of the more daunting works.
To many new students, this experience
was unlike any they had ever encoun-
tered before. Tolkien’s enthusiasm for
Beowulf and other ancient literature
was contagious, and he was appar-
ently successful at transmitting that
enthusiasm to his students. He was
known for beginning his Beowulf lec-
tures with the poem’s opening cry of
“Hwæt!” which, as Carpenter says in
his biography, some students thought
meant “Quiet!” Several students later
said, sometimes years afterwards,
that this experience marked a pivotal
moment in their understanding of
literature. “I don’t know if I ever told
you,” W.H. Auden wrote Tolkien later,
“what an unforgettable experience it
was […] hearing you recite Beowulf.
The voice was the voice of Gandalf.”
Another former student, J.I.M. Stewart, wrote that
Tolkien “could turn a lecture room into a mead hall
in which he was the bard and we were the feasting,
listening guests” (both qtd. in Carpenter 138).
Tolkien and Beowulf are mainly connected be-
cause of his 1936 lecture on the poem, which he
later rewrote and published as an article under the
title of “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” As
the title would suggest, Tolkien fielded many criti-
cisms of Beowulf in his essay, defending the poem
against claims that it was merely a dusty old tale of
monsters and swords, with few, if any, redeeming
characteristics, and no place at all in the modern
world. Tolkien refuted this claim and asserted that
the poem is very successful in doing what it was
meant to do: to tell a story already ancient at the
time it was written down, a tale of courage and
victory and ultimate defeat, of defying wyrd (or des-
tiny) even as you are guided by it, and of staving
off the darkness a little while longer, until the next
danger comes.
These characteristics, taken together, contribute
much to the idea of the quintessentially “north-
ern” spirit that Tolkien sought to use and emulate.
In Beowulf, for example, he saw civilization as an
outpost against the darkness. In “The Monsters and
the Critics,” he quotes line 311 of Beowulf and says
that, “A light starts—lixte se leoma ofer landa fela
[that light shined over many lands]—and there is
a sound of music; but the outer darkness and its
hostile offspring lie ever in wait for the torches to
fail and the voices to cease.” He has Legolas use
the very same line to describe Meduseld, the hall
of Théoden (just as the original line was used to
describe Hrothgar’s Heorat): “The light of it shines
far over the land” (LOTR 496). But despite the com-
forts of such a glorious outpost, the dark still en-
croaches upon them. Even in the safe-house of Tom
Bombadil, the hobbits have nightmares about the
wights outside.
One of the most haunting qualities that Tolkien
saw in Beowulf and other ancient tales was the
sense of historical depth and antiquity that they
contained, “the illusion,” as he wrote in “Monsters
and Critics”: “of surveying a past […] a past that
itself had depth and reached backward into a dark
antiquity […] This impression of depth is […] a justi-
fication of the use of episodes and allusions to old
tales.” He may have perhaps been defending his
own work as well in making that statement, for he
frequently embedded deeper, more obscure bits of
his own mythology onto the surface of The Hob-
bit and The Lord of the Rings, for the very same
purpose. Tolkien, therefore, does not have Aragorn
explain his side-swipe reference to Queen Buruth-
iel’s cats or his mention of Luthien and Beren for
the same reason that the Beowulf poet does not
expand further on the tales told within the poem,
or the numerous feuds mentioned. To do so would
be to ruin the effect of history, of the illusion of a
world behind the world, so to speak. As he wrote
in a 1963 letter, expressing his reluctance to write a
sequel to The Lord of the Rings, “Part of the attrac-
tion of [The Lord of the Rings] is, I think, due to the
glimpses of a large history in the background: an
attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited is-
land […]. To go there is to destroy the magic” (qtd.
in Shippey 229-230).
Perhaps for a similar reason, and to avoid dat-
ing Middle-earth and himself, Tolkien stubbornly
resisted almost all attempts to find religion in his
world. Although he was devoutly Catholic, he
struck the tone of the compiler of Beowulf—that
of a Christian observing (and yet not judging) a pre-
Christian culture. Evidence of religion (if not, per-
haps, Christianity) does appear in The Silmarillion,
in the chracter of Eru, a god-like Creator, but it is
deliberately downplayed in the other books. True,
destiny (or, in the Old English of Beowulf, wyrd)
does sometimes seem to play a part in guiding the

28. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
22
paths of the characters, but the majority of deci-
sions fall on the heads of the characters themselves.
Even though Beowulf senses that the dragon is
fated to be the cause of his death, he still firmly de-
cides to confront it anyway. As Wiglaf later says, he
“follow[ed] his own will” (Norton 1150). Fate and
choice are sometimes curiously intertwined, how-
ever. Wiglaf continues, “Nothing we advised could
ever convince/the prince we loved […]/not to vex
the custodian of the gold […]./He held to his high
destiny” (1150-1151). This same mingling of fate
and choice is echoed in Gandalf’s words to Frodo,
when he says, “Bilbo was meant to find the Ring,
and not by its maker. In which case you also were
meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging
thought” (LOTR 54-55). Though the Ring “chose”
to leave Gollum, either by its own will or the will
of its maker, it certainly did not intend to be picked
up by Bilbo. There is evidence of a higher power
(though whether it is God or fate is left open) work-
ing behind the scenes.
While Gandalf’s conclusion is optimistic, Beo-
wulf’s is not. However, despite his near-certainty
that the upcoming encounter with the dragon will
result in his death, he bravely presses forward any-
way. This courage in the face of despair was one of
the key characteristics that Tolkien admired in the
northern spirit. In many ways, the overall tone of
Beowulf and other works of the time is an incred-
ibly disheartening one. In a strange inversion of the
well-known Bible verse, joy may last for a moment,
but sorrow comes in the end. Beowulf reigns well
and happily for 50 years, but he meets an unhappy
end with the dragon, and his people fear an out-
break of hostilities and feuding after his death.
Similarly, though the dragon Smaug is defeated in
The Hobbit, a much greater enemy rears its head
only a generation later. Even after that great enemy,
Sauron, is defeated, there is a feeling of loss, as the
Elves must also fade away with the simultaneous
loss of their powers. Frodo saves Middle-earth and
his people, but at the cost of his own life, just as
Beowulf does. There is no hope of a permanent vic-
tory in this life, and very little for one beyond it.
Why create such a hopeless situation? Tolkien’s
point seems to be that the darker the situation,
the clearer the light of a hero shines. It is easy to
be hopeful when victory is assured, but only in the
depths of Mordor or in a dragon’s barrow does
courage count. Tolkien fought in World War I, and
witnessed many acts of heroism in the senseless car-
nage of trench warfare. His heroes, therefore, are
the ones who hold out when all hope is seemingly
lost. Denethor is not one of these heroes: in the last
days of the siege of Minas Tirith, he is driven mad
by despair and chooses to end his own life instead
of waiting for (as he sees) the inevitable defeat.
All the same, as a Christian, Tolkien had a hard
time approving of the despairing courage that
some of the northern heroes displayed—Beowulf
entering the dragon’s den, for example. While this
may have been true of the North’s pagan heritage,
it did not entirely fit in with the courage he had
observed in his fellow country-men and in the hor-
rors of the trenches. For this type of courage, he
invented the Hobbits, a rather anachronistic race,
and decidedly unlike the heroes in Beowulf. A quote
about Sam from The Two Towers illustrates this
characteristic: “After all he [had] never had any real
hope in the affair from the beginning; but being
a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope” (LOTR
624). Tolkien seems to hold that “a stout pretence is
more valuable than sincere despair” (Shippey 159).
Certainly this fits the stereotype of the English and
their “stiff upper lip”—a stereotype, yes, but one
with underlying truth.
So, despite Tolkien’s deep indebtedness to Beo-
wulf, there are some times where he deliberately
went counter to its ideals. The Hobbits, as a race,
are one example of this. Tolkien seemed aware that
modern readers would have a hard time identify-
ing with the protagonists of his story if they were
all mythic, super-human heroes such as Aragorn,
Théoden, and the like. The Hobbits are therefore
used as a mediator between the ancient world of
Middle-earth and our modern age. Bilbo, for ex-
ample, talks in a stunningly contemporary way,
often to comedic effect. One humorous example of
this comes before the Battle of Five Armies, where
the different parties get together and discuss what
is going to be done with Smaug’s treasure. The
Dwarves, Elves, and Lakemen all use high, archaic
speech—“Begone now ere our arrows fly,” for ex-
ample (Hobbit 264). Later, however, when Bilbo
sneaks off to conduct his own negotiations, he uses
speech that, while just as formal, strikes quite a dif-
ferent tone. “Personally I am all too ready to con-
sider all your claims carefully, and deduct what is
right from the total,” he says (Hobbit 269-270), for
all the world like a businessman striking a deal! Al-
though Tolkien was well aware of the conventions
of epics, he sometimes slyly inverted them, just to

29. 23
Issue5:TheHobbit|
show that he was also aware of the differences in
cultures between that time and ours.
The “un-epicness” of Hobbits also comes into play
when dealing with the character of Frodo. Much
has often been made of the fact that a name simi-
lar to Frodo’s appears in Beowulf. The name, how-
ever, is Fróda, and he is barely mentioned at all, in
a story disconnected to the plot. The Norse version,
Fróthi, has a few more tales connected to it. He was
supposedly a king whose reign brought peace to
the land, which was known as Frótha-frith, or “the
peace of Fróthi” (Shippey 206). While Frodo does
indeed bring peace, the similarities beyond that
seem rather vague. The fact is that, like Bilbo, Frodo
is a hobbit, and is thus anachronistic in this heroic
world and can have no true corollary.
The above statement, however, is only true near
the beginning of Frodo’s adventures. Through the
long journey, his eventual take-over by the Ring,
and the loss of a finger, Frodo moves further and
further away from being a hobbit and closer to
the heroic world of Aragorn and Beowulf. In the
end, he leaves the Shire because he no longer be-
longs to it or feels at home. Because of his change
from comfortable hobbit to ancient hero, and his
eventual uneasy settling somewhere in-between, it
might not be totally amiss to draw a connection be-
tween him and a character from Beowulf. While he
shares little with Fróda except a name, he has more
characteristics in common with Shield Sheafson,
mentioned at the beginning of Beowulf. Far from
being a well-defined character, Shield Sheafson is
described in a short passage set in an almost mythic
past tense. His primary characteristics—and those
he shares with Frodo—are that he is an orphan, and
is associated with water (he arrives unexpectedly as
a foundling on a small boat and his funeral pyre is
pushed out to sea). Frodo is also associated with
water—his parents are drowned, so his orphanage
is actually caused by water, and he leaves by boat at
the end in a symbolic “death.”
However, this may not be a specific, conscious ref-
erence, but rather the use of a wide-spread idea.
Orphans have been the heroes of countless stor-
ies throughout history, for numerous reasons—they
have no support system, so are thus more independ-
ent and heroic; they have more to prove; they have
less to lose; etc. Even Beowulf is an orphan. It is
difficult to know whether there were any previous
sources of these ideas that influenced Beowulf, but
there are certainly many oral folktales we know of
nowadays that use them. If the character of Shield
Sheafson was not drawn from these, that of Frodo
certainly was.
One character who has a more obvious forefather
in Beowulf is Gollum. This twisted, pathetic crea-
ture is actually very similar to Grendel, the terrifying
monster that stalks the halls of Heorot. While Gol-
lum is made into a slightly more sympathetic char-
acter than Grendel, the similarities are too marked
to be accidental. Tolkien obviously used one great
antagonist to inspire another. Grendel is first de-
scribed as:
[A] powerful demon, a prowler through
the dark,
[who] nursed a hard grievance. It har-
rowed him
to hear the din of the loud banquet
every day in the hall, the harp being
struck
and the clear song of a skilled poet
telling with mastery of man’s beginnings.
(Norton 1087)
Gollum is described similarly by Gandalf, though
the sympathetic tendency towards him is obvious:
“It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear
a kindly voice again, bringing up mem-
ories of wind, and trees, and sun on the
grass, and such forgotten things.
“But that, of course, would only make
the evil part of him angrier in the end.”
(LOTR 53-54)
Both of these characters are fallen beings—for
Grendel, no hope of redemption is given, and even
for Gollum, the chance is very slight. It is interesting
to note that Grendel (who was born an outcast,
through no real fault of his own) is often viewed
as being a strangely sympathetic character for a
These are the jokes of a philologist, but Tolkien would have seen them as very small
jokes indeed when compared to the whole scheme of things. Far more important to him
was that the of the ancient, half-forgotten tale be preserved.

30. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
24
“monster” in an ancient tale, and Tolkien does the
same for the character of Gollum, only to a more
pronounced degree.
Aside from these large-scale and general influ-
ences, many small, specific inclusions can also be
detected. The entire cup-stealing scene in The Hob-
bit, for example, is famously borrowed from a simi-
lar scene in Beowulf. In both cases, the thief is a
reluctant one, the item stolen is a cup, the dragon
is sleeping and does not awaken right away, and
when he does, he wrathfully destroys the surround-
ing countryside in revenge. Interestingly, in Beo-
wulf, the miserable thief is later found by Beowulf
and forced to join his group, thus becoming the
thirteenth member, as Bilbo also joins the party of
Dwarves. Also, just as Beowulf dies in slaying the
dragon, so Thorin loses his life before peace is finally
gained. As Tolkien wrote in one of his letters: “Beo-
wulf is among my most valued sources; though it
was not consciously present… in the process of
writing, …the episode of the theft arose naturally
(and almost inevitably) from the circumstances. It
is difficult to think of any other way of conducting
the story at this point. I fancy the author of Beowulf
would say much the same” (qtd. in Glenn).
One of the greatest collections of small details
comes in the words Tolkien borrowed from Old
English, and sometimes from Beowulf itself. One
of the most thoughtless statements ever made
about Tolkien’s works was by Neil D. Isaacs, who,
while actually defending Tolkien, used one of the
worst insults that the author could have probably
imagined. “Tolkien’s own off-hand remarks about
the importance of philology to the creative con-
ception of the trilogy need not be taken too ser-
iously” (qtd. in Shippey 25). If Tolkien had heard
this statement, he would have been deeply hurt
by it. As a lifelong lover of language, philology
was extremely important to him and to the cre-
ation of his work. Indeed, it has often been said
that he started with a language (more specifically,
Quenya and Sindarin, the languages of the Elves)
and then wrote a world in which such languages
were logical. He put deep thought into the choos-
ing of words and names, and those he borrowed
from Old English were no exception.
For the most part, the Old English names were
reserved for the Rohirrim, who were in many ways
meant to resemble the ancient Anglo-Saxons, as
well as the earlier cultures within Beowulf. Most
of them are lost in translation, but “Éomer” is one
name that remains the same. Other examples in-
clude Orc-néas, which originally meant “evil shades”
and which later became “Orcs,” and Ylfe, which
became “Elves” (Kennedy). Ironically, both of these
were used in the same line of Beowulf (line 112),
and were used derogatorily for the twisted, evil des-
cendants of Cain, of which Grendel is a member.
These are the jokes of a philologist, but Tolkien
would have seen them as very small jokes indeed
when compared to the whole scheme of things. Far
more important to him was that the air of the an-
cient, half-forgotten tale be preserved. Perhaps the
best way to conclude is by the considering two end-
ings—one, of the poem Beowulf, and the second,
of one of Tolkien’s poems, which were written over
the span of many years but published after The Lord
of the Rings.
Beowulf ends with the death of the hero, and the
gathering of the treasure he had lost his life for into
a barrow mound.
It was their hero’s memorial […].
They let the ground keep that ancestral
treasure,
gold under gravel, gone to earth,
as useless to men now as it ever was.
(Norton 1152)
Though treasure was prized so highly in the world
of the Geats and the Danes, it did Beowulf no good
in the end, and the smoke of his funeral pyre rose
to the sky. Beowulf ends in wailing and tears and
useless, cursed treasure.
The poem by Tolkien, now called “The Hoard,”
was, appropriately enough, originally titled with
a line from Beowulf in the original Old English:
“Iúmonna Gold Galdre Bewunden”—or, “the gold
of ancient men, wound round with enchantment”
(Shippey 86-87). The Dwarves in The Hobbit also
seek “the pale enchanted gold” (Hobbit 14). How-
ever, as the tale told in “The Hoard” unfolds, it be-
comes clear that such treasure can do no one good,
and that it is best laid to rest as in Beowulf—
There is an old hoard in a dark rock,
forgotten behind doors none can unlock;
that grim gate no man can pass.
On the mound grows the green grass;
there sheep feed and the larks soar,
and the wind blows from the sea-shore.
The old hoard the Night shall keep,
while earth waits and the Elves sleep.
(The Adventures of Tom Bombadil 56)

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As we take leave of this poem, of Middle-earth,
and of Beowulf, we are left with a sweet sadness
bordering on confusion—the sense that we have
missed something, that we have experienced a land
to which there is no returning, and a time which
will never come again. Tolkien strove often to create
this sense of a vanished past in his writing, to evoke
the feeling of ancient epics such as Beowulf. His use
of elements from a tale that has lasted for centuries
has helped to make his own stories equally timeless.
So after all his work, Tolkien would have, no doubt,
viewed our wistful reaction as a great success.
Works Cited
Carpenter, Humphrey. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Print.
Glenn, Jonathan A. “To Translate a Hero: The Hobbit
as Beowulf Retold.” University of Central Arkansas.
7 Sept. 2005. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://faculty.
uca.edu/jona/second/hobbeow.htm>.
Kennedy, Michael. “Tolkien and Beowulf—Warriors
of Middle-Earth.” Tol Harndor:The Australasian
Smial of the Tolkien Society. 2001. Web. 06
Paths we weave form circles, then cycles. Well trodden, footsteps are as
familiar as the season that sets them in motion. With nothing in view
from a border that closes in, the familiar begins to destroy. Yearning for
more, dreams wrestle with hope. A struggle to the very core. Days pass.
Mountains in the distance are a sign of new vision. Of mesmerizing
jewels, of mystery and lore. Of fables mixed with legends and stories
yet untold. Their history behooves us, pushing us toward more. Ever
reaching. Ever singing. Ever open to life’s doors.
It’s the journey that eludes us, on the winding path ahead, when we
can’t escape its clutches that go ever, ever on. Then we turn and face
the footsteps that have pleaded to begin. Just a step. Take a step. Time
to tread the dawn.
and skies align, no longer wondering why. A drifter in the openness,
Apr. 2011. <http://tolharndor.org/tilkal/issue1/
beowulf.html>.
The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter
Second Edition ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W.
Norton &, 2009. Print.
Shippey, T. A. The Road to Middle-Earth: How
J.R.R. Tolken Created a New Mythology. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil:
and Other Verses from the Red Book. London: G.
Allen & Unwin, 1974. Print.
---. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1994. Print.
---. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”
Lecture. 25 Nov. 1936. Scribd. Web. 6 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/11790039/JRR-
Tolkien-Beowulf-The-Monsters-and-the-Critics>.
---. The Hobbit (or, There and Back Again). New
York: Ballantine Group, 1996. Print.
Zimbardo, Rose A., and Neil D. Isaacs, eds.
Understanding The Lord of the Rings: the Best
of Tolkien Criticism. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
2004. Print.
Ever Skies Missy M. McClure

32. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
26
Harper Collins is releasing a brand new edition
of The Hobbit on September 12th, 2013, followed
by a deluxe edition and a 2014 calendar. With over
150 wonderful illustrations, a talented young artist,
Jemima Catlin, is the first to decorate The Hobbit
since Alan Lee’s iconic work 15 years ago.
Jemima says that she “wanted to publish an edition
of The Hobbit that pulled it back from the cinematic
fantasy of the films and reintroduced that sense of
adventure and magic that Tolkien’s own children
must have felt when he first read them the story.”
She came to the attention of David Brawn, Pub-
lisher of Estates at HarperCollins, after sending him
her work on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Roverandom from a
project for her illustration degree program. On her
illustrations for The Hobbit, Brawn says:
“I love how Jemima has taken all her cues from
the text—simple things like the different coloured
beards of the Dwarves that it is so easy not to notice
when reading the book.”
Jemima’s illustrations arise from the words of
the author himself, and swirl under her brush into
beautiful form with a breath of innocence, allowing
your imagination to leap into life in between each
paragraph, with every rustle of the turning page,
leaving you delightfully surprised.
We had a chance to ask her a few questions on her
take on success, and how her path led to illustration.
You have already seen such an extraordinary
clear adaptation of the book in Peter Jack-
son’s installment, yet you still have a very
unique vision when it comes to your works.
How did you manage to abstract yourself so
much from any given visuals in the process
of your creation, focusing only on the “word-
picture” of the author?
Thank you. I deliberately only focused on Tolkien’s
writing and his own drawings during the project,
because I didn’t want anything else to influence me.
Also, my drawings needed to appeal to a younger
audience than the Peter Jackson films, so this made
them quite different.
What do you personally think of Peter Jack-
son’s adaptation of (specifically) Tolkien’s
characters and Middle-earth landscapes? Are
there many aspects you agree/disagree with?
I really love the Lord of the Rings films; I have seen
them countless times since they were released. I
also enjoyed watching The Hobbit, but I think all
the dwarves should have had long beards. Some of
the story was changed, and this bothered me, too;
but then I was so close to the book that I expected
to be overly critical of the film. I’m looking forward
to the next film of The Hobbit. This one should have
all the really exciting bits in it!
You were “discovered” by publisher David
Brawn by the means of your own project, cre-
ated for an illustration degree program. What
compelled you to choose a theme that includ-
ed Tolkien for your project?
I chose to illustrate Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien,
because I found the book fascinating and inspiring.
I loved the fact that Tolkien had used so many dif-
ferent landscapes in the story; under the sea, on the
moon, in the sky, etc. It was really fun to illustrate,
and the characters are so interesting and quirky.
Also, being a short story, Roverandom was the per-
fect length for my project because we only had 3
months in which to do it.
Re-imagining
The Hobbit: An
Interview with
Jemima Catlin
Anastasia Green

33. 27
Issue5:TheHobbit|
Relating to the question above, what made
you pick up a carrier path in the arts?
I have wanted to be an illustrator ever since I was
a child. My mother is an artist and encouraged me
to draw from the moment I could hold a pencil. I
wrote my own stories from the age of 8 and drew
the pictures, stapling the pages together to form a
book. When I left school I studied Art and Design
at Weymouth College, and then went onto do a
two year foundation course in Visual Communica-
tion followed by a BA Honors Degree in Illustration.
Every artist tends to leave their mark on some
part of their sub-creation. Clearly, Tolkien’s
characters, and even the environment, have
their own emotions and behave a certain
way. Would you say there’s a lot (if any) of
“you” in your works?
My illustration style is unique to myself, so in that
sense I suppose that there is a lot of me in there.
How did you first stumble upon “a hole in the
ground” and the story of its dweller?
I first read The Hobbit when I was 12, and I loved it
so much I couldn’t put it down!
The first thing that strikes the eye of a viewer
in the new slip-case edition of The Hobbit is
the cover, which is bright red with a golden
wraparound dragon. How would you express
the meaning behind the colors?
Bright red represents danger, and the most danger-
ous creature in The Hobbit was Smaug! I think that
dragons are majestic creatures, so gold seems perfect.
What other artists have inspired your work?
My illustrations for The Hobbit have been inspired
by Tolkien’s own artwork. When I was growing up,
I enjoyed artists such as E.H Shepherd, and Ivy Wal-
lace—and these illustrators have probably influenced
my style. I also really like Tove Jansson’s illustrations,
and Arthur Rackham is another artist I admire.
If you met another young artist whose dream
was to be published by HarperCollins or to be
recognized by his/her own works, what would
your advice be?
Keep drawing and painting so you don’t lose your
talent. If you haven’t got a commission, then make
your own brief, or publish your own book of your
artwork. Always experiment with new methods of
drawing to keep the creative process exciting. If
a particular book inspires you, then draw a set of
illustrations and send them to the publishers—you
never know what may come of it!
How do you like working for a major publish-
ing company like HarperCollins? Is there a lot
of pressure? Were you also concerned about
the reaction of readers to your adaptations?
There was an enormous amount of work to do, and
I was drawing right up until 1:00 a.m. most nights.
I put a lot of pressure on myself to finish the work
to the deadlines, it was important to me that I gave
everything I had to this project. Working for Harp-
erCollins was nice because they let me have the free-
dom to choose which scenes I wanted to illustrate
and how I wanted to draw the characters. They did
give me some direction when needed though. In
terms of readers’ reactions, during the project I was
just happy for the Tolkien Estate to be pleased with
my interpretation. With them being the closest to
Tolkien’s work, it was the biggest compliment that
they liked my illustrations for The Hobbit.
You’ve accomplished quite a goal, being the
first artist to wonderfully illustrate The Hob-
bit in 15 years, after the outstanding work of
Alan Lee. If you can reveal anything, are there
any other famous works you would like to
illustrate?
I’d love to illustrate The Lord of the Rings, but would
do something completely different and with a dark
edge—similar to Arthur Rackham. I would also like
to illustrate The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
I’d really like to re-visit Roverandom one day, too!
What does art in general mean to you? Can
you define it?
My definition of art would be: Art is a visual inter-
pretation conveying what you think and feel using
whatever media that feels appropriate. To me, art
allows me to show
my perspective to
others, like I have
taken a photograph
inside my mind.
The Hobbit by
J.R..R.. Tolkien,
Illustrated
by Jemima
Catlin is
published by
HarperCollins
in hardback,
priced £20.

34. |SilverLeaves...FromtheWhiteTreeofHope
28
They work in gardens, hatted, gloved,
are folks your grand-folks would have loved;
are quick of eye, and stout of limb,
they love good earth... but do not swim.
Some love to sing; most tell good yarns;
are strong enough to help raise barns.
The people who do all these things,
of whom the minstrel sometimes sings,
are much like Hobbits on our earth,
Some love the pipe, and some the bowl,
are fond of home, and some that hole
hemmed in by walls and walls of books;
are artisans, perhaps, or cooks.
is something of a deeper kind,
not found in armour, shields or swords,
not fond of knighthoods or rewards,
but swift to fend off crueler sorts,
defending justice in our courts.
who laugh with love, are faithful, kind.
We know those ones, and love them well,
and while in stories most may dwell,
some, clearly humankind at birth,
live Hobbit-like, and bless the earth.
Concerning
Hobbits
P.R. Miller