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Hey Ahab, put down the harpoon!

""Dwarf Lords in their own right, Balin and Dwalin are close relatives of Thorin. Beyond this, these brothers are two of his most loyal and trusted friends. An old warrior, Balin has lived through hard times and fought many battles, yet he harbors doubts about the wisdom of the Quest to retake the Lonely Mountain. Dwalin has no such forebodings – his belief in Thorin’s leadership is unshakeable. A powerful and bruising fighter, with a natural tendency to distrust anyone who is not a Dwarf, particularly anyone who might be an Elf, Dwalin is not someone to cross lightly."
(L-R) Ken Stott as Balin and Graham McTavish as Dwalin"

reds8n wrote:


""Dwarf Lords in their own right, Balin and Dwalin are close relatives of Thorin. Beyond this, these brothers are two of his most loyal and trusted friends. An old warrior, Balin has lived through hard times and fought many battles, yet he harbors doubts about the wisdom of the Quest to retake the Lonely Mountain. Dwalin has no such forebodings – his belief in Thorin’s leadership is unshakeable. A powerful and bruising fighter, with a natural tendency to distrust anyone who is not a Dwarf, particularly anyone who might be an Elf, Dwalin is not someone to cross lightly."
(L-R) Ken Stott as Balin and Graham McTavish as Dwalin"

Now they look like dwarves!

Damn it, work blocked in my own thread

Where has this pic been released Red?

EDIT - It's all right, I found it on comicbookmovie.com. Proper dwarves with proper beards

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/15/time-exclusive-first-look-at-balin-and-dwalin-from-the-hobbit-movie/

..now everywhere, of course.

Well so far I'm deown with all of them except Aragorn elf dwarf. I like that they have querky looks to them, and aren't all serious or identical. Hopefully it might be an indication that the Hobbit is a more cheerful movie than the LOTR series, which is as it should be.

I immediately got that impression Frazzled so hopefully you are correct.

The Aragorn elf dwarf is the equivalent of a teenager which could explain his rebellious atypical dwarf like appearance.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:I immediately got that impression Frazzled so hopefully you are correct.

The Aragorn elf dwarf is the equivalent of a teenager which could explain his rebellious atypical dwarf like appearance.

They could really carry it off if the older dwarves made fun of it.

Frazzled wrote:Well so far I'm deown with all of them except Aragorn elf dwarf. I like that they have querky looks to them, and aren't all serious or identical. Hopefully it might be an indication that the Hobbit is a more cheerful movie than the LOTR series, which is as it should be.

My thoughts exactly, Frazz. Also I notice none of the characters have helmets, which could have been used as visual tool to distinguish one character from the other. Any way thanks for the pics reds8n.

Indeed, helmets may be a further delineator, with some wearing different styles and some not.

Frazzled wrote:Indeed, helmets may be a further delineator, with some wearing different styles and some not.

And a toque for the Canadian dwarf and a NASCAR cap for the redneck one right?

You know the Canadian dwarf looks like one of the drivers in Ice Road truckers.

reds8n wrote:


""Dwarf Lords in their own right, Balin and Dwalin are close relatives of Thorin. Beyond this, these brothers are two of his most loyal and trusted friends. An old warrior, Balin has lived through hard times and fought many battles, yet he harbors doubts about the wisdom of the Quest to retake the Lonely Mountain. Dwalin has no such forebodings – his belief in Thorin’s leadership is unshakeable. A powerful and bruising fighter, with a natural tendency to distrust anyone who is not a Dwarf, particularly anyone who might be an Elf, Dwalin is not someone to cross lightly."
(L-R) Ken Stott as Balin and Graham McTavish as Dwalin"

Very nice. The Hobbit just went up a notch on the cool meter

Aye there be dwarves abroad!

One of the flaws of The Hobbit as a novel is that there are too many Dwarf characters to be kept track of, which is made worse by their names (Dwalin, Balin, Falin, Kalin, Nalin, Halin, Palin and Galin, etc. -- I exaggerate for effect...)

Bilbo is the hero, of course, but there are times when it seems like most of the Dwarves are there only to keep up the numbers.

I think the designer has done a good job making all the Dwarves look a bit different while still fundamentally Dwarvish and related. I look forwards to seeing the whole ensemble with Bilbo and Gandalf.

Kilkrazy wrote:One of the flaws of The Hobbit as a novel is that there are too many Dwarf characters to be kept track of, which is made worse by their names (Dwalin, Balin, Falin, Kalin, Nalin, Halin, Palin and Galin, etc. -- I exaggerate for effect...)

Bilbo is the hero, of course, but there are times when it seems like most of the Dwarves are there only to keep up the numbers.

I think the designer has done a good job making all the Dwarves look a bit different while still fundamentally Dwarvish and related. I look forwards to seeing the whole ensemble with Bilbo and Gandalf.

thats so true. Their names are so similar it takes alot of effort to memorize the fellowship. but 15 D:

The Hobbit is a more whimsical creation than LoTR. More fairy tale than fantasy as we know it. Hence the cute rhyming names.

Yes, and it's a children's book.

Got a new lad at our little after school group painting Moria goblins and playing LoTR and looking forward to seeing the film. Reading the book with his brother.

He will doubtless get suckered into WH "proper"

There's always a downside

Get him on to "Hordes Of The Things".

You can do some awesome armies.



Not mine -- I wish it was!

Hence the cute rhyming names.

A large number of the names in The Hobbit were not made up by Tolkien, they were "borrowed" from Norse mythology, though they certainly worked well for adding some whimsy to his book.

Try reading the ancient Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, though spellings were altered to avoid requiring the special characters that go over the vowels to signify pronunciation, some of the names borrowed include: Bifur, Bofur, Bombor to name a few as well as the name, Gandalf.

I'm finally (after procrastinating for years) digging into reading the Islandinga sogur, and the names are a mix of humorous and feeling like I'm home.

I wonder if they will make "Bored of the Rings" into a film next?

snurl wrote:I wonder if they will make "Bored of the Rings" into a film next?

Bored of the?......oh I get it, its sarcasm

IMHO these dwarfs look like they should have a court order slapped against them...they look creepy, apart from the fat guy.

Not looking forward to this new film. Having read other authors in the genre, and having watched G.O.T recently, I realise how naff Tolkien's works are.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it in my teens, but that was before I discovered Joy division. Now i'm showing my age! But I freely admit to being a hyprocrite, so you'll probably bump into me at your local cinema.

Bored of the?......oh I get it, its sarcasm

Yes and no. It's not just not sarcasm, it's an actual book title. Bored Of The Rings is an awesome parody of Lord of the Rings written by the Harvard Lampoon staff about 40 years ago at the height of the popularity of Tolkien's books. Back in the days when "Frodo Lives" was common graffiti on college campuses Harvard Lampoon managed to write one of the funniest parodies ever turning Tolkien's roughly 1500 page epic into 160 pages of pure hilarity. Some of that particular staff from Harvard Lampoon founded National Lampoon magazine shortly thereafter. Doug Kenney also worked on Animal House as a writer and actor.

If you've never read Bored Of The Rings it's worth reading LotR just to get BotR. But brush up on your pop culture references going all the way back to the turn of the last century, the book was written by very literate folks and there are jokes in there referencing brand names, commercials and such that were already old when the book was published around 1970.

The book never fails to make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've read it. Everything in it is a joke, even the excerpt in the front of the book which is not really an excerpt, after you finish the book you realize it was an extra joke that appears nowhere in the actual text of the novel. The parody of the map of Middle Earth is hysterical, the list of other books by the authors are not actual books for sale as in most paperbacks, they are jokes too!

Excerpts:

"And thus it's written to this day in ballad, lay and poem, never trust an elf or dwarf as far as you can throw 'em!"
"That's a sad story, is it true?" "No, there's a song too."

The book goes in and out of print, thanks to the recent and upcoming related movies, it's back in print again and in a nice hardback not too expensive:

http://www.amazon.com/Bored-Rings-Harvard-Lampoon/dp/0575099593/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310873422&sr=1-2



From Amazon:

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Sometimes childish, sometimes rude, always clever and always very, very funny, this book has delighted most, and outraged a few, Tolkien fans in the US for more than40 years. Pulling in references to popular culture and fantasy literature as a whole, this is a killingly effective parody of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. From the dreary Goddamn (Gollum) to the feckless Arrowroot (Aragorn), the bungling Goodgulf (Gandalf) to the timid, mean-minded boggies Frito (Frodo) and Dildo (Bilbo), no character is safe. Fleeing the Nozdrul, bored by acid-casualty Tim Benzedrine and harassed throughout by the minions of Sorhed, the fellowship move through a Middle Earth like no other. Short, sharp and very much to the point, even Tolkien would be hard-pressed to surpress a giggle at BORED OF THE RINGS.

About the Author
The Harvard Lampoon was essentially Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard. They wrote BORED OF THE RINGS when they were students at Harvard. They then went on to form tTHE NATIONAL LAMPOON, a satirical institution in the '70s. Kenney died in 1980. Beard lives in the Hamptons in the USA.

Nobody tosses a dwarf!

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:IMHO these dwarfs look like they should have a court order slapped against them...they look creepy, apart from the fat guy.

Not looking forward to this new film. Having read other authors in the genre, and having watched G.O.T recently, I realise how naff Tolkien's works are.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it in my teens, but that was before I discovered Joy division. Now i'm showing my age! But I freely admit to being a hyprocrite, so you'll probably bump into me at your local cinema.

How does listening to Joy Division (a post-bunk band) have anything to do with your taste in novels?

Cheesecat wrote:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:IMHO these dwarfs look like they should have a court order slapped against them...they look creepy, apart from the fat guy.

Not looking forward to this new film. Having read other authors in the genre, and having watched G.O.T recently, I realise how naff Tolkien's works are.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it in my teens, but that was before I discovered Joy division. Now i'm showing my age! But I freely admit to being a hyprocrite, so you'll probably bump into me at your local cinema.

How does listening to Joy Division (a post-bunk band) have anything to do with your taste in novels?

Erm... because his love of books will tear him apart again? (sorry, that's the only Joy Division song I know).

I expect he means he discovered Joy Division at roughly the same point he stopped reading children's fantasy books. I don't think I ever reached that point

In answer to the above, I grew up in the countryside and it was a very boring place. LOTR is all about saving the shire, and when I was in my teens, I had no interest in saving my 'shire.' I wanted to be in the cities where the music was or on the picket lines.

Back on topic - I'm not happy with the fact that the film is split in two (shameless profiteering b££££££s) or with Martin Freeman getting the title role, as it won't be the same without Gervias turning up with a guide dog!