Re: The Hobbit, after all these years

randall.m@gmail.com said:
> We have no proof that they ever ate Troll.

And no proof they didn't.

Race (species?) gets a bit squishy in The Hobbit. There are times that the
dwarves* and the hobbit are referred to as men. This may happen with the
elves as well, but I'm not sure. As non-unidimensional as the trolls are,
I could easily see them being included in the racies that comprise "men".

I don't know if there's a distinction between "men" and "Men" in that book.



Speaking of the dwarves*, it's pretty amazing the difference between dwarves*
in The Hobbit and dwarves* in LotR. Good googamooga. The dwarves* in The
Hobbit are utter cowards (at least up to the point of Bilbo finding The Gem),
they don't bother too much about weapons or armor, and are afraid to go
underground. Surely dwarves* haven't changed so much in the ~100 years
between The Hobbit and LotR. Gimlet would have been ashamed to be associated
with the The Hobbit dwarves*.

Sure, sure, not all dwarves* are the same and there are going to be
personality differences between individual dwarves*. But a whole troop of
dwarves* all as craven as that lot? Only Balin makes much effort against
that, and even that's only hesitant.

Wayne

* Dwarfs, if you'd prefer.