JRR Tolkien's the Hobbit

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Marta Straková

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Issues in Adaptation

Bachelor’s Thesis

Supervisor: Jeff Smith, M.A., Ph.D.

2017

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography

...... Marta Straková

Table of contents 1 The Introduction ...... 2 2 The Problem of Fidelity in Adaptation ...... 4 3 J.R.R. Tolkien; Life, work and The Hobbit ...... 8 4 Sir Peter Robert Jackson ...... 12 5 Characters ...... 14 5.1 Azog the Defiler ...... 14 5.2 Thorin Oakenshield ...... 17 5.3 Mr Bilbo Baggins ...... 18 5.3.1 The Ring ...... 22 5.4 Legolas ...... 23 5.5 Gollum ...... 24 5.6 The Dwarves ...... 25 5.7 Female Characters ...... 27 5.7.1 Tauriel ...... 28 5.7.2 Galadriel ...... 29 6 The Battle ...... 30 7 The Laws of Physics ...... 32 7.1 The Goblin Cave – The Unexpected Journey ...... 33 7.2 The River of Molten Gold in The Desolation of Smaug ...... 35 7.3 Legolas and the Gravitational Acceleration ...... 35 8 Conclusion ...... 37

9 Works cited ...... 39

1 The Introduction

This bachelor’s thesis presents a comparative analysis of the book The Hobbit, or There and Back Again written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, which was first published in 1937

(although this thesis will be mainly concerned with the second edition from the year 1951), and it’s film trilogy adaptation released by Peter Jackson between years 2012 and 2014. At first, the thesis deals with the phenomenon of adaptation itself, specifically with the importance of fidelity towards the original work, and then it will provide particular examples of breaking this fidelity in the adaptation.

The thesis will try to prove the importance of fidelity of the adaptation towards the book in the case of such an intricate storyline as is the one of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which takes place in a very complex world. This world is called the Middle-Earth and it has its own origin, history, languages and peoples. The two stories are (in the context of the land and history of the Middle-Earth) originally linked only by the Ring, the wizard Gandalf, kinship between Gimli (the dwarf who is a part of the Fellowship of the Ring) and one of the dwarves in the Thorin’s company, and the relationship between Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins. In the context of the Jackson’s film adaptation there is a number of additional links created. This thesis will deal with those primarily and it will try to come up with the solution of the question, whether it is beneficial for the story, or not. Those links mainly represent the additional characters. It will be argued that in most cases the artificially created links between the two stories are rather more disturbing than beneficial for both the story of The Hobbit and also, although to a lesser extent, for the story of The Lord of the Rings.

This thesis deals partly with the characters that appear in both versions of the story and comparison of their versions, partly with the characters that were invented for the movies, and also with some of the aspects of Tolkien’s world that are changed in those movies. In the end of each chapter or sub-chapter there will be also an alternative for each phenomenon described. However, the majority of problems and infidelities of the film could have been solved by shortening the runtime by half. For obvious reasons, the knowledge of all the previously mentioned novels and films is required from a reader of this thesis.

2 The Problem of Fidelity in Adaptation

Although the history of adaptation is as long as the cinematographic history itself, the academic debate about that particular phenomenon has not been born earlier than in the middle of twentieth century. Mireya Aragay writes in her excellent publication Books in Motion:

“The conjunction of the factors delineated above resulted in a binary, hierarchical view of the

relationship between literature and film, where the literary work was conceived of as the

valued original and while the film adaptation was merely a copy, and where the fidelity

emerged as the central category of adaptation studies. The discourse of fidelity has exercised

a firm, persistent grip within the field of adaptation studies.” (12)

Although this view is not very common in the film studies nowadays, and despite the fact that the two media are radically different, with the novel being linguistic and descriptive and the film primarily visual, the importance of fidelity towards the original source is not an altogether forgotten or neglected criterion. Neither is it a useless one. By the act of taking a book and trying to translate it into a film the filmmaker shows either his love for the story of the book, in which case he should intend to change as little as possible about it, or he admits that he has no idea of his own and seeks help in literature. In such a case it is generally felt that the filmmaker owes to the author of the original story to be faithful to the book. As Brian McFarlane writes in his essay:

"First, it shouldn't be necessary after several decades of serious research into the processes and challenges of adaptations to insist that "fidelity" to the original text (however distinguished) is a wholly inappropriate and unhelpful criterion for either understanding or judgement"(15). In the case of The Hobbit this concept of fidelity to the text is definitely neither inappropriate nor unhelpful, which is the point of view from which will this thesis approach the story in question.

The reason for that is the greater context in which the original story is embedded; The Hobbit is

4 not an altogether finished story. The author of the book, J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote also The

Silmarillion, which precedes the story of The Hobbit, and also the epic trilogy of The Lord of the

Rings, in which the story continues. He invented whole new world with its races, languages and history, and therefore the individual stories must be viewed in a broader context.

It is possible to find examples of good adaptation both among faithful and unfaithful ones in the history of cinematography. But general quality of the adaptation is not the primarily discussed topic of this thesis, for it is more interested in fidelity towards the original story, as was already mentioned. The amount of emphasis on the fidelity of the adaptation should be judged on the basis of several criteria.

First of them should definitely be the extensiveness of the original story, not only the part that is being transferred into a movie; the filmmakers should take into consideration prequels and sequels of the book they intend to turn into a movie. This includes for example not omitting important characters who may play some significant role in the future of the story, or not using characters who are either not mentioned at all in the original story, or who are dead (see the chapter

Azog the Defiler). It is also not very wise to use characters who first appear in the sequel of the story in question, if the knowledge of the whole story is not perfect. To be faithful to the original story from point of view of the criterion of extensiveness might be rather difficult for example in cases where the story is not altogether finished yet. Recently the series The Game of Thrones was released, which can be used as a rather unusual example of this phenomenon. The series of books is not finished yet (and it is not very likely that the author would be able to finish it before he dies), and six seasons of the TV series w already released. The filmmakers are currently ahead of George

R.R. Martin, the author of the books, regarding the storyline. With The Hobbit this criterion is a crucial one, since its storyline is only a part of the whole history of Middle-Earth.

The previous mentioned criterion is closely related to the second one, which is the descriptiveness of the original work. If the book is not altogether descriptive and does not include information about surroundings, appearances of the characters, or a geography of the place the story takes place in, then the filmmakers are free to use their imagination. Such was the case in

The Hobbit and description of the characters (see chapter The Dwarves). But where the author of the original story gives the reader a great deal of information about surroundings and local cartography, the filmmakers should not change them; it would with all probability lead to confusion and logical mistakes both in the plot and in the whole story.

It is also important to keep in consideration the geography of the world where the story takes place. This matter is particularly pressing in cases when the story takes place somewhere else than the Earth. As an example, there can be mentioned this particular problem that happened in filming the movie The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring; when Gandalf the Grey rides from the Shire to visit Saruman in Isengard, it takes him, according to the book, several months to get there and back again. In the film version of the story it only takes days, which strikes the viewer who had read the book as wrong and disturbing. This criterion for fidelity is broken in

The Hobbit as well, as will be discussed further on in this thesis (see chapter “The Laws of

Physics”).

Last criterion to be mentioned in this chapter (but not less important than the other two) is the popularity of the original work. It is in their own interest that the filmmakers should always take this criterion into consideration. The bigger the fanbase of the original story is, the more difficult it becomes to please everybody. There are filmmakers, who pick rather unknown piece of literature and make a splendid movie out of it. Among these filmmakers there are for example the

Wachowskis; their adaptation of Cloud Atlas resulted in a widely appreciated film, even though it

6 is not a faithful adaptation of the novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Thanks to the fact that the original novel was rather an unknown one, it did not matter so much that not only the characters were different, but also the ending and the whole message of the original story was significantly altered. On the other hand, there are such novels that are widely known and recognized as a good literature (for example The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Great Gatsby, Atonement and so on). The second significant category are novels that are popular, although even the most dedicated readers would hesitate to call them good literature (Twilight saga, Harry Potter, The Hunger

Games and such). These two categories are from the point of view of fidelity rather difficult to make a good adaptation of. This is caused by the amount of members of the target group. The filmmakers must count with the fans of the novel as a significant percentage of viewers of the final product while making an adaptation of a popular book. The general rule that applies here is: the most faithful the adaptation of a well-known novel is, the happier the target audience will be.

There is always a danger that the film becomes a popular one and drags attention towards the original novel and popularizes it, but in the current age of general illiteracy this danger is rather insignificant. Even if such is the case, the reader who first saw the movie and liked it so much that he decided to read the book is unlikely to be retrospectively disappointed by the film after reading the novel, mostly because his imagination is influenced by the filmmakers.

Fidelity towards the original story is not an unimportant criterion for judging the adaptation.

Filmmakers who make an adaptation carry the burden of fidelity and it is not wrong to expect some level of it in any adaptation. However, as Peter Jackson says in one of his interviews: “Some fans will have a problem with the film and some will not… There is so many different individuals and you can’t please everybody.” (2:20)

3 J.R.R. Tolkien; Life, Work and The Hobbit

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a British novelist, poet and a professor of Anglo-Saxon at

Oxford, who was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (South Africa) to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel Tolkien.

Ronald‘s father died in February 1896 and since then Mabel had to take care of her two sons on her own. Before her death in 1904 Mabel appointed Father Francis Morgan to be a guardian of her two sons, which “proved a wise choice, for the displayed unfailing generosity and affection to them” (Carpenter 32). Both Ronald and his brother Hilary went to live in a rental house, where

Ronald met the love of his life, Edith Brett, who was also an orphan. During the next year they developed a romantic relationship, which was then forbidden by Tolkien’s guardian, because it distracted Ronald from his studies. Tolkien obeyed, although rather unwillingly, and had not seen

Edith until he was twenty one years old. Then he had written her a letter with a declaration of love.

She cancelled her engagement with another man and agreed to marry Tolkien. They were formally engaged in January 1913 and married in March 1916.

Tolkien afterwards had to participate in the First World War and due to the fact that he contracted the trench fever he was deported home. During the recovery he began to write The Book of Lost Tales. The Second World War he spent in London, learning to break codes for case of national emergency, which never came. In 1920 Tolkien took the post in the Leeds University, and in the year 1925 he returned to Oxford, where he stayed until his retirement in the year 1959.

Although he had a great affection for the Latin and Greek language and art, in his writing he was mainly influenced by the old British literature, for example by Beowulf, and by Finnish

8 mythology. He worked on several dictionaries, wrote many essays, poems and short stories, and also a few novels, namely The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, which are the main concern of this thesis.

The Hobbit is a novel that was originally written for Tolkien’s own children, and was first published in 1937. It is written as a children bed-time story, with a simple plot and strong distinction between good and evil. In this book Tolkien laid foundations of the modern fantasy by setting up stereotypes of fantasy such as races: Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Orcs and Trolls. Hobbits, the little respectable folks with curly hair, hairy feet and aversion to adventure of any kind are of

Tolkien's own creation, although he did not invent the very word Hobbit as such. According to the

“Dicrionary.com”, his word comes from the Old English, where the word Holbytla existed. It means a “hole-dweller”. However, Tolkien invented the nation of Hobbits and its three groups and brought them to the genre of fantasy.

Although it is mainly a fairy tale, the story of The Hobbit resembles the genre of epos, even though not as much as The Lord of the Rings. There is a simple storyline with no diversions; despite the fact that the story is narrated by the omniscient narrator, the reader follows Bilbo Baggins and the company of Dwarves, without knowing what is happening to the other characters such as

Gandalf. The characters, with the exception of Bilbo, are quite static and do not develop during the story. The Hobbit is a tale about a purposeful journey, in which the Dwarves are trying to reclaim their kingdom of Erebor. This kingdom was lost long ago to a dragon named Smaug, the only villain of the story, who now guards an unimaginably enormous treasure of the old king Thror.

Thorin Oakenshield, who is the leader of the group of dwarves who set upon the journey, is Thror’s grandson.

After J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings, he himself made alterations to The

Hobbit, so that the two stories work together. The scene that had to be changed the most significantly is the one in which Bilbo gets the Ring of power. The outline of the story is very similar: Bilbo gets lost under the Misty Mountains, he finds the ring and meets Gollum, they play a game of riddles and Bilbo wins. In the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia there is written:

“In the 1937 version, Bilbo’s riffle game with Gollum has the following stakes: if Gollum

wins, he eats Bilbo; if Bilbo wins, Gollum gives him the Ring. When Bilbo wins and

Gollum cannot find the Ring (not knowing that it is in Bilbo’s pocket), Bilbo suggests a

reward instead: Gollum will show him the way out. Gollum agrees and the two part on

amicable terms.”(278).

That is quite a different parting than the one in the second edition, from the year 1951, where

Gollum cries after Bilbo: “Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!”

(The Hobbit, 102). The reason for this change of the plot is the fact that it was necessary for the story of The Lord of the Rings that the Ring possesses a lot of power and has a great impact on its bearer. Nevertheless, in the story of The Hobbit (even in the re-written version) the Ring is perceived rather as a useful tool than as something that could one day represent a grave danger for whole world of Middle-Earth.

It is also important to mention, that there are no female characters in the whole story of The

Hobbit, apart from Bilbo’s mother Belladonna Took, who is only shortly mentioned in the beginning of the story, and even then she has long been dead, as will be mentioned further on in the thesis. Absence of the female sex in the story is a very interesting aspect, which is purposefully omitted in the film trilogy by Peter Jackson. J.R.R. Tolkien seldom wrote about female characters, and even in those rare occasions, the woman in question is usually rather a symbol than a

10 participant of the story. This categorization, however, does have exceptions. For example Eowyn, who plays a significant role in the story of The Lord of the Rings, or the proverbial Lúthien

Tinúviel, who saved her beloved Beren (Silmarillion). Nevertheless, in the novel The Hobbit there are no active female characters.

Since this thesis will also deal with the problem of breaking nature law in the films, it is important to mention, that in his novels and tales Tolkien respects the laws of physics. There is very little magic in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and the world works predictably. That is an aspect which will also be analysed further in the relevant chapter of this thesis.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a gentle and in some respects also a rather naïve story about a little and seemingly unimportant fellow, who in the end makes a great difference by doing his best to be a decent person, and who does things just because somebody has to. That, sadly, is not the message of the epic trilogy shot by Peter Jackson.

4 Sir Peter Robert Jackson

Robert Jackson is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actor who was born in New

Zealand on 31 October 1961. He is most well-known for his film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, which is an adaptation of the three novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Those films he released between years 2001 and 2003. Recently he also shot 3 films based on The Hobbit written by the same author. Jackson made his first movie, the horror comedy called Bad Taste, in 1987. So far he has directed fourteen movies, wrote a screenplay for fourteen and played in eighteen films, including the documentary and short ones. He was keen on making films since he got his first camera in the age of eight. He was making films with his friends and created his own film effects.

According to the interview he gave, when Jackson started with The Hobbit movies, the idea was to make two films. But things have changed, and after the first film was shot he came up with the idea of dividing the novel The Hobbit into three films while each of them is almost three hours long (5:00). This enabled him to add many scenes, characters and develop brand new storylines, which ought to have linked The Hobbit with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The three Hobbit films are named The Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of Five Armies.

As Cartmell and Whelehan write in their essay in Books in motion, “Rather than what is left out, more attention is cast on what is added; it is the additions, not the deletions to the source that are largely responsible for an adaptation's box office and critical success”. Regarding fidelity towards the original story Peter Jackson did not do the best job. He re-created or added some characters, omitted other ones and changed the storyline of the book. The most significant changes were not the omitions he did, but rather the additions. These didn't include only characters, but

12 also several plotlines (for example Gandalf’s journey to Dol Guldur in The Desolation of Smaug).

He also significantly changed the purpose and importance of individual characters, as will be discussed further on in this thesis. As a whole, the film trilogy is not a very faithful adaptation. It does not make it bad movies, however, as was already argued in the chapter on fidelity towards the original story, an unfortunate change of the original story can ruin the world of Middle-Earth.

5 Characters

Majority of the most important changes between the book The Hobbit and its film adaptations are in the number of main characters and their personalities. This chapter deals mostly with Azog the Defiler, Thorin Oakenshield, Bilbo Baggins, Gollum, Legolas and the female characters, particularly Galadriel and Tauriel. Apart from Thorin, Bilbo and Gollum they are all added into the story by Peter Jackson - none of these characters appear in the book. Azog is long dead while the story of The Hobbit is happening, and the female characters, as was mentioned before, do not appear in the original story at all. The abundance of additional characters is a very interesting phenomenon, which is caused mostly by the astonishing difference in length of the original story compared to the film one. The novel is rather a short one, and a quick reader is able to finish reading it in 5 hours (including number of long descriptive passages that do not take any time in the movie), whereas the film story is over eight hours long.

Peter Jackson filled the additional hours mostly with stories about people, who were never mentioned in the book, or with plotlines that included original characters, but were not included in the original story of The Hobbit. This chapter will try to capture some of those characters and the changes Peter Jackson made them go through and decide whether the change was good or beneficial for the story. In case it was not, then there will be provided an alternative – how it could have it been done not to damage the original story.

5.1 Azog the Defiler

This character is mentioned only twice in the whole book, both of these notions are uttered by Gandalf to Thorin. The first one appears in the very first chapter, when Gandalf says: "Your

14 grandfather Thror was killed, you remember, in the mines of Moria by Azog the Goblin..." (The

Hobbit, 30). The second case does not even include the name Azog, only ; it can be found in the very last chapter of the novel: “The Goblins are upon you! Bolg of the North is coming, O Dain! whose father you slew in Moria.“(324) Azog is further mentioned in the Appendix of The Lord of the Rings, where his death by Dáin Ironfoot's hand during the Battle of Moria is described: “Up the steps after him leaped a Dwarf with a red axe. It was Dáin Ironfoot, Náin's son. Right before the doors he caught Azog, and there he slew him, and hewed off his head… They (the Dwarves) took the head of Azog and thrust into its mouth the purse of small money, and then they set it on a stake.“(1049).

In the film version of The Hobbit, Azog is the main (and altogether CGI) villain. He is a servant of the evil sorcerer Necromancer, who serves as another link between The Hobbit and The

Lord of the Rings, where he is known under the name Sauron. Peter Jackson builds upon the mentioned battle of Moria and creates a strong bond between Thorin Oakenshield, the king of

Dwarves, and Azog, which is based on strong and bitter hatred. The “Pale Orc” (which is another name for this particular goblin) lost his arm by Thorin’s sword in that battle, while Thorin lost his grandfather by the hand of Azog. In the beginning of the story Thorin believes that Azog is dead for a long time, until he sees him with his own eyes in the end of the first movie. Such a strong wave of hatred raises in Thorin in that moment, that he flings himself into the middle of the peck of orcs and their wargs (i.e. evil wolves who can speak and maintain friendship with orcs) and he would certainly die had it not been for Bilbo Baggins.

The reason for resurrecting the character of Azog the Defiler seems to be quite straight- forward: It is usual and probably even necessary for mainstream action movies of this time to have a strong villain in it. Since there is only one thoroughly evil figure in the Tolkien’s The Hobbit,

15 the dragon named Smaug, and he is actively present only for a short time before he is killed, it is necessary to create another one. In this case, the fidelity to the original story must have been put aside for the sake of current film-making practice. Great dissonance between the book and the adaptation can be found in the fact, that according to Tolkien, Azog was long dead before the story of The Hobbit, as is described in the Appendix of The Lord of the Rings. Adding Azog would not be altogether bad for the story in general, but given the fact that Jackson himself claims that he wanted to link the story of The Hobbit with the story of The Lord of the Rings, this change in the plot seems to be quite unhappy. There are also objections against the appearance of Azog: although he is a Goblin (Tolkien does not distinguish between Goblins and Orcs), he does not look like the other Goblins in the films: He is of a pale grey color, rather than dark, he has blue eyes and he is almost twice the size of other Goblins. However, this alteration of the novel certainly provides the filmmakers with lot of action material to work with in the film.

The other option Jackson could have used to create a villain is Azog’s son Bolg, who is mentioned in The Hobbit. Just before the Battle of Five Armies Gandalf appears between the dwarf army and elven rank and cries: "Dread has come upon you all! Alas! It has come more swiftly than

I guessed. The Goblins are upon you! Bolg of the North is coming. O Dáin! Whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! The bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and

Wargs are in their train!" (263). In the original story the goblins appear no sooner than in the Battle of Five Armies in the very end of the book, and they are led by Bolg. In the Jackson's adaptation they come into the plot even before the party of Dwarves crosses the borders of Rivendell, and their chief is Azog. The first alteration is caused by lack of action in that part of the book version of the story. The second one is rather more difficult to explain. Petter Jackson himself never explained that particular alteration of the story. However, it can be presumed that this peculiar

16 change of the original story is thoroughly thought through. In case that Jackson wanted to underline the importance and power of evil sorcerer Necromancer (Sauron), it is an almost functional alteration. In the film trilogy Necromancer resurrected evil orc and enabled him to revenge his own death. However, the question that inevitably comes to the reader’s mind is: What motivation did Necromancer have to destroy Thorin Oakenshield? Neither the book version, nor the movie version gives any answer, let alone a satisfactory one.

The existence of Azog the Defiler in the movie trilogy is understandable, but not utterly inevitable alteration of the original story. This alteration is actually in conflict with the work of

J.R.R. Tolkien. If the change of the original story is not inevitable and the movies would not artistically suffer by the absence of Azog, then the change is wrong. In his interviews Peter Jackson broadly spoke about his effort to link the story of The Hobbit back (or rather forward) to The Lord

Of The Rings. Considering this fact, resurrecting Azog was not a wise move.

5.2 Thorin Oakenshield

Thorin Oakenshiled, Son of Thrain, son of Thror and the King under the Mountain is a leader of a company of thirteen Dwarves, wizard and Hobbit, that sets out for the journey to the Lonely

Mountain to reclaim the long lost Dwarven kingdom of Erebor. In the novel not much space was given to the development of the character of Thorin. According to the book he is “an important dwarf” (27), and until the end of the story the reader knows very little more about him. In the end of the book Thorin gets under the influence of “The Dragon sickness”, which essentially means that he gets greedy and tries to break his own promise, which is generally felt as not a thing any king should do. However, it does not mean he is reluctant to go into the battle that breaks out in front of gates of his shelter in the Lonely Mountain. The reader of the book does not know by

17 whose hand did he die, but it certainly was not Azog’s, because, as was already mentioned, the

Pale Orc was not in the original story of the novel.

In the films Thorin Oakenshield represents the main character and thus puts Mr. Bilbo

Baggins on the side track. The viewer does not only follow Thorin’s journey through the landscape towards his homeland, but also his internal evolution and struggles. The Dragon sickness is beginning to show upon him as soon as he sees the mountain in the end of the first film. In the third film the character with the most running time is Thorin. Special attention is given to his internal struggle. The character of the film Thorin is enriched with the relationship between him and Azog the Defiler. The existence of Azog in the story causes that Thorin needs more time for himself so that the history of Dwarf-Orc wars can be thoroughly explained, and understood by an uninformed viewer.

The main reproach towards the film version of the character of Thorin is that he seems to be more important for the story then Bilbo Baggins is. The actor fulfilled his role of an important dwarf, but the problem is, that the character has been given too much time in the film, especially compared to the main figure of the original story, Bilbo Baggins. The best possible change to be made there is to give more time to the main character (probably by omitting the character of Azog, as was mentioned in the previous subchapter). Also, as it was mentioned in the introduction, it would quite help if the filmmakers did not shoot 3 films based on such a short book.

5.3 Mr. Bilbo Baggins

Mr. Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit. It means, apart from hairy feet, small stature and reliability, that he is enormously polite even in very strange situations, for example when thirteen uninvited dwarves and one invited wizard happen to show upon his doorstep and eat all the food he has at home. The Shire, which is the region where Hobbits live, is an image of an old English countryside,

18 including its people. Probably the most accurate definition of the character of Bilbo Baggins in the book is this: “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world,“ (333). This is how Thorin described Bilbo Baggins just before he died.

The viewer of the Jackson’s trilogy meets Bilbo in the very beginning of the first film, where he (Bilbo) meets Gandalf and flatly, even though very politely, rules out any possibility of himself ever taking part in any adventure. Hobbits, as was mentioned before, are generally very polite and their hospitability is proverbial. However, in the very next scene (0:16-0:26), where 13 dwarves and Gandalf appear on Bilbo’s doorstep and eat all the food he has at home, the filmmakers made the first significant alteration to the original story and significantly changed that part of Hobbit’s nature. Both the Hobbit and the dwarves are rude and unpleasant towards each other. This change had probably been done in order to make the scene more understandable for the viewers who did not read the book.

The Bilbo from the book, after a significant nudge from Gandalf, becomes a part of Thorin’s company and travels with Dwarves to their homeland, even though he is complaining all the way and he is practically a burden for the whole company. This changes when he finds the “Ring of

Power”, which enables him to become invisible. This, together with some of his personal qualities gains him some respect from the Dwarves. He obtains even better reputation and almost admiration from the company after the fight with the giant spiders, when he saves lives of all of them.

“These questions they asked over and over again, and it was from little Bilbo that they

seemed to expect to get the answers. From which you can see that they have changed their

opinion of Mr. Baggins very much, and had begun to have a great respect for him (as Gandalf

had said they would)... In fact they praised him so much that Bilbo began to feel there really

was something of a bold adventurer about himself after all.” (The Hobbit, 192).

From this can clearly be seen that not only the attitude of the Thorin’s company towards Mr.

Baggins have altered, but even his opinion of himself went through some changes and his character had somehow developed. This happens not only because of the praise from the Dwarves. As the reader can see few pages before, it was the killing that changed him: “Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins,” (181). In Tolkien’s work it is very often death that makes the difference to the person. For Bilbo, killing the first fierce enemy was a breaking point in his career. Mr. Baggins’s position in the company strengthens further on all the way towards the Lonely Mountain. He solves every single problem the company faces (Bilbo is the one who saves all company from the elvish prison in Mirkwood), and Thorin always consults him before making any decision. When the company reaches the desired destination and finds out, that the dragon Smaug is still alive, Bilbo suggests that he himself will go down to the cave where the dragon sleeps. The dwarves “accepted the offer eagerly. Already they had come to respect little

Bilbo. Now he had become the real leader in their adventure.”(211). The character of Bilbo

Baggins represents a group of people who always do what has to be done. It is a very significant and educative role, especially regarding the fact that the original novel is a fairy tale. In the novel

Bilbo’s development - as opposed to the one of Thorin’s - during the story is quite patent. He is, after all, the central character in the story. The reader of The Hobbit is lead to connect rather with

Bilbo than with Thorin, which is the case in Jackson’s film trilogy.

The Hobbits in novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are also a very significant narrative element. The reader of The Hobbit mostly follows Bilbo’s tracks, and the narrator usually

20 expresses Bilbo’s opinions, thoughts and views. Even though the original story is narrated by an omniscient narrator, the reader only gets to know what Bilbo Baggins knows. For example, when is Bilbo hit to the head during the battle and passes out just after it starts, the only information about the further developments the reader acquires is what the other characters tell Mr. Baggins when he comes to himself. It is worth mentioning, that both in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the

Rings every battle is narrated from the point of view of a hobbit. If there is no hobbit present in the battle, the events are only very shortly described later by some participant of the fight. This phenomenon significantly contributes to the fact that hobbits in Tolkien’s stories are the characters that are easiest for a reader to connect with, and that makes them the main characters.

In the films there is very little space left for Bilbo. Even the crucial scene with the spiders, that made the great turning point (at least for the character of Bilbo) in the book, is omitted, because it is the Elves that save the company of Dwarves from spiders, not Bilbo. He kills a spider or two during the fierce fight, but it either has no effect whatsoever on him personally, or it is drowned by the epic action scene where Legolas and Tauriel have their excellent entrée skating on the backs of dying spiders.

Martin Freeman did excellent job in his role of Bilbo. It is difficult to imagine anybody who would be better for the role. However, the screenplay did not permit him to develop as much as the original story requires of that character. I cannot imagine any possible alternative that would make this particular character artistically better, apart from the previously mentioned – more running time. If the filmmakers took time from Thorin Oakenshield, who, as was also already mentioned, is not supposed to be a main character, and gave it to Bilbo instead, they would have solved two problems in one go.

5.3.1 The Ring

In the films the development of Mr. Baggins is restricted to the ring, which has a strong and destructive influence upon him. In comparison with the book, the Ring has a very big role in the story of the films. As was mentioned before, there are two versions of the novel The Hobbit and the role of the Ring differs in those versions. However, not even in the second edition from the year 1951 is the Ring a central interest of the story. In the Tolkien’s story, the Ring is only a very useful thing that enables Bilbo to disappear. It neither has any cryptic qualities, not it attracts any unwanted attention. However, in the Jackson’s story the Ring’s doings are more than suspicious; it even makes Bilbo kill some bizarre creature in the forest of Mirkwood, not to save himself or his friends, but only because this creature accidentally comes in between him and the Ring. The viewer of the films is lead to see Mr. Baggins only as a carrier of the Ring of Power, which is the role Frodo has in The Lord of the Rings, but it was not Tolkien’s intention. His Bilbo is a stubborn hobbit with “more about him than you guess” (The Hobbit, 97), and he definitely is not interesting only because of the Ring he found. In Jackson’s films there is a strong resemblance between Bilbo and his nephew Frodo, who is the main character of The Lord of the Rings, based on the fact that they are both, in their turn, carriers of the Ring. However, The Hobbit is not, as the title itself proposes, a story about the Ring, or about Thorin Oakenshield, but rather a story about the Hobbit.

Nevertheless, the role of the Ring is exaggerated for understandable reasons. In the Jackson’s film trilogy there is an additional plotline, in which the viewer learns that Necromancer (Sauron) is out of bonds and he even let The Nine (or Dark Riders) out of their prison. This change in the plot does not fit with the overall story of the Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, because The Nine are freed by Sauron only in the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. Otherwise it would be very hard to explain the decades of peace between the story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

However, since this plotline is there, it was necessary for the film to magnify the importance of the Ring, which in turn leads to lessening the importance of the character of Mr. Baggins and the adventure, now so insignificant, that he is part of.

Simple alteration is offering: Since there was never mentioned anything about The Nine in the novel The Hobbit, and the fight with Necromancer was only mentioned as a matter of fact, not as anything of a grave importance, it would be better not to include it in the films at all. Thus would the filmmakers avoid the need to enlarge the importance of the Ring.

5.4 Legolas

Legolas is one of the links between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that Peter Jackson created, and therefore he is not in the story of the novel. The first mention of Legolas the reader has from Tolkien is in The Fellowship of the Ring: “There was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown, Legolas, a messenger from his father, Thranduil, the king of the Elves of Northern

Mirkwood” (234). From this it can be assumed that Legolas might have been one of the elves whom Bilbo met in the caves of the wooden Elves where the Thorin’s company was imprisoned, and because he was king’s son, it can be assumed that he fought in The Battle of Five Armies. But those are mere assumptions, and Legolas is never mentioned in the novel.

In the end of the last film Thranduil sends his son to find the Strider (Aragorn), who is one of the main characters of The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson explained that that is the reason why Legolas is found in the Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring. Given the fact that Aragorn is eighty eight years old in the story of The Lord of the Rings, and it happened sixty years after the events explained in The Hobbit, it is barely possible that Thranduil already knew twenty-eight- year-old Aragorn as The Strider in the end of the story of The Hobbit. It is also highly improbable that Legolas would have been searching for Aragorn for sixty years and not find him (they first

23 met in the meeting in Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring). Therefore, this presumable link between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings does not work at all. That means, that Legolas represents an absolutely unnecessary and therefore indefensible alteration for the story of The

Hobbit.

Even though it is only rightful to complain about the mere existence of the Legolas’s role in

The Hobbit, since he is not originally mentioned in the book, and although it is not clear why

Jackson is trying to create more links between the two stories, than the ones that have been written by Tolkien himself, this alteration is not as violent as the others – Legolas is, after all, probably preset in the world of Middle-Earth by the time the story happens. Legolas also plays a part as one of three basic characters for the inter-racial romance, which is mentioned further in this thesis.

There are two main reproaches against Legolas being present in The Hobbit. First one is that it does not fit with the story of The Lord of the Rings. The second one is more visual: Orlando

Bloom is visibly older than in Jackon’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings, and no make-up can change that so much that the viewer would not notice. The best alternative would be not to include him in the film at all. The second best is to give him as little shooting time as possible and completely omit the Thranduil’s speech about Strider in the end.

5.5 Gollum

Gollum’s role in the novel is very simple: He is there to pass the Ring of power to the next owner. When The Hobbit was originally written (the first edition came up in the year 1937), importance of this character was not yet known and understood in its full, not even by the author himself. It is the second edition of The Hobbit where Tolkien re-wrote some scenes so that the story was compatible with The Lord of the Rings, as was already mentioned in previous chapters,

24 and Gollum became a treacherous and miserable entity that accompanies the readers through the whole stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Gollum is only mentioned in this thesis as one of the very few characters who are in the

Jackson’s movie perfectly faithful to the novel (2:10-2:26). The remarkable thing about this matter is, that the scenes under the Misty Mountains, that contain Gollum, were not directed by Peter

Jackson, but by Andy Serkis (Gollum himself). Andy Serkis talks about his director’s work in the interview for Comic-Con 2012. “It turns out that Serkis was planning on spending only a couple weeks in New Zealand to shoot his part as Gollum, but then, about four weeks before they started shooting, Jackson asked him to direct the second unit.” He explains how the filmmakers were shooting the whole riddle scene in one piece, which is a rather unusual way (4:20).

5.6 The Dwarves

The company of Dwarves of the original story also undergone several great changes. In the book there was no opportunity for the dwarves to express their individuality and act each on their own. The only exceptions are Thorin Oakenshield, who is strictly speaking not a part of the company, since it is named Thorin And Company, Balin, about whom the reader knows that he is always a lookout man, because he has sharpest eyes, and Bombur, who is the fattest. Otherwise there is no way for a reader to distinguish between the individual dwarves. This changed in the movies. Every dwarf has his own individuality, his own clothes and weapons. Special attention is drawn to Dain, who appears in the third movie, The Battle of Five Armies, and after Thorin’s death he becomes the King under the Mountain.

Both in the book and in the movies reader/viewer meets the Dwarves for the first time in

Bilbo’s house. However, this scene differs, slightly but significantly, in the two stories in question.

In the novel the Dwarves are rather polite and the only difference the reader is able to spot is the

25 color of their hoods which they hang on the rack. They all introduce themselves by their name and a phrase “at your service” (10-13), and there is almost no further description of individual dwarves included in the book. Their actions are mostly described in the plural form, and none of them has much room for development in the story. Since they are, according to The Silmarillion, originally made out of stone, it is only logical that Dwarves in general do not go through many changes throughout their lives, neither as a nation, nor as individuals in the Tolkien’s world. Therefore, it is only logical that in the original stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, they are mostly rather unchanging and stable characters.

It changes greatly in the movie. In The Unexpected Journey when the viewer gets to see the dwarves for the first time, he is presented with them both as a tight group, when they sing songs and cooperate as if they have been always working together, even though they have not seen each other for years, and as individuals. Every one of them gets to say or do something at some point of the introductory scene that characterizes him, differentiates him from the others and makes him unforgettable (0:16). In some cases this leads to a rather disturbing but probably unavoidable comicality.

In the 13 Minute Special that the makers made to explain some of the characters and their motivation to the viewer they describe the work that was behind that. Dean O’Gorman, an actor who played Fili in the film, describes the Dwarves: “They are very passionate and upfront with their emotions” (5:21). Petter Jackson says: “One of the scary things about adapting The Hobbit is the fact that there is thirteen dwarves… and differentiating these characters was very important.”

(5:30). Ann Maskrey, the costume designer, explains: “If they are all standing on the mountainside, you had to know who they were, just from the shape”(6:10).

Another supposedly entertaining element is the fact that the Dwarves are Scottish. The best and also the most far-fetched example is in The Battle of Five Armies; there is a character named

Dáin Ironfoot, played by Billy Connolly, who is ginger, wears a kilt and rides a heavily armed wild boar. Petter Jackson explained, that he chose for the dwarves to be Scottish because of their

(Scots’) role in history: “The Scots were fantastic in the real world history in taking on the British in the 17 hundred where they just weren’t gonna take any crap from anyone, and casting Billy

Connolly was fantastic, because you have a guy who knows how to play a Scotsman. He comes from that world, he comes from a tough upbringing,”(0:40). Jackson introduced Dwarves in this fashion in The Lord of the Rings. Gimli was a model Dwarf. However, in The Hobbit Jackson made some compromises when he let Kili, Fili and Thorin look more human than the other

Dwarves.

The change that the filmmakers made to the company of Dwarves was, from the artistic point of view, a very good one. The viewer needs to recognize individual characters if he is going to spend nine hours with them.

5.7 Female Characters

As is mentioned previously, there are no female characters in the novel, apart from Bilbo’s mother. She does not play any role in the story, apart from the fact that from her (Tookish) side of the family might Bilbo inherit a bit of desire for adventures:

“As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit —of Bilbo Baggins, that is—was the famous

Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the

hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was

often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a

fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely

hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have

adventures.” (4-5).

Beside her there is never directly mentioned any female character in The Hobbit, although there can be no doubt, that there were women among elves in Mirkwood and among Lake men. The author just does not mention them. One can only assume that Tolkien had some reason for it. He very seldom uses female characters in his stories, and if so, they are mostly symbolic, as was discussed in the chapter Tolkien; Life, Work and The Hobbit.

However, it is very difficult to make an interesting movie without any female character, let alone a movie trilogy. Peter Jackson invented a whole romantic triangle, for which he must have added a brand new character (Tauriel), another character that was only in The Lord of the Rings

(Legolas) and Kili’s injury. He also added Galadriel, although her role is justifiable, since she was indirectly mentioned in the novel.

5.7.1 Tauriel

The character of Tauriel has been created for a different reasons than the other characters that were not part of the original story. Since she is not a part of The Lord of the Rings story, she certainly does not serve as a link towards the sequel story. This character is the female protagonist in a newly invented romantic plot; she falls in love with a dwarf named Kili. Not to make it too uncomplicated, Legolas is at the same time in love with her.

As a feminist film critic Jackie Byars writes in her book All that Hollywood allows:

“When we consider that the classical Hollywood film generally has two plot lines and that

the goal of one of them is the formation of a heterosexual couple (which depends, of course,

on concepts of “female” and “male”), the ideological nature of plot structure becomes

abundantly clear.” (108).

This applies even to The Hobbit trilogy as it is made by Peter Jackson. The heterosexual romance there is yet intensified by being inter-racial. Because of its interracial context the relationship between Tauriel and Kili gives an impression of political correctness, which is something that became necessary in the Hollywood film industry.

As it is with majority of the changes Peter Jackson made to the original story of The Hobbit, this one could also be solved by not being in the film at all.

5.7.2 Galadriel

Galadriel is an elven magician whom the reader knows from The Lord of the Rings. In

The Hobbit she is never mentioned, though there is a reference to White Council which she is part of: „It appeared that Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards, masters of lore and good magic; and that they had at last driven the Necromancer from his dark hold in the south of Mirkwood.“ (The Hobbit, 343). What the reader can be certain of is that she has no romantic attachment towards Gandalf, which might seem to be the case to the viewer of the first film, The Unexpected Journey (1:41-1:43). She, after all, has a husband, which is to be seen even in the The Lord of the Rings films. Galadriel is added to the story to create one more link to the story of The Lord of the Rings.

6 The Battle

One of the very important changes in the story of The Hobbit that Sir Petter Jackson made is in the Battle of Five Armies. The alteration does not appear only in the five armies in question, but also in the length of the battle. The third movie is named The Battle of Five Armies, and really is all about the battle, although there was almost nothing said about it in the book. The absence of description of the battle in the original story gave Jackson a great space for imagination. He seized it and made very interesting things with it.

The five armies in question differ in the film and in the book. In the film the five armies refer to Men, Elves, Dwarves, the Orcs of Dol Guldur, and the Orcs of Mount Gundabad, while in the book the battling sections are described this way: „It was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves,“ (324). At first there were Men, Elves and Dwarves against each other, all of them desiring the enormous treasure that lied in the mountain.

However, this layout changed rapidly when the Goblins came: „the Goblins were the foes of all, and at their coming all other quarrels were forgotten.“ (325) Jackson made a slight alteration in the armies when he divided the Goblins into two armies, because he needed an army of Azog the

Defiler. This is, however, a minor alteration to the original story in comparison with the action scenes of the battle itself.

Both in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings the battles are described from the point of view of Hobbits. The reader is experiencing the important fights from the point of view of a small and rather unimportant and peaceful person in whose nature is embedded a desire to be left

30 alone rather than to conquer new lands. This, however, is not the case in the movies made by

Petter Jackson. In The Hobbit novel, the battle is described on six and a half pages. The core part of the description is this:

“It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbo’s experiences, and the one which

at the time he hated most—which is to say it was the one he was most proud of, and most

fond of recalling long afterwards, although he was quite unimportant in it. Actually I may

say he put on his ring early in the business, and vanished from sight, if not from all

danger. A magic ring of that sort is not a complete protection in a goblin charge, nor does

it stop flying arrows and wild spears; but it does help in getting out of the way, and it

prevents your head from being specially chosen for a sweeping stroke by a goblin

swordsman… “The Eagles!” cried Bilbo once more, but at that moment a stone hurtling

from above smote heavily on his helm, and he fell with a crash and knew no more“ (326,

330).

After that happened the reader has no more information about the battle, apart from Bilbo’s commenting the situation when he wakes up: “’Victory after all, I suppose!’ he said, feeling his aching head. ‘Well, it seems a very gloomy business’” (331). This quotation seems to reflect and sum up Tolkien’s view of war in general.

In the film, however, Peter Jackson showed many fights, interesting weapons and a lot of heroic action. Most of it in harmony with Tolkien’s world.

7 The Laws of Physics

In the last chapter of this thesis I would like to reflect upon a very important aspect of the world of Middle-Earth in general, and later show on examples how the film version of The Hobbit differs from the original scheme. Tolkien’s world differs from other fantasy worlds mainly by the fact that the laws of physics work in the same way as in our (or “real” if kind reader pleases) world.

There is only a little magic in the Middle-Earth and it is the noble one, which only wizards and oldest Elves can produce. The gravitational force and the laws of thermodynamics work in the way the reader would find familiar. The fact that not everything can be achieved by magic is what gives the story its gravity. This might be not so important in The Hobbit, but it is a crucial aspect of the world of Middle-Earth in The Lord of the Rings. If everything could be achieved by magic and the natural law could be bend, the importance of courage, nobility and personal strength, which is so great in the story of The Lord of the Rings, would be lessened. One of the aspects that make

Tolkien’s stories so popular is that a reader is able to connect to the main characters. He is presented with their internal struggle between ultimate “Good” and “Evil”, and he shares their difficult decisions with the characters. Mostly, the main characters are ‘common people’, not warriors, but Hobbits. Both Bilbo and Frodo were thrown into an adventure unwillingly, just because somebody had to do it. The fact that they are neither heroes nor warriors, and that there is no magic to help them, is what makes them connectable to from the point of view of the reader.

There is magic in the Middle Earth, but performing it takes the magician a lot of preparation and costs him a lot of energy. In The Fellowship of the Ring, when the company is struggling to find their way through Moria, Gandalf uses a powerful magic to lock the door behind them. He came flying down the steps towards his companions, and when he picked himself up, he said:

“`Well, well! That's over! ' said the wizard struggling to his feet. `I have done all that I could. But

I have met my match, and have nearly been destroyed. But don't stand here! Go on! You will have to do without light for a while: I am rather shaken.”(318). Sealing a door with magic cost Gandalf so much of his power that he was not even able to produce a light to show them the way further.

Therefore, Gandalf would most certainly not light his pipe with magic, as Peter Jackson shows the viewer in the first film of The Hobbit trilogy, when he can easily do it by usual, mundane means, for example by matches. Magic is very demanding and too difficult to be used without a real reason.

There are many scenes in the films that do not meet the requirement of fidelity towards natural law, and most of them are the ones that are completely invented and added to the story by filmmakers. This chapter will deal with three of them, one from each part of the film trilogy. The first one takes place in the goblin’s cave, the second one inside the Lonely Mountain and the third one takes place during the battle where Legolas jumps on the falling rocks in the end of the third film.

This chapter presents examples of breaking the nature law, all of which have a simple solution:

Those scenes should not be in the films at all. Even though The Hobbit was written as a fairy-tale, it is still taking place in the Middle-Earth, and therefore the filmmakers should respect the basic concept of this world.

7.1 The Goblin Cave – The Unexpected Journey

When the dwarves leave the Last Homely House of Rivendell and set off on the journey across the mountains, they are captured by the goblins and taken to the Goblin king, who makes an attempt to kill them. However, this plan is confounded by Gandalf, who produces a flash of light, kills several goblins and escapes into the tunnels with all the Thorin’s company. On their way out of the caves they have to fight the goblins a few times and Bilbo gets lost in the dark, and

33 therefore we have no more information about dwarves’ adventure. At least that is what happens in the book.

In the film, on the other hand, the Dwarves and Mr. Baggins fall down into the crack in the rocky floor of the cave, then fall down over twenty meters into a construction made of iron and wood without as much as a broken bone. They are taken to the Goblin king (Bilbo is lost in the meantime), who delights them with a song and ballet performance. After Gandalf’s well-timed entrance they run. Throughout the high cave there are many suspended wooden scaffoldings and gangplanks and while running here and there, the disarmed dwarves kill in a rather comical way over fifty goblins (there is a ladder) without a single drop of visible blood. This does not meet

Tolkien’s philosophy. Battles and death are never taken in other way than seriously in his books, even a death of such lowly creatures like goblins. Finally the wooden construction breaks apart and the platform, where all the dwarves so conveniently stand, slides down the sloping wall of the cave. The construction on which the Dwarves and the Wizard stand slides, despite the gravitational force, in the horizontal position, so that they can comfortably stand on it all the way down (2:01 –

2:30). This scene very obviously breaks not only the gravitational law, but it also plays down both the importance of death and the dangerousness of the situation the dwarves are in. It should not happen in the Tolkien’s world.

However, there has to be said, that artistically this scene is perfect. It is full of action and funny in a way, which is something the viewer would expect of a modern action movie. The only reproach towards that scene is that it contradicts several of the principles on which Tolkien’s world is built.

7.2 The River of Molten gold in The Desolation of Smaug

In the second film there is a scene which has not been in the book at all. It is the one where the Dwarves are trying to kill the dragon with molten gold. They lure him into a great hall and try to drown him in approximately twenty centimeters of the liquid metal. On this occasion Thorin takes the steel wheelbarrow and uses it as a boat to sail the gouge, where the molten gold is streaming. During this scene he has no protective trousers and he is holding the edges of the wheelbarrow with his bare hands (2:50-2:51). Given the fact that the eighteen-carat gold has the point of thawing 900-1000°C, and steel is a good conductor, Thorin should have had the third- degree burns all over his hands and knees, not to mention that his clothes should have burned.

Actually, he would probably burst into flames himself. Although this reproach does not seem to be important in any way, it disturbs the viewer greatly. This whole scene was invented by filmmakers; in the novel Smaug left the Lonely Mountain after Bilbo’s visit, and without encountering the Dwarves he headed towards the Lake Town where he was killed.

7.3 Legolas and the Gravitational Acceleration

The last scene that this chapter is dealing with is one of the final battle scenes of the third film (2:06:28- 2:06:43). In this scene Legolas is defying the gravitational law for whole fifteen seconds by jumping from one falling rock to another, while constantly moving upwards. That is physically impossible. Even though elves are light-footed and dexterous, the fact remains, that in order to do as much as to stay on the same height above the ground, Legolas would have to produce a driving force ten times higher than is his own gravitational force. To move up he would have to produce a constant force instead of intermittent one, which is impossible in this case.

The respect for the physical laws is very important for the fantasy genre, because otherwise, the story would slip into the mere magical battle between “Good” and “Evil”, the ordinary people

35 would not be important anymore and the reader or viewer would have nobody to connect with among the characters.

8 Conclusion

This thesis contained a comparative analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit and its recent film trilogy adaptation made by Peter Jackson. The main criterion according to which was the adaptation compared to the novel was fidelity towards the original story. In the beginning of the thesis there was proven that fidelity towards the book while adapting it into a film is still important criterion for judging an adaptation, at least in the case of such a complex work as the one of J.R.R. Tolkien. Further on this thesis highlights several points in which the two works do not correspond and indicate whether, and if so, why it is a mistake to change the film story at the expense of the book.

Firstly, the reader of this thesis is presented with a chapter that explains the point of view regarding fidelity in movie adaptations of novels, which is followed further on in the thesis. This theory is then shown on several examples from The Hobbit, first on the character analyses and later on analyses of the scenes that were not in the original story and were added by filmmakers.

The thesis also deals with complexity of Tolkien’s story, which does neither begin nor end with The Hobbit – It is important to take into consideration that the whole story consists of The

Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings while making a film adaptation of either of the novels. In order to produce a valid and functional adaptation it is necessary not to contradict any information the reader learns in other parts of the story. This point is partially pursued in a chapter called “Problem of Fidelity in Adaptation”. It is discovered and commented upon in this thesis that

Peter Jackson created many artificial links between the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the

Rings. However, some of them cannot work, because of some contradicting information contained in other part of the whole story. As an example it can be named the existence of a main villain,

Azog the Defiler, who does not take any action in the novel, on the account of being dead.

According to the Appendix to The Lord of the Rings, he was killed by Dáin Ironfoot several decades before the story of The Hobbit takes place.

Further on the thesis deals with scenes that were exaggerated and broke the natural law of some kind. Although this might not seem important for the film to be a good adaptation, the thesis argues contradictory: In the Tolkien’s world there is very little magic, compared to majority of other fantasy worlds. This enables Tolkien to create real circumstances for internal struggle in his characters and thus provides way for his reader to connect with them. If every nature law was possible to bend, then there would be no place for brave deeds and heroic actions in the world of

Middle-Earth. The thesis notices that the nonsensical scenes are only the ones that were altogether invented by the filmmakers.

The thesis tries to provide alternatives for every discussed phenomenon; how it could have been done better. It argues, that most of the aspects regarded as mistakes are caused by the fact that the running time of the film trilogy is too long, and they could have been avoided by shooting only two films (which was the plan in the beginning of the whole project), or even better only one.

The novel is, after all, a very short one.

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Annotation

The thesis also deals with complexity of Tolkien’s story, which does neither begin nor end with The Hobbit – It is important to take into consideration that the whole story consists of The

Further on the thesis deals with scenes that were exaggerated and broke the natural law of some kind, and explains, why such things should not happen in the adaptation.

The novel is, after all, a very short one.

Anotace

Tato bakalářská práce obsahuje komparativní analýzu Tolkienovy knihy Hobit, aneb cesta tam a zase zpátky, a její filmové adaptace, kterou nedávno vytvořil Peter Jackson. Hlavním kritériem pro porovnávání těchto dvou děl byla věrnost předloze.

V bakalářské práci je čtenář nejprve seznámen s teorií adaptace a důležitostí věrnosti předloze, se kterou se dále pracuje. Dále je pak tato teorie uplatněna při porovnávání aspektů filmu a knižní předlohy. Jednak se pracuje s postavami, které buď v knize vůbec nebyly, a tvůrci filmu je vymysleli, jednak s postavami, které prošly při přípravě filmu výraznou změnou.

Tato práce se také zabývá dalším zajímavým aspektem Tolkienova příběhu, totiž skutečností, že příběh je velice komplexní. Nezačíná ani nekončí Hobitem; začíná v

Silmarillionu a pokračuje (a končí) Pánem Prstenů. Vzhledem k této skutečnosti by filmová adaptace žádné z těchto tří částí příběhu neměla být v rozporu s ostatními dvěma jeho částmi.

Bakalářská práce se také zabývá porušováním přírodních zákonů ve filmové adaptaci

Hobita, a vysvětluje, proč by se nic takového nemělo dít.

Pro téměř každý ze zmíněných problematických aspektů filmové adaptace se na konci každé kapitoly a podkapitoly nachází alternativní verze – tedy jak si autorka této práce představuje, že by to mělo být. Nicméně většině chyb (či scén a postav nevěrných knižní předloze) by se dalo předejít tím, že by tvůrci natočili pouze dva filmy, jak bylo původně v plánu, anebo ještě lépe pouze jeden.