Posted: June 11, 1999 at 22:54:58: by Michael Martinez
: I am currently rereading the Hobbit and have come across some
: very interesting things. First of all, what is this stone
: giant business. It says that while hiking up the Misty
: Mountains there was a huge storm because of the giants throwing
: stones at each other and playing games? What was this all
: about? And several times afterward Gandalf speaks of giants.
: What is he talking about? Giants don't really fit with any of
: the peoples of middle earth. The only think I could think of
: is Maia in giant form. And another fantasy creature that
: tolkien never used was Ogres. Were there any?There were no ogres in Middle-earth, except of the trollish variety. However, Tolkien had a fondness for giants in his stories and I think he left open the possibility of giants in Middle-earth. Treebeard was originally going to be an evil giant, but he evolved into the caretaker of the forest (though "Ent" is an Old English word for "giant", and Treebeard was about 14 feet tall, I think). If you'll look at the LOTR map, however, you can see a region to the north of rivendell (on the southern border of the old Angmarian lands) called the Ettenmoors. "Etten" (or "Ettin") is an old word for "giant" as well, so the Ettenmoors were the homeland of giants. What sort of giants? Maybe nothing more than trolls. The stone giants of THE HOBBIT, however, appear to be intended as true giants included in the story for background. : And it is very nteresting that TOlkien only used Vampires and
: bats once and that is when Sauron was going back to Angband in
: defeat in Vampire form after he had been beaten by Huan. Although a vampire character is never encountered elsewhere, I do believe there are other references to them. I think that Thuringwethil, the bat-messenger of Sauron, was supposed to be a vampire. : And this whole Draugluin business what is that? A twisted
: Maia in bat form. Draugluin was the father of werewolves. He may have been a corrupted Maia. : I have always been confused as to weather spiders and eagles,
: and wolves were Maia in that form, or were actually those
: creatures. The Eagles of Manwe were inhabited by spirits sent by Iluvatar. That does not mean they were Maiar. Elves, Men, and Dwarves all had spirits sent by Iluvatar as well. Maiar came from the group of spirits known as the Ainur. They were the first group of spirits created by Iluvatar. The intelligent spiders and wolves are a bit ambivalent. They may have been no more than beasts given increased faculties (but not true spirits, souls) by Melkor. Or they may have been corrupted Maiar, or a mixture of both. Tolkien was not really definite about a lot of these matters. : Last thing is that how does Bilbo kill those "giant" spiders
: with stones. That is pathetic on thier part unless he was
: hurling rocks at their heads. Just quickly glancing at THE HOBBIT I see that Tolkien says there were knives, sticks, and stones. I don't believe he says any spiders were killed specifically by stones. But the stones could certainly have been annoyances. Also, stones CAN be deadly weapons. : I hope someone can help me answer some of those questions that
: have been troubling me for a while. I've tried as best as I can. :)
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Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, Revised Edition
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