The end

I just finished "The Hobbit" and it was one of the best books I've ever read. Even after reading a whole book about dwarves, my favorites have to be elves. J.R.R Tolkien is an amazing author because he invented hundreds of languages, such as Sindarin, and Dwarvish. Well that is all for the hobbit BOOK. I will be doing full movie posts when they all come out.

The Battle of Five Armies

At the very end of the book, after Smaug dies, the dwarves of Dain come to the aid of Thorin and Co. because Bard did not want the other dwarves to come into the mountain. So began the Battle of Five Armies (dwarves, elves, men, eagles, goblins). At the beginning there was only the dwarves, men, and elves. Then the goblins came riding on the deadly wolves, Wargs, to avenge the Great Goblin who Gandalf killed. Then after the goblins came The Lord of the Eagles from the Misty mountains. Sometime later Beorn comes in his huge bear form and helps out a lot. He literally picks up a warg and squishes it! At the end of the battle it gets very very sad because the old mighty Thorin Oakinshield fights his last battle along with Fili and Kili, fellow dwarves. (One cool fact, Thorin is actually Fili and Kili's nephew because Thorin is their mom's eldest brother) so Bilbo got to go home to peace and so did the many fallen dwarves, elves, men, and goblins.  Thorin, Fili and Kili were the only ones dead out of the company of dwarves that took to such a long journey to the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo got a share of gold and went on his way home to The Shire.

Smaug is dead!

OMG I jus got to the part where old Bard shot down the dragon!  It was so breathtaking and I actually laughed out loud after reading that part.  Well, now the town near Lonely Mountain has a new king, King Bard.

I wonder what will happen with the dwarves now that Smaug is gone...

cool facts about The Hobbit

I found these online, from a very cool website, TVfacts:

• Bilbo Baggins was about 51½ years old at the time of The Hobbit. 
• Hobbits called themselves “kuduk” in their own language. 
• Tolkien meant the name Bag-End, from a hobbit’s point of view, to be associated with the end of a bag, as in a ‘cul-de-sac’. 
• Tolkien had an aunt whose farm was nicknamed Bag-End. 
• Bag-End was a luxurious hobbit-hole and was envied by many, especially Bilbo’s cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses. 
• Bilbo’s dad was called Bungo Baggins. His mom was Primula Took. It was said he got his sensibility from his Baggins side, and his curiousness for adventure from his Took side. 
• Bilbo Baggins was the first hobbit to become famous in the world outside the Shire. 
• There are three main kinds of hobbit: Harfoots, Fallowhides and Stoors. 
• Hobbiton was one of the oldest villages in the Shire. It was built on a hill. With Bywater, it formed a single community. 
• Bilbo’s hobbit-hole of Bag-End was in a neighbourhood called Under-Hill. 
• All the holes in this neighbourhood were dug into Hobbiton Hill. 
• An ancestor of Bilbo was called Bandobras Took. He was a huge hobbit (4 feet, 5 inches tall) who became famous for killing the goblin chieftan Golfimbul in the Battle of Greenfields. After this battle, Bandobras was nicknamed Bullroarer Took. 
• Rivendell was a refuge for elves which was situated in a valley. It was founded by Elrond who had been fleeing a great war. 
• Elrond was thousands of years old at the time of The Hobbit. 
• Elrond was also known as Elrond Peredhil (Half-elven). 
• “Elrond” means “Elf of the Cave” in Sindarin. 
• As a child, when he and his twin brother Elros were rescued after fleeing a battle, he was found playing in a cave beneath a waterfall, and so received his name. 
• Rivendell was a place of quiet meditation, scholarly learning, but also merriment – especially music and singing. 
• Rivendell is called “Imladris” in Sindarin. 
• The Misty Mountains are about 1440km long – nearly the length of New Zealand!

Barrel escape

In my reading of "The Hobbit," I just got past the part where the dwarves are escaping from the Elf King's palace.  It was one of my favorite parts and I loved how creative their barrel escape was - it's cool that Bilbo thought of this sneaky plan.  I found a couple of pictures from the next movie:

spiders of Mirkwood

Creepy!  Just read about the spiders of Mirkwood and how Bilbo rescued the dwarves (again).

Beorn

So, Gandalf, Thorin and Co. have just been carried off the Misty Mountains by the Lord of the Eagles, they have been dropped off in a bee farm of the "Skin Changer" Beorn (he has tendency to change into a bear and he has the ability to talk in various forest animal languages). Gandalf took Bilbo in search of his large wooden house, after a couple of minutes of searching they found a gate guarded by two beautiful, white horses. They ran back and alerted Beorn of his guests, they came to his house, then the dwarves came, they stayed for about a week. Then, Beorn sent them off for Mirkwood with some bows, arrows, cram (which is a small nutritious cake), ponies, clothes, and some other goods for survival. Right at the edge of Mirkwood, Gandalf said goodbye and they parted. Then began the journey into Mirkwood.