Like the dwarves of Erebor, the Celts were a group of people renowned for their warriors who were forced to flee their mountainous homeland in the east due to unknown strife around 1600 BCE (the Bronze Age). Spilling into Europe, the Celts wandered for generations, making their way west to the British Isles. It is worth noting that the term “Celts” applies to several groups of un-unified peoples who, much like the dwarves, were prone to both fighting against each other and in turn, banding together to unite against a common enemy, such as the Roman legions.

When comparing the Celts to dwarves, it is important to focus on one of the northern tribes (in modern Scotland): the Picts. They were given their name by the Romans, who found the animal shapes and designs they painted on their bodies with blue woad to be curious pictures. The Celts were also in the habit of shaping their hair before battle – using a mixture of lime and urine as a sort of styling clay that caked white onto their tresses and made their hair stand on end. For a cinematic example of these ancient warriors, check out the trailer for Kevin MacDonald’s adaptation of The Eagle (2011).

The Eagle (2011)

If the interviews with Billy Connolly from last summer are still accurate, then we can expect Dáin Ironfoot to “have a Mohawk and tattoos on my head…I arrive riding a wild pig.” Sound familiar?

It should also be noted that as a Scot, Connolly himself is a Celt. In fact, many of the actors portraying dwarves in The Hobbit are of Celtic descent, and several were allowed to keep their respective accents. James Nesbit’s Bofur speaks in his Northern Irish brogue, and Graham McTavish’ Dwalin (who also bears war-paint like tattoos) sounds like the Scot he is. Aidan Turner, Kili, is an Irishman, Dean O’Gorman, playing his brother Fili, is a Kiwi of Irish descent, and Ken Stott (Balin) is another Scotsman.

As an interesting side note, belonging to the Order of Fili (wisemen and poets) was required for a warrior to enter Ireland’s elite Fenian ranks. Kili, similarly, could be argued as an alternate spelling/pronunciation of the common Irish surname Kelly, which means warrior (and is coincidentally why I was given my TORn nickname, since it is my birth name).  Naming the two youngest of Durin’s heirs names that invoke a warrior heritage makes sense, however, it is unknown if Tolkien was aware of these linguistic connections.

Any listener of The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey Special Edition soundtrack will know that the track “Erebor” begins with a proud bagpipe solo: a clear nod to the Scottish. Artist John Howe makes several references to Celtic inspiration in the first Hobbit Chronicles book, citing references to both Kili’s flip knife and Ori’s board game as being based on Celtic artifacts.

Even Celtic dress sounds similar to that of the dwarves: “In terms of clothing, the Celtic women wore a simple long garment with a cloak. The men wore trousers (sometimes knee length), a sleeved tunic reaching the thigh, a cloak, and sandals or boots. A metal piece of jewelry for around the neck called a torc (torques) was quite popular. Clothing dyed in bright colors was common. Men wore droopy mustaches, sometimes beards, and often long hair, all of this in contrast to the contemporary Romans.”

An artist’s rendition of male Celtic dress

However, the Celtic link to the dwarves in Tolkien’s writing isn’t as obvious as the Nordic influences, so why did the filmmakers take this route?

The easy answer is because it hasn’t been done yet. None of the races previously explored in Jackson’s Middle-earth had a Celtic slant, and identifying the dwarves with the proud warriors of the Celts distinguishes them as a race and culture apart from the rest, especially where the Picts are concerned.

The dwarves are from the north, just as Scotland is north of England, the nation that is conceivably Tolkien’s main inspiration for Middle-earth. More than any other race, Tolkien’s dwarves link their existence with the mountains, very much like Highlanders. Also like the Highlanders, Dáin and his people are renowned for their endurance, running for days to come to Thorin’s aid.

Similarly to the Dwarves, the land of the Picts was under constant threat. While such a military force may seem unimpressive by today’s standards, imagine yourself back at the dawn of the Common Era when the world was a much quieter place. The roar of a Roman cavalry charge echoing across the land like earthen thunder would have been much like the advance of Smaug. The armor of the legionnaires glinted in the sunlight like so many serpentine scales. Such a monstrous force was hitherto unknown to the indigenous Britons and was, understandably, often likened to a dragon.

Smaug the Terrible is very much a metaphor for warfare and greed. Just as the Roman invaders laid waste to villages and scattered tribal peoples, so did the dragon. The Romans modified Britain’s landscape and scoured the land for natural resources, just as Smaug scorched the earth and hoarded the treasure of the dwarves.

Scotland in the Roman era

The Picts, like Durin’s folk, stood strong against the Roman dragon and slaughtered entire legions and then some. Unable to subdue the northern tribes, Emperor Hadrian began construction on a massive wall to keep the tribes out of the fertile lands of England in 122 CE. This wall is known as Hadrian’s Wall and its remnants remain near the modern Scottish-English border. Had the dwarves ever turned on the race of Men, such a measure would have probably been taken!

Ruins of Hadrian’s Wall

Tolkien would have been well-aware of this history, and in fact, even his beloved Anglo-Saxons found the Celts to be formidable opponents. The Icelandic sagas written in the 13th century warn their people not to go to Scotland if they wished to live. One Scot in the saga, said to be Grjotgard, a kinsman of Melkolf (the king of Scotland), was quoted as saying to the Saxons: “You have two choices. You can go ashore and we will take all your property, or we’ll attack you and kill every man we lay our hands on.”

Given that the tale survives, it’s not difficult to tell which option the Icelandic warriors chose. It also isn’t difficult to imagine Thorin Oakenshield issuing such an ultimatum to invaders.

We must await the next two films to see what further Celtic traits will be shown through the dwarves. But as a Celt myself, I applaud Jackson and Weta’s decision to explore a facet of British culture that was previously understated in Tolkien.

Staffer Kili is one-half of the TORn Happy Hobbit crew. The views and opinions presented in this article are her own, and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net or its staff.

Also, this weekend (Saturday August 24 at 6pm EDT (New York time)) we’ll be returning to our Lord of the Rings book chats. This week we begin the first chapter of book four — The Taming of Smeagol — so be sure to join us for this exciting topic!

Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield, dwarven king in exile

Richard Crispin Armitage was born on 22nd August 1971 and raised in Leicestershire. At 17 he joined a circus in Budapest for 6 weeks to gain his Equity Card. Armitage returned to Britain to pursue a career in musical theater. He appeared on stage in various musicals, including Cats as Admetus and Macavity.

his first major television role was John Standring in the 2002 BBC drama Sparkhouse. “It was the first time I went to an audition in character. It was a minor role but it was something I really got my teeth into… I couldn’t go back. I knew I had to approach everything the same way.” After this he took a variety supporting roles in the TV productions of Between the Sheets, Cold Feet (series 5), and Ultimate Force (Series 2).

A few of his many roles since then include police officer Lucas North in the acclaimed series Spooks, notorious villain Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood and John Porter in Strike Back. And, of course, he’s our tragic hero Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit!

This week, Richard turns 42!

If you missed TORn’s interview with Richard last year, check out what the man himself had to say about his role as Thorin.

I looked mainly through Tolkien – I looked at all of his work, looked to mainly the dwarves, coz he writes about dwarves in general … In terms of preparation, it kind of happened by accident coz I was doing vocal work, coz I wanted him to sound a certain way. I wanted to pitch my voice lower, I wanted him to be able to speak quietly but resonantly … and I ended up using Henry V, Richard III and Macbeth as soliloquies that I could use to get some vocal production going.

But I found in all three of those characters [aspects of Thorin] … the whole idea of the rallying cry of a leader on the battlefield is very much Henry V; the self hating deformity of Richard III was sort of relevant; and also the Macbeth figure when it comes to the gold lust – this man who believes he is doing the right thing and gets corrupted by something which ultimately destroys him … I just felt that those three figures were all going to be pretty useful for me to have in my head.

Richard Armitage is Thorin Oakenshield.

John Howe, Tolkien illustrator and conceptual designer

John is, of course, one of the chief conceptual designers for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings films. Born in 1957 in Vancouver, John’s been drawing since a young age and studied at the Ecoles des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg.

He’s responsible for translating some of Tolkien’s iconic scenes and characters from prose into visual art. This week he turns 56!

Even the Weta folk are in awe of Howe’s skills, as designer Paul Tobin explained to TORn at San Diego Comic-con.

[Alan Lee and John Howe] are incredibly experienced. They’re so gifted with their pencil. I was just about to reduced to tears one morning when I was working up a design for some elven armour and John was on the same brief. We were given the brief in the morning, to come back in the afternoon and show where we were at. And this was pretty early on, I’d only ever met John very briefly.

And I showed him my work-in-progress — a digital painting. Then John unrolls this A1, poster-size pencil sketch of an elven warrior … nearly life sized. And, literally, I was nearly tearing up — I can’t compete with that. That’s the difference between me and someone like John.

Morgoth and Ungoliant before the Two Trees of Valinor by John Howe.

Alan Lee, Tolkien illustrator and conceptual designer

Alan Lee, born on August 20, 1947, is the other half of the conceptual design team on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. An English book illustrator, he was born in Middlesex, England and studied at the Ealing School of Art.

This week Alan turns 65!

Some of Alan’s most notable illustrations for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien include the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings (1991), a 1995 edition of The Hobbit, and the famous first edition of Narn i Chîn Húrin: the tale of the children of Húrin which was first released in 2007.

Aragorn and Eowyn by Alan Lee.

Beorn. A portrait by John Howe.

Fact is that, while noting that people often tend to automatically respond negatively to change then rapidly adapt, the reader response has been largely unfavourable. Overall, people don’t seem to like Beorn.

It’s a reaction seemingly propelled by the crazy mane of hair that sweeps over Beorn’s head like a mohawk, and stretches down his back like a long, rangy mullet.

It’s prompted a wide-ranging variety of negative comparisons to Sonic the Hedgehog, Blanka, Joe Dirt, ’80s hair metal bands, David Bowie in Labyrinth and Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

Re-introducing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beorn

First, it’s maybe worth refreshing ourselves first with Tolkien’s description of Beorn when we first meet him in the The Hobbit in the chapter titled Queer Lodgings. Initially, Gandalf tells Bilbo:

He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin; sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard.

Then the narrator describes him as follows:

Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe.

Beorn, Lord of the Wild by Ted Nasmith.

Do Ringers like the look of Peter Jackson’s Beorn?

Now, I’m not entirely sure whether that description truly accords with what we saw. And, considering the reader response, one wonders if, a bit like the unfortunate implications of Radagast’s bird-poop-covered face, the art department really thought this one through entirely.

To try and evaluate the response of fans, we’ve done a little bit of back-of-a-piece-of-paper analysis of responses based on reader feedback and reactions left on our Facebook page, on the Disqus comments thread and on the first thread on the TORn message-boards. Of course, there are some caveats to this sort of thing — our analysis is a rough gauge that required a little bit of interpretation of occasionally fuzzy reader responses. And the sample is both smallish, and non-random. Anyone who’s done a stats course will understand that introduces bias and other issues.

That means you should think of this simply as a useful indicator of what folks seem to feel. A general yardstick. It is not meant to be, nor should be regard as, definitive.

Flip to the next page to see the results of our analysis.

Our special Beorn reader poll

But before you do, complete our special fan poll below and tell us what you feel about the Beorn spy image! Love it? Hate it? Or are you prepared to wait and see? Then stay tuned: we’ll be back to report the results next week!

This artwork was created in New Zealand while the two artists were busy working on THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, but they took time out of their work schedules to craft something special for this fundraiser.

The story takes us back to the recent holidays, where Robin’s family had gathered for a long, pleasant Christmas meal that brought everyone together — but afterward, a small bite from an over-excited family dog would have strange and tragic consequences. Robin became infected with the Capnocytophaga bacteria, commonly found in cats and dogs but very rarely ever transmitted as an infection to a human, yet the devastation through her body ultimately caused the loss of both her legs and hands. More details on her courageous battle can be found here on the Robin’s Relief Fairy Tale Art Auction page.

Now, in an effort to bring light and hope to her medical struggle, world-famous fantasy artists such as Wendy Froud, Michael Parkes, Alan Lee & John Howe, Kinuko Craft and many others have donated EXCLUSIVE new artworks that will be offered on eBay through the month of March. All proceeds go directly to a Chase Bank account setup for Robin’s Relief Fund.

Unfortunately, eBay has been pursuing a policy of NOT ALLOWING the mention of a charity fundraiser anywhere on these auctions, and recently this amazing Lee/Howe original drawing of one of Tolkien’s elves discovering the most unlikely creature imaginable (at least in terms of Middle-earth) was taken down off the auction site and all the bids were lost! None to be restored… so now they have replaced the live auction and the artist greatly desires to bring some Ringers’ attention to it before it concludes later today. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY — the current bids are not as significant as they were before being taken down — SO PLEASE BID NOW — They are in the final hours of bidding on this item and every little bit helps.

Be sure to check out and bid on the auction here and find out more details on Robin’s brave struggle on their charity info site here.  You can also follow updates on her surgeries and recovery on her Facebook page here. Thank you so much.

greendragon with actor John Bell, who plays Bain in The Hobbit movies

On 12th December staffer greendragon was lucky enough to attend the red (well, actually it was green!) carpet in Leicester Square, London, for the Royal Film Performance of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.   Many of the film’s stars – and other celebs who were there to see the movie – stopped by to say hi, and were delighted to see TheOneRing.net (‘our special friends,’ as Peter Hambleton said) represented there.  This is because YOU, our readers, are all so fabulous – everyone involved with the films knows that the best fans are the ones who visit TORn.    So here, as a little festive mathom offered to you all from us, the staffers at TORn, is a video of some greetings (and some ‘woohoos’!) to you all, from the folks who work in Middle-earth.

After a little footage of the set up in Leicester Square to set the scene, you’ll see John Bell (Bain) and his parents, Graham McTavish (Dwalin), James Nesbitt (Bofur), William Kircher (Bifur) and his beautiful wife Nicole, artist Alan Lee, Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Peter Hambleton (Gloin), Jed Brophy (Nori), Adam Brown (Ori), and of course Dominic Monaghan (Merry) and Billy Boyd (Pippin)- who were there to see the movie and revisit old haunts!  Enjoy!  Wishing you all happy holidays!

Tell us a bit about yourself. The cliff notes version, I guess.

I graduated with a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University in 2002 followed by an MA in 2003. My art training was a real highlight of my late teens and early twenties and a natural continuation from a childhood spent drawing, painting and making miniature model sci-fi films sets in the attic for my home movies. I have always loved different styles of illustration and sci-fi and fantasy art, and as an art student this was combined with a love of Salvador Dali and his striking surreal dreamscapes. As a movie fan I was drawn to pre-production concept art and miniature-scale design work that was prevalent before the advent of CGI. I found all these influences converged in one way or another during my art training along with a further immersion in contemporary art. Then something happened that I did not expect; the release of The Fellowship of the Ring…

How long have you been working as an artist, and when you began what did you want to accomplish?

I’ve been active as an artist for almost a decade now with many projects undertaken in education, theatre design work, artist-in-residence roles in schools and small-scale film projects. I’ve been exhibiting regularly as a landscape and abstract painter since 2007 in my home county of Yorkshire. What I’ve always wanted to accomplish is an art with a mysterious and intriguing pull on the viewer, providing suggestive hints of a wider narrative or mood – a little invitation for the viewer’s imagination to enter the work. This element has really come to the forefront in the collection of Tolkien inspired work. With From Mordor to the Misty Mountains I hope to begin establishing a reputation as a distinctive UK Tolkien artist, joining the ranks of others internationally who are inspired and compelled to create art in the same vein.

How did you become interested in Tolkien and Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? What drew you to them and what do you like about them?

Going back to the release of Fellowship in 2001 it was Peter Jackson’s films that were the first entry point into Tolkien for me. Between 2002 and 2003 when The Two Towers was fresh in the mind from its theatrical release, I remember having a growing interest to respond to the world of Middle-earth artistically. A large appeal lay in the epic scope of the art direction, cinematography and the miniature-scale work of the fantasy locations. This prompted me to dig into Tolkien’s mythology deeper by devouring the books and I simultaneously began to hold Howard Shore’s magnificent film scores in high regard. Its beauty aside, Shore’s score is incredibly effective in helping you ‘see’ Middle-earth through its undulating and towering orchestral landscape. The music is now a central inspiration and I’ve been following Doug Adams’ analysis of it for well over six years, through his blog and 2010 book. I also became hooked on the BBC Radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings from the 1980s (the one with Ian Holm playing the role of Frodo) which tided me over until The Return of the King in 2003, and I still return to it again and again – it’s a good companion piece to both the experience of the films and reading Tolkien’s writing. The main draw for me, which feeds into the work I create, is the richly described character and believability of Middle-earth – a fantasy land rooted in the real world, epic in scale but familiar enough to see echoes of it all around you, very much like the genius move to take New Zealand and just by careful additions and manipulation transform it into a living, breathing fantasy land.

The queues were especially long this afternoon at Weta Cave. The cave is usually rather busy and packed with tourists, movie fans, Tolkien fans and other enthusiastic visitors, but today was exception even in busy times’ standards. Like many others, I too arrived at the cave today, my own wee elfling in tow, willing to brave the long queue especially to meet illustrator Alan Lee and to have him sign our copy of The Hobbit 2013 Official Calendar.

It was such a delight to find out that John Howe, the other major illustrator on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies was there as well!

Inside the Weta Cave

The Weta Cave is a gallery/shop exhibiting and selling many artifacts by Weta Workshop made for such creations as the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, King Kong, District 9, children’s shows like The WotWots and Jane and the Dragon and many more.

It is found in Miramar, a southeast suburb of Wellington, located in close vicinity to Peter Jackson’s Park Road studios and Weta Workshop. As its name suggests, the cave is rather small, and today it was filled to its absolute capacity. People came from near and far, some bringing their own memorabilia with them to be signed.

Full to the brim

As you might imagine, standing in a long queue with an impatient young one isn’t always easy, but we enjoyed the many exhibits on display, and chatted with the people around us. You could clearly hear more languages than just English filling the cave. After more than an hour we finally came to stand face to face with Alan Lee and John Howe. What can I say — such gentlemen! They signed our Hobbit calendars and had a small chat with us. The elfling — who is rather shy — was semi-hiding behind my cardigan. I was therefore very touched when Alan Lee tried to make a conversation with him.

When Alan found out that the elfling was also a young artist who is particularly interested in drawing his own-created creatures in his own-created worlds he leaned forward towards the elfling and said “well, that’s how I started too!” which was such an incredibly kind and encouraging thing to say.

It was a unique experience, one we will not ever forget.

Then it was back to the wind and the rain outside… that’s spring in Wellington for you.

Lee and Howe have been working on concept art for Peter Jackson’s three-part ‘Hobbit’ movie, headed for a mid-December release but found time to produce some new work for this calendar.

The calendar features 14 paintings, including some created exclusively for this calendar by Alan Lee and John Howe, the two artists whose work has defined the look of Middle-earth over the last 25 years.

This is their first-ever collaboration since the official Tolkien Calendar began publishing 40 years ago.

Each month depicts one of the most famous scenes from The Hobbit, including Bilbo outside Bag End, Smaug the Dragon, the Great Goblin and Bilbo’s Front Hall. As well as classic illustrations from bo
th artists’ celebrated portfolios, the 2013 calendar includes brand new paintings, created by John Howe and Alan Lee exclusively for this calendar.

When: Sunday 9 September, 1-3 pm
Where: The Weta Cave, Miramar, Wellington

A range of Alan’s other titles including The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook will also be available in store. For more details including a map, click here.

Now Herr-der-Ringe has a spy image of the artwork.

The keys is exactly the same, but the runes on them seem to be slightly different? Was the artwork an earlier iteration that was subsequently simplified? Maybe it’s the equivalent of text greeking? Any runes experts out there able to help? Potential spoiler warning

[More]

Curious how the architectural set design choices for the Hobbit might reflect the history of these two cities, I asked Barliman’s chat regular and archaeologist Jenniearcheo to provide a few professional insights on some of the set images that have found their way onto the internet.

This brief essay is the result. We hope you enjoy it.

Warning: SPOILERS.

A potted history of Dale and Esgaroth

As you probably know, in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit there are only two key places inhabited by the race of Men.

The first is Girion’s fabled city of Dale -— destroyed when the dragon Smaug sacked Erebor in the year 2770 of the Third Age. By the time Thorin arrive reclaims to reclaim his heritage, naught is left but ruins.

Then there is the Esgaroth, also known as Laketown. Built entirely of wood, Laketown stands upon wooden pillars sunk into the bed of the Long Lake. It lies south of the Lonely Mountain a few day’s journey from the Desolation of Smaug. It seems highly likely (but it’s never truly confirmed) that it was established by refugees from Dale. Certainly Bard’s presence is a strong pointer.

Although these two cities were both established and ruled by Men, their roots could hardly be more different. Dale, built on the wealth of The Lonely Mountain; Esgaroth, the product of Smaug’s devastation.

But how do we see these differences at work in the sets?

The architecture of Dale — the city of Girion

Jenniearcheo writes:

Beginning with the photos of pre-Smaug Dale, we see that the city seems to have been constructed with a Romanesque style. Romanesque architecture is inspired by Rome, and is characterized by round arches and stone materials.

In the second photo we can also see round-arched window spaces filled with pairs of round-topped openings separated by a colonnette.

These are similar to the openings in the towers visible in the first photo in the linked page (of Maria Laach Abbey in Western Germany). To the left of this photo, we see an arched doorway of contrasting-colored stone, continuing (apparently) as a stringcourse or belt course of the darker stone. This is also very characteristic of the style.

For example, we have here the Colegiata de Santa Cruz in Cantabria (northern Spain), which has its origins in a Benedictine Monastery of the 10th century.

We also see more contrasting-colored arches and stringcourses picked out in what appears to be carved red stone, with a geometric motif. Also, pantile roofs abound. These are curved clay tiles, one edge of which curves under the next tile to interlock them.

In the screenshot to the right from Production Video 8, we have a grand formal building on the left, again with our stone blocks and round arches, and gray stone carvings on stringcourses. In the middle of the shot is a lovely building with a red arched stringcourse over a colonnade of 8 columns.

In several places, particularly in this production video, we see weathered stucco over some of the stone buildings, which speaks to a history of building, repair, and new construction. The large building to the left bears no stucco and may be of more recent construction than the central building with the colonnade.

This other screenshot below from the same production video shows the same scene but to the right of our colonnaded structure. Here we see many more pantile roofs, in a variety of shapes, including a fanciful pavilion on the wall to the right, topped with a finial, and with large sawnwork brackets picked out in green.

We also see several more sets of paired window openings, and a green sawnwork balustrade on a second-floor balcony near the middle of the shot, also painted in green. More weathered stucco is visible, and… well, we won’t mention the green tents. The video also shows windows filled with wooden lattice, and niches filled with statuary. All lovely details.

The Romanesque style is, naturally characteristic of the Mediterranean, which is very interesting.
While the Northmen who constructed Dale lived in what is presumably a much cooler climate than what is characteristic of Mediterranean states, it is a very formal architectural style which seems to fit Dale, and which had not been previously used in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

Finally, we note the unusual round-arched merlons (defences an archer might hide behind, between the spaces or “creneles” of a crenellated or battlemented roofline). They appear to be tripartite, composed of two rounded blocks and a slightly projecting block. As you can see from the link, merlons came in many shapes.

But these are unusual and quite interesting.

Turning our attention to the post-Smaug Dale composite photo to the right, we see that a dragon and 172 years have not been kind to our lovely city. Overgrown and with holes burned right through roofs, it’s only vaguely recognizable. But we do see some added architectural features not visible in the other photos.

There appears to be a robust wall surrounding the city, with apparently stuccoed guard towers with recessed entrances flanked by ornamental columns of some sort within recessed niches. There also appears, to the right of the image, to be some sort of statuary featuring a swimming duck and a chicken.

Clearly the people of Dale were a highly organized, formal society with professional architects, builders, and artisans who would have been required to maintain such a city.

Editorial note: Dale’s organisation and formalism is not surprising, considering Erebor was next door. Undoubtedly the dwarves were both a source of enormous wealth (via the mines) and expertise in building and stonework (its peoples). Wealthy people build in stone; it just lasts longer. Arches require technical expertise that the dwarves would have in spades.

What would the people of Dale trade in return? At the very least grain and other foodstuffs, for dwarves did little in the way of farming as Thorin himself says in The Hobbit.

The architecture of Esgaroth — the Laketown of The Master

Jenniearcheo writes:

Now let’s contrast this with Esgaroth or Laketown. Laketown was constructed entirely of wood, out on Long Lake, presumably on long, wooden piers sunk to the lake bottom.

The point was, apparently, to thwart Smaug. Should he return it would deny him a handy place to land and flame the town. Unfortunately, wood tends to be rather more flammable than stone or tile, but we’ll leave that to one side.

The architecture of Peter Jackson’s Laketown appears very whimsical in nature. Far removed from the formality of Dale, it looks as though no actual architects survived the destruction by Smaug, and that the refugees who constructed Laketown were composed of mere carpenters and builders. And possibly traumatized ones, at that.

If there is a style to Laketown, the photo on the right shows that it’s of medieval whimsy. Again, please ignore Miramar, the green screens, and… whatever those big things are sticking through the roofs.

There is a continuation of some round arches, particularly in the paired windows of the projecting bay of the building on the right, and the curving bridge between the two. But there’s a stylistic element to Laketown entirely missing at Dale. Dragon motifs. I suspect that the surviving builders who constructed Laketown could have done with some good therapy sessions.

As we can see in the photo to the left, for example, the rooflines, which are drunkenly not straight, either by haphazard design or due to decay, feature ridge caps with an undulating dorsal ridge motif.

On the building on the left, this stands as ornamental arches projecting up from the ridgeline. While on the building on the right, the bottom edges of the ridge cap bear an undulating shape. This is even continued on the barge boards framing the ends of the gable.

Indeed, the photo of Peter in the Laketown doorway shows a dragon-scale motif as exterior wall covering for the building. This motif was also used as an accent in that projecting second-story bay with the two windows we noted in the earlier photo.

test link We do see some attempts at paintwork in that photo with Peter and in the one below where door surrounds have a bit of paint (likely it won’t be as bright on screen). But all paint appears fading.

It seems as if Laketown was constructed in an ad-hoc fashion. Its architectural style should be seen as vernacular, as opposed to anything formal. A few stylistic motifs are found, but these are whimsical in nature and might signal enduring psychological problems on the parts of the builders.

However, there’s another possibility. Smaug destroyed Dale over 170 years ago. If these structures aren’t maintained with any sort of regular painting regimen, and possibly occasionally burn down (I don’t see anything that looks like a well-constructed chimney, unless they’re going to turn those odd camera thingies in the roofs into chimneys in post), it’s possible that what we see of Laketown is a second or even third generation of the town.

As a building burns or rots it might be replaced. And therefore, the dragon stylistic motifs might be seen as ironic. After all, in the book it’s only Bard who is worried about Smaug’s return, and tends to be the butt of jokes over his concern.

The lack of maintenance may also be seen as reflective of general neglect under the governance of the Master of Laketown.

Editorial note: Not only is the construction of Esgaroth haphazard, it’s built antirely in wood. A cheap, easily obtained, easily worked material for a people who yearn for the days when the river ran with gold. I agree with Jennie’s conclusion that the fading paint is signal of the neglect of the Master. Ironically, he is somewhat like Smaug, and hoards his wealth for himself.

In fact. if (as Gandalf says) Saruman was a lesser version of Sauron in Lord of the Rings, it’s not entirely unfair to say that the Master is a lesser version of Smaug.

Two histories; two architectural styles

I think it’s obvious that there’s a great deal of thought at work in reasoning out why the sets should look as they look. It’s not just a case of: “Oh, that would look cool!”. Middle-earth’s history plays a significant role in the development of how cities look.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen few clear examples of stonework from Erebor yet. It would be interesting to see what sort of links exist between the sets of Dale and Erebor. And Erebor was founded after the fall of Moria — how does the former evolve out of the latter in the minds of the concept designers?

In any case, it is clear that The Hobbit will be a feast for the eyes, and that great care has been taken to construct a distinct culture for each of the peoples within Middle-earth.

We have come to expect no less from Peter Jackson and his team.