1. Bag End and Erebor:
To a certain extent it is fortuitous that Bilbo is seen handling Sting as he is heard narrating to Frodo; that amidst the introductions to Gandalf and the Dwarves Bilbo says the opening line of the book: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit’; and that there are some, albeit minute, references to his parentage, which is said to be expanded on more in the movie’s extended edition. This is because all of these things indicate right from the beginning of the movie how Bilbo’s character transforms from merely being ‘a dweller in a dwelling in a bag’ to becoming ‘a dweller with a sword from the ones in a bag’ as his name indicates.
However, the movie’s extended edition’s references also could have gone beyond introducing Bilbo’s mother Belladonna, whose name reflects how Hobbit lasses are usually given flower names, and Bilbo’s maternal grandfather the Old Took, to introducing Bilbo’s father Bungo. This is because ‘took’ translates as ‘fool’ with it coming from the Germanic origins of the first syllable in Tolkien, with the second syllable translating as ‘hardy’ from those origins, while ‘bungo’ translates as ‘builder’, which is also reflected in Bag End being a bungalow, or a ‘low building’. And this all could have been reflected in foolishness being shown by some of the Tooks to Bungo as he uses his building skills at the Old Took’s party portrayed in the movie’s extended edition. This is because it could have highlighted how Bilbo is a conflation of the foolishness of the Tooks and the hardiness of the Bagginses, thus suggesting that Tolkien intended to not only reflect the importance of parentage in Anglo-Saxon warrior society but something about himself through Bilbo’s parentage.
Meanwhile, if there had of been some discussion at the party about the Tooks descending from Elves/Fairies, and the Old Took’s friendship with Gandalf being evidence of that, it would have set up Gandalf’s wandering into the story with his staff in hand as portraying him as the ‘Elf with a wand’ or the ‘wandering Elf’, as his name can translate from various Old Icelandic sources, that the people of Middle-earth mistake him to be, due to there being only five Wizards in Middle-earth. Also, this could have reflected how the Hobbits were divided over calling the Eldar people Elves or Fairies, which could have been reflected more in Gandalf’s use of ‘fairy-dust/elven-magic’ at the party. Furthermore, this would have anticipated Gandalf’s affinity with the Elves being enabled more later on, as opposed to Saruman’s affinity with Men and Radagast’s affinity with birds and beasts, in Gandalf’s efforts to persuade Thorin to seek the assistance of the Elves of Rivendell in order to be able to translate Thror’s map.
In the meantime, in Bilbo’s narration about the rise and fall of the Dwarves’ kingdom of Erebor and its visual representation Thror can be seen to be living up to what his name could translate as from Old Icelandic. This is through him seeming to ‘thrive’ in the wealth that the mining beneath the Lonely Mountain brings him and the greed that it brings him. And this is said to be expanded on more in the movie’s extended edition, particularly in Thror’s dealings with Thranduil, which, in turn, establishes the problematic relationship that exists between the Dwarves of Erebor and the Elves of Mirkwood. Meanwhile, Thorin could be seen to be ‘daring’, as his name can translate from Old Icelandic, during Smaug’s takeover of the Mountain, which anticipates him later being ‘daring’ when undertaking the quest to take back Erebor. And this is after he ‘dares’ to fight Azog the Orc, the slayer of Thror, only with an oak-branch for a shield in the Battle of Azanulbizar outside Moria, which leads to him being named Oakenshield. This, in turn, derives from the Old Icelandic name Eikinskjaldi, which is listed amongst the dwarves’ names in the Old Icelandic poem Voluspa from which Tolkien derived most of his Dwarves’ names for his legendarium.
However, at the same time, if this ‘daringness’, during Smaug’s takeover of the Mountain, had of extended to Thorin rescuing Thrain from Smaug’s dragon-fire, while Thrain attempts to retrieve the Arkenstone as it gets lost amongst the treasure-hoard instead of Thror, then Thrain would have been seen to be ‘yearning’, as his name can translate from Old Icelandic, for his people’s wealth. This is so to anticipate that Thrain’s ‘yearning’ is to be expanded on in the movies to come. And this could have taken liberty with the Arkenstone being associated with Thrain’s namesake Thrain the Old, the first King under the Mountain, in the book, by having the younger Thrain being seen as the Dwarf that finds the Arkenstone during Bilbo’s narration.
Meanwhile, an opportunity for Balin to be seen ‘burning’, as his name can translate from Old Icelandic, from being ‘burnt’ by Smaug’s dragon-fire as the Dragon takes over the Mountain is also lost when Thorin pulls him out of the dragon-fire’s path. And that would have anticipated how the Dwarf’s entombed corpse becomes ‘burnt’ up by the Balrog, or the ‘burning-power’, when the latter wipes out the colony that Balin attempts to establish later on in Moria. In addition, this opportunity might have been provided by Dwalin being also present when Smaug takes over the Mountain with the Dwarf being seen ‘dawdling/delaying’, as his name can translate from Old Icelandic, in coming to Balin’s assistance thus anticipating how he ‘delays’ his lifespan beyond the other Dwarves. Furthermore, Dwalin could have been seen to be ‘delayed’ by Bilbo’s ‘dawdling’ to open the door of Bag End for him on the day of the unexpected party. This is while Balin still could have had a singed look about him from being ‘burnt’ by Smaug’s dragon-fire when he comes to Bag End and joins Dwalin where it is ‘found’ out by Bilbo that they are brothers, in which if it had of been highlighted that they were the sons of Fundin, would have alluded to what the latter name can translate as from Old Icelandic.
In addition, if all of the Dwarves had of come, with the exception of Thorin, to Bag End in the groupings that they do in the book then that would have helped the introduction of the other Dwarves through highlighting what their names can translate as from Old Icelandic, which could have been expanded on in the movies to come. This also could have resulted in them all anticipating how, like the characters that they are based on in Tolkien’s legendarium, they all live up to what their names’ characterize as, when considering the individual Dwarves’ histories in the latter. And for this the gag about the Dwarves wrecking the plumbing in the bathroom could have been expanded on by Fili and Kili getting out their respective mining apprenticeship ‘filing’ and ‘wedging’ tools upon their entry into Bag End. This is so to mine what they think is mithril in the copper that Bilbo boils his water in for his baths in the room that his bathtub is stored in, which is what bathrooms are designed for in Hobbit-holes. Meanwhile, representing this would have alluded to how Frodo and his companions demonstrate this when they each have a bath on one occasion in The Lord of the Rings, which was a scene Tolkien included in the book to expand on his reference to bathrooms in Bilbo’s Hobbit-hole in The Hobbit. Furthermore, this ‘mining’ could have happened in the movie while Bilbo is distracted by the arrival of each group of Dwarves at his door.
In the meantime, after Dori, Nori and Ori enter into Bag End they could have applied their respective mining specialist ‘boring’, ‘chipping’ and ‘violating’ tools to speed up the process of getting out what turns out to be lead-work in the copper. And this could have played on the idea that they are all too long out of touch with mining for anything other than coal to recognize what mithril is. This also could have anticipated how Fili and Kili do not live long enough to outgrow their apprenticeships, while Dori, Nori and Ori carry on their specialties until they die, which in Tolkien’s legendarium is suggested by the way Ori’s ‘violating’, along with the mining by the rest of Balin’s colony, ‘violates’ the domains of the Orcs and the Balrog in Moria, who, in turn, ‘violate’ the domains of the colony.
During this Oin could have been seen coming ‘alone’ to Bag End where he joins his ‘friends’ and brother at the door in anticipation of his dying ‘alone’, in the future in the last days of Balin’s colony, entangled in the tentacles of the Watcher in the pool outside the Elven way into Moria that opens to the Elvish word for ‘friend’, thus indicating two possible Old Icelandic sources that his name could come from. Meanwhile, Gloin could have been caused to ‘glow’ by the sun setting at his arrival at Bag End to anticipate him being illuminated by his ‘little gem’ of a son, Gimli, who goes into the West as the sun sets with Legolas in the future after Aragorn’s death. Then Bifur’s ‘trembling’ and Bofur’s ‘tumbling’ could have caused them and ‘tubby’ Bombur to fall onto Bilbo when he opens the door to them and Gandalf, anticipating how when the Dwarves get older Bombur gets so overweight that he needs six young Dwarves to lift him from his couch to his chair at the table because Bifur and Bofur are too feeble then to do it.
Bilbo could have then discovered that the ‘plumbing’ had been destroyed in the bathroom, during which Oin and Gloin could have explained to the other Dwarves that they were attempting to mine ‘lead-work’ from the copper, which is otherwise known in a very strange tongue of Men as plumbum, the Latin origin of the word plumbing. And this would have reflected how until the Old Icelandic people were introduced to things like plumbing, crockery and cutlery they had to have ‘launder-day’ to clean up their mead-halls. This was after they celebrated ‘Sun-day’, ‘Moon-day’, ‘Tyrs-day’, ‘Odins-day’, ‘Thors-day’ and ‘Frigg-day’ to mark their ‘wake-days’, with plumbing etc coming from the Romans who, meanwhile, celebrated amongst their weekdays ‘Saturn-day’. Meanwhile, this could have then been expanded on in the movie by Bilbo next seeing Dwalin throwing his crockery, cutlery, food and beverages towards the other Dwarves, after Dwalin and Balin have set up the dining-room for them to eat in, which he gets upset at. This then could have led to most of the Dwarves singing the song beginning: ‘Chip the glasses and crack the plates’ as they catch the crockery, cutlery, food and beverages and throw these things around amongst them.
Then Balin could have put a stop to this by calling everyone to order and telling everyone that Thorin would not be coming because he was meeting with the rest of their people and they were to meet him at The Prancing Pony Inn in Bree. Then Balin could have started explaining what is going on to Bilbo, which could have led to Bilbo fainting and shrieking and to Gloin expressing his reservations about Bilbo being the burglar that they require, which gets Bilbo’s ire up enough, because of the way that the Dwarves ‘burgled’ his home, to want to join the quest like in the book. The scene then could have ended with Balin beginning to tell Bilbo about the Dwarves’ kingdom of Erebor as Bilbo narrated it at the beginning of the movie, all which would have shortened the Bag End scene in the movie leaving the rest to be represented in a scene in The Prancing Pony Inn, which I will explain more below.
