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Thorin's Song The Hobbit

Decent Essays

The Misty Mountains Song, or Thorin's Song, is the second featured in The Hobbit. It is sung by all of the dwarves and is about their ancestors (17). With this song, Tolkien foreshadows the events to come. The result of the song is it awakening the Tookish side of Bilbo, who is spurred to adventure (19). The song aids the plot, characters, and mood of the story through the use of rhyme and word choice. Before the song starts, the room becomes dark and solemn to comply with the mood of the song. The first verse explains the plot: The words misty, dungeons deeps, and pale enchanted gold help set up the landscape and adventure to follow. Verse two focuses on the dwarves' halls: Here, the home of the dwarves is defined, invoking a sense of crafters and miners working away in the darkness of a mine, which perfectly describes the dwarves. Verses three and four focus on the abilities of the dwarves. all speak of the beautiful and ornate craftsmanship exhibited. Deep in the mountains, the dwarves mine for gold, ore, and gems and make them into fabulous jewelry and other assorted ornaments. These verses in particular are what help awaken the Took in Bilbo. …show more content…

In the following verses, keeping in mind that the dwarves are displaced from their home, the words take on a more somber tone. The dwarves no longer have a place to craft and sing to themselves; they have no home. The attack on the dwarves' home by the dragon is covered in verses seven, eight and nine. Tolkien uses extra rhyming with the -ing suffix of roaring, moaning, flaming--a bit of personification of the land--to describe Smaug's attack. reveals that the dragon is not a mindless monster but possesses hatred and anger as he destroys a town while men look on with is literally the dragon's feet as it chases after the fleeing dwarves and metaphorically the march of defeated dwarves forced from their

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