Dwarves in The Hobbit seem a little............

[Glamdring]

Is it just me, or do the dwarves described in The Hobbit, seem a little....... weak (lack of a better term). I mean, in the LOTR they seem a lot more dangerous, more warrior-like. When I was reading about Durin's Folk in the appendix of ROTK, the dwarves seemed totally different from the ones in The Hobbit. What do you guys think?

[TheFool]

hi!

hmmm.... think you would have to look at why they are on the quest in the first place (I honestly can't remember myself!) - maybe they are young, inexperienced dwarves? Just look at the state of Bombur, not exactly fighting fit.

Except Thorin that is, hard-man that he is... hehe I always liked Thorin.

*Need help from more knowledgable members*

[TheFool]

...and Dain and the Iron Hills-mob, they're pretty hard as well.

[YayGollum]

The quest was to get their treasure in the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. They had no real idea on how to kill him, though. They got pretty lucky with that Bard dude around.
Anyways, I didn't really notice that the Dwarves in The Hobbit were weaker in any way than Gimli. Gimli is pretty much the only Dwarf action we get in LOTR. All thirteen of the Dwarves from The Hobbit fought in the battle of five armies. Only three died. I kind of didn't like the fact that the spiders in Mirkwood caught them so easily. oh well.
If they did seem weak, it was probably just because The Hobbit and LOTR are written in pretty different styles. Maybe I'm just crazy, though. oh well.

[TheFool]

mm the 'unexpected party' seem more like out-for-their-first-adventure-type dwarves; I agree, definitely they had no chance of dealing with Smaug by themselves! Don't they nearly get cooked by the trolls as well? + They get grabbed by the spiders, goblins, wood elves,...

ps Yay have you heard the song 'Oh Well' pts I & II by Peter Green :D

[Nenya Evenstar]

it was probably just because The Hobbit and LOTR are written in pretty different styles.
Yes, I think this is probably what you are noticing. Remember that Tolkien did not have his story in mind when he wrote The Hobbit. Personally, I have never noticed a weakness - only a difference in the way the books are written. One is more child-like, and the others are more difficult and deep.

[YayGollum]

No, I haven't heard of that song, crazy fool dude. Sounds cool. :rolleyes: Yes, they did get caught by all of those things. sorry about that. Can't you tell that those trolls were just really smart? :rolleyes: The goblins and spiders caught them while they were sleeping and the evil elves had evil magic. No fair. See how good they did in that battle? oh well.

[TheFool]

Time for me to re-read The Hobbit I think. They had proper weapons/armour in the battle, and had learned a lot from all their previous dumb mistakes haha! I share your opinions of those wood-elves too, might skip that bit ;)

[ltas]

Originally posted by Glamdring
Is it just me, or do the dwarves described in The Hobbit, seem a little....... weak (lack of a better term).

I have never thought that the dwarves in The Hobbit were somehow weak. They had a lot of courage to start their journey through the wilderness, despite all the trolls, vargs, orcs, wolves etc. Also, they showed up remarkable persistence during the siege of the Lonely Mountain.

Being captured by orcs was indeed most unfortunate, but we'll have to keep in mind the dwarves were caught in sleep and were outnumbered by the enemy.

The dwarves surrendered to elves voluntarily, because they were starving and exhausted and had lost their way in the woods, so basically they had little hope of surviving without the aid of elves.

But anyway, Glamdring's suggestion gave me a thought - the dwarves did seem to be lacking the basic skills of surviving in the wild nature. It's most noticeable during the events in Mirkwood.

[YayGollum]

Yay for me and The Fool skipping over the elf part! Argh! Evil elves! oh well. I don't think that they lacked basic skills for surviving in the wild. They ran out of food. Not their fault. It would be Beorn's fault for not giving them enough, I guess. :rolleyes:

[ltas]

Well, as far as I remeber, after Smaug took over the Lonely Mountain, Thorin who had escaped, finally settled down in some village, concentrating mainly on his art and guiding his kin, and didn't travel much. So it wouldn't be very suprising if he's a bit more... helpless in the wild then someone who has spent half his life in the forests.