The Hobbit (novel): Difference between revisions

* [[Named Weapons]]: Glamdring, the Foe Hammer; Orcrist, the Goblin Cleaver; and Sting. Orcrist and Glamdring are famous enough that the goblins recognize them, calling them "''Biter''" and "''Beater''".

* [[Nature Hero]]

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Throughout the journey, the Dwarves just keep stumbling into trouble and making a royal mess of things.

** First, they stumble right into a Goblin lair. The incident results in the Great Goblin's death. Hence, the Goblins and Wargs band together and set out for revenge, gathering an army in the process, which catches up to them near the end.

* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]

* [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same]]: The [[Trope Codifier]], though since there are thirteen of them in the main party, some of them do get one or two individual personality traits. (Thorin is pompous and long-winded, Dori is a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], Bombur is a [[Butt Monkey]], Balin is the nice guy, Fili and Kili are cheerful.) Partially averted, however, in that none of them seem to carry any weapons until they find some in the Troll's lair, at which point they end up not with axes, but swords. Nor are they particularly stolid: they seem like seasoned adventurers to Bilbo at first, but once on the journey they whine and grumble about things at least as much as Bilbo does (and eventually ''more'' than Bilbo does). Thorin's gang might be excused, however, from the fact that they have been technically homeless for decades; Dain's dwarves from the Iron Mountain fit the trope a lot better.

* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]] : Beorn the "skin-changer" is able to undergo [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] in battle and take the form of a bear. Tolkien took inspiration from the legendary [[The Berserker|berserkir]] of [[Norse Mythology]] (warriors covered of animal pelts and consecrated to Odinn, who allegedly changed into wolf-men or bear-men in the frenzy of battle).

* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: The three trolls don't want to eat Bilbo, simply because he wasn't big enough to go through the trouble of skinning and boning him.