The Hobbit Greed
Armor
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien is a sprawling fantasy adventure world infused with magic and Medievalism. Tolkien, a renowned philologist and admired Oxford professor, crafted languages, lineages, and legends to add layers of depth to his tale. Each mythical race detailed in his story is equipped with their own culture and society, and often artifacts of great power and purpose are crafted from the forges of the Elves and the Dwarves. Among Frodo Baggins’s possessions, his Mithril chain-mail of Dwarvish origin is perhaps the most fascinating.
Tolkien was drawn throughout his childhood to the Medieval age. The languages, fairy-stories, and fantasy stoked within him a fire that was both scholarly and creative. It …show more content…
When Frodo and Bilbo meet again in the city of Rivendell, Bilbo gifts him what is described as “a small shirt of mail” (277), “dwarf-mail” (277), or “a corslet of mithril-rings” (317). It’s description captures an item of great opulence and fortitude, observing it as being “close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel. It shone like moonlit silver, and was studded with white gems.” (277) This came with a “belt of pearl and crystal” (277), and boasted enough strength that Bilbo fancied “it would turn even the knives of the Black Riders.” (278) This description is reminiscent of the tightly woven Sutton Hoo chainmail of the Seventh Century, and yet captures an ethereal quality that binds it to the narrative of …show more content…
When struck, arrows “sprang back” (329) leaving Frodo sore but unscathed. In the crossing the river Anduin, an orc-arrow “smote Frodo between the shoulders and he lurched forward with a cry, letting go his paddle: but the arrow fell back, foiled by his hidden coat of mail.” (386) While the dwarf-mail was evident of a “culture of display”, an item indicative of beauty, strength, and status, it’s delicate appearance did not diminish its impressive endurance. The fact that this mail was given as a gift from Thorin to Bilbo, and later received as a gift by Frodo from the latter, also refers back to the Anglo-Saxon importance of gift-giving. While Thorin’s motives may have initially been guided by a desire to secure social, military, and political support, Bilbo’s reason for bestowing the mail upon his beloved relative appears to be entirely
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien is a sprawling fantasy adventure world infused with magic and Medievalism. Tolkien, a renowned philologist and admired Oxford professor, crafted languages, lineages, and legends to add layers of depth to his tale. Each mythical race detailed in his story is equipped with their own culture and society, and often artifacts of great power and purpose are crafted from the forges of the Elves and the Dwarves. Among Frodo Baggins’s possessions, his Mithril chain-mail of Dwarvish origin is perhaps the most fascinating.
Tolkien was drawn throughout his childhood to the Medieval age. The languages, fairy-stories, and fantasy stoked within him a fire that was both scholarly and creative. It …show more content…
When Frodo and Bilbo meet again in the city of Rivendell, Bilbo gifts him what is described as “a small shirt of mail” (277), “dwarf-mail” (277), or “a corslet of mithril-rings” (317). It’s description captures an item of great opulence and fortitude, observing it as being “close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel. It shone like moonlit silver, and was studded with white gems.” (277) This came with a “belt of pearl and crystal” (277), and boasted enough strength that Bilbo fancied “it would turn even the knives of the Black Riders.” (278) This description is reminiscent of the tightly woven Sutton Hoo chainmail of the Seventh Century, and yet captures an ethereal quality that binds it to the narrative of …show more content…
When struck, arrows “sprang back” (329) leaving Frodo sore but unscathed. In the crossing the river Anduin, an orc-arrow “smote Frodo between the shoulders and he lurched forward with a cry, letting go his paddle: but the arrow fell back, foiled by his hidden coat of mail.” (386) While the dwarf-mail was evident of a “culture of display”, an item indicative of beauty, strength, and status, it’s delicate appearance did not diminish its impressive endurance. The fact that this mail was given as a gift from Thorin to Bilbo, and later received as a gift by Frodo from the latter, also refers back to the Anglo-Saxon importance of gift-giving. While Thorin’s motives may have initially been guided by a desire to secure social, military, and political support, Bilbo’s reason for bestowing the mail upon his beloved relative appears to be entirely