Early elves, like other sprites and faeries, liked to bewilder humans with playful pranks, but in legend, the elves grew to be the man-sized, reclusive, magical mortals portrayed in Tolkien's world.ĥ Tolkien's ores (goblins, in The Hobbit) are fiendish, manlike creatures -from the underworld, and quite appropriately so: in Roman mythology, Orcus is synonymous with the name Pluto, the god of the underworld. Close to humans in appearance except, of course, for their pointy ears and tiny stature, elves were thought to be of an immortal race having magical powers. They are not especially pleasing to the eye, they bristle easily if provoked, and they are said to live much longer than humans, perhaps hundreds of years, like elves.Ĥ Elves are originally from Germanic myth, though they eventually spread to northern Europe. Dwarves of myth, such as Tolkien portrays, are excellent miners and masterly smiths capable of fabricating the finest armor. These little people, usually three- to four-feet tall, are said to dwell underground where they mine tin and precious metals and hoard vast treasures. Like many monsters in Viking legend, trolls inhabit dark forests, mountains, or caves, and sometimes they commit the standard monsteratrocities such as stealing children or, as the popular nursery tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff warns, devouring livestock.ģ Dwarves are also creatures of Scandinavian folklore. They usually have human features, though their noses, ears, and teeth are greatly exaggerated.
Folklore trolls range from small children to the giants in Tolkien's fictional realm. Some of those tales, notably Icelandic sagas, chronicle high adventures in which mankind confronts its greatest fears, and sometimes those fears take the form of imaginary creatures such as trolls, dwarves, elves, and ores-all major players in Tolkien's masterworks, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.Ģ We can thank Norse mythology for trolls. Some of the languages Tolkien studied exist primarily as poems and sagas of bygone cultures. This was also a study of history, for the characteristics and evolution of a language reflect the history and beliefs of its users. The fallowing reading passage contains vocabulary words from this lesson.Ĭarefully read the passage and then choose the best answers for each of the questions that follow.ġ Before he invented the hobbit, or teamed dwarves, elves, and humans to battle evil wizards, John Ronald Reuel Q.R.R.) Tolkien excelled in the study of languages, especially obsolete languages such as Greek and Latin, and the obscure tongues of Gothic, Welsh, and Finnish.
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