why were there so many dwarves?

[Bantan]

Why were there so many dwarves? the only one's that were important to the story were Bombur,Thorin, Balin,and Dwalin:confused:

[webwizard333]

I feel it showed just how much of a disaster Smaug caused. Also, all the dwarves were important, but some had more personality than others.

[Ñólendil]

Using the names of those Dwarrows and Gandalf also serves to explain their vague presence in the ancient Old Norse saga, the Poetic Edda (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not very familliar with it). Fili, Kili, Bombur, Thorin, Gandalfr, all the rest, they all appear in that book as Dwarves involved in some expedition.

[easterlinge]

I can't help wondering why the 13 Dwarves went unarmed...... They were going into Wilderland, to ultimately face a dragon, for God's sake!!

Take Gimli, he wasn't expecting to go on a Quest to Gondor, he just followed his Dad to Rivendell to warn Bilbo about Sauron's servants. He passed through "safe" territory protected by Mirkwood Elves, Woodsmen and Beornings, but was still cautious enough to carry an axe and wear a hauberk......

So we have Thorin fending off three Trolls with a burning faggot (is it OK to use that word? :p), and later Dwarves fighting Giant spiders with itty bitty knives....... rather silly of them. 13 axes would have evened the odds a lot.

[Ñólendil]

Sure it's okay to use that word, as long as you're talking about wood.

[ringbearer]

Or cigarettes!:D

[Bradistic]

There were 13 Dwarves because if they didn't have an unlucky number of people in their party, they wouldn't have needed and extra member. Then the book The Hobbit would have just been about Bilbo sitting at home not doing anything interesting. I suppose Tolken needed a reason for an aparently unadventurous Hobbit to go on a very dangerous and outlandish quest. Altough I don't think that having the horrible number of 13 people in your party is so bad that you need to pick out a randome person to join you on your quest (esp. when they insist that they do not wish to go on any kind of quest at all).

[webwizard333]

I always laugh when I reread the part about the superstition of the dwarves, which Gandalf is partly to blame for. I think that the dwarves were ready to go on without Bilbo, but Gandlaf was smart and played on their superstitions to make sure that they would be well prepared.

[Comic Book Guy]

If you want to find out more about the Bilbo and how he came to be with the gang of dwarves, read Unfinished Tales and the essay on the quest of Erebor, it has Gandalf's account of how the party was formed in the hobbit to Pippin, Merry, Gimli and Frodo. It's a interesting read.

[Spock]

To answer the topic question. What else do you think they had to do living in the dark besides mining, hmmmmmm:p

[Bregalad]

I can understand why there are so many dwarves on the mission to the lonely mountain. In fact, it always seemed to me that they took too few. I mean, honestly! If A big dragon was sitting around in your old house, you'ld want a few friends along when you went to check it out! But i will never understand why they didn't go better armed. Perhaps Tolkien was trying to take it easy on the kids. There certainly is a lot more hacking off of limbs, so to speak, in the adult novels.

[FaithFairy]

Bombur,Thorin, Balin,and Dwalin

These four just had the key roles but all the dwarves had some role to play (sort of like behind-the-stage participants rather than on it).

[Matto Baggins]

how would the party have crossed the river in mirkwood without kili(or fili, cant remember) to throw the rope across. the quest would have ended there.

[Twilight]

I think what bothered me the most was how they were unarmed. They started off with everything that they wanted. They even dragged along musical instruments. I think that the dwarves thought it was just going to be some jolly romp in the forest. Then they get to the mountain and suddenly realise that they still have a dragon to deal with. I don't think any of them understood what the mission was going to be like when they started off.

[TinuvielChild]

i think that like Twilight said, they thought it would just be one big party, they'd storm up to the mountain and kick Smaug out without a fight. But i also think Fili and Kili were important too! they're my favorites. :)

[Rána Eressëa]

Why were there so many dwarves?

To confuse you.

How do I know this? I'm brilliant. :D

[Findegil]

Thorins original plans were to go their with an army and fight the dragon until the end (either of the army or the dragon). But Gandalf changed his plans and they trusted in secracy and burgling. The hope was not really to kill the dragon. The hope was to get a part of the treasure back nothing more. For that quest they needed Bilbo.
Thorin was in the party because he was the head of it and the rest of the company was a kind of protection for them. The lands were wild an unknown. And a journey alone or with very few companion could end in disaster as Thrain had experienced.

About the arms: I think the only occasion were the dwarves were a little bit short witted was the story with the Trolls. In that time I think they had weapons and only expected no such trouble in the wood, so that they led the weapons behind with the ponies. But afterwards they lost all their stuff in the adventure with the Orks. And they used the first possible station to get some new gear in Laketown.

Regrads
Findegil

[Twilight]

They could have rearmed themslelves off of the trool hoard if they had wanted too. From the way it is described, I don't think that they took all of the weapons because Gandalf and Thorin selected the best looking ones, maybe implying that there were more. Also they could have gotten stuff in Rivendel if they had wanted to.

[Dingy Denethor]

You liberated lalallalalallala

[azalea]

Wasn't there an account of how that all came to pass in the LotR Appendix? I remember something about Gandalf having a chance meeting w/ Thorin in Bree. The other dwarves had come from the north w/ Thorin or something, so that's all that were w/ him at the time. I don't remember it actually saying they weren't armed, but I imagine they would have used any weapons they had on the trolls.

[Twilight]

Yes, trolls are the sort of oponent that you wouldn't want to hold anything back on.


(Edited just to correct a mispelling)

[elendili]

There had to be lots of dwarves in The Hobbit coz otherwise you'd get bored with only a couple of characters. Plus these particular dwarves seemed quite dense so maybe they thought they'd be safer if they went in a large group. Pretty dumb if you asked me they went to fight a huge fire breathing dragon with no weapons or armour between them, it was surprising they got as far as they did. But i suppose the intelligent hobbit who wanted a tissue helped them a bit.

[Twilight]

Having fewer dwarves would have allowed for greater personality and character development for each dwarf. There is something to say about safety in numbers, but that only really helps if they are prepared to meet danger. The dwarves didn't really seem that prepared. A smaller group would have done every bit as good, and would have atracted less problems. The dwarves problably didn't think of that though.

[samwiselvr2008]

i like there being alot of dwarves! it gives you the filling about IT WOULD BE TERRABLE IF.... and allso, if kids are reading this book, since ppl think this is a kids book, it will give them more to visualize! same with every one else, that likes to see the picture in there mind, and tolkien did write it for his kids, not for us, and his kids might have liked long lists...

i don't know, there are so many dif. resons why!!!:)

[Dolenloteiel]

The Dwarves were essential to the story. Nearly all of them were related, and they all played important roles in the book. They all wanted their share of the treasure, so they all went.

[The Lady of Ithilien]

Yes, in the appendix it said that Gandalf was worried about Sauron using Smaug to devastate the North. He (Gandalf) was in the Inn at Bree one night, and Thorin introduced himself to talk about Smaug. Gandalf said something like, he was on his way to the Shire but had realized that was the way to Thorin's dwellings, too; Thorin said Gandalf would always be welcome there, and so it got started.

Is that similar to the version in Unfinished Tales?

As for why there were so many dwarves, what better way to grab children's attention than starting off with an absurd and unexpected character, say, . . . a dwarf with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt, and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. and then piling it on from there, finishing up with that "enormously important dwarf," Thorin Oakenshield, getting squashed by Bombur.

Then, once having gotten the children's attention, other touches are added to show that these dwarves are not like any dwarf they've ever heard of before (kids wouldn't care about the distinction between "dwarfs" and "dwarves," after all). These dwarves have their own colors, their own very distinctive musical instrument, and only then, once they've been "fleshed out," so to speak, they can start with the singing and the history and the map and their tale.

That's a good point about the dwarves in the Trollshaw not bringing their arms when they head out to the fire to see what happened to Bilbo. Maybe the first few could have left them behind (though that seems unlikely), but we're told that Thorin was already suspicious when he approached. Of course by then it was one dwarf against three big Trolls, and he might have been using the burning branch purposely to put two of them out of action (as he did) so he could use a weapon on the third. That seems a bit too cautious, though, for someone who fought orcs at Moria using an oak limb for a shield. And Bilbo doesn't report seeing a sword or axe.

As for the dragon, maybe they planned to burgle enough of the treasure away from Smaug to pay for and fit out an army that could come back and deal with Old Ozone-Head definitively? Wish Tolkien could have gone into more detail on that discussion on . . . dragon-slayings historical, dubious, and mythical . . .