[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

Originally Posted by morm

I have difficulty with this. I can not for the life of me imagine Ugluk, Shagrat or Gorbag signing to each other or their captives. I can imagine them torturing them but not singing.

It's very appropriate for the Hobbit's style that the goblins sing, and while I have hard time imagining Shagrat and Gorbag sitting around a campfire and singing, I'm not sure whether it would be too weird to hear orcs sing in LotR or not. After all, the goblins' singing was described to be croaking and a big part of the lyrics here is ghastly sound effects and laughing. I'd imagine their songs were hardly anything like organized a cappella performances but rather just, well, croaking when they got excited.

There's this painting by John Howe, and although it's a portrait of Gollum, I've always pictured the goblins to look like that. They're vile (keeping slaves, making torturing devices) and sneaky (sprinters with soft shoes ), but not like PJ's Uruk-hai, although the description of the Great Goblin sounded a bit like that.

Originally Posted by JennyHallu

Plus, the orcs of Moria had drums. Considering how rarely anyone ventured into the caves, it is unlikely they built the drums solely for the purpose of scaring the socks off random passersby...

The drums didn't necessarily serve any musical purpose in the goblin society. They used to be handy tools for communicating since their sound could be heard over great distances. I'd believe that in labyrinthic caves drumming would have been an ideal way to send messages without too much trouble. Besides, since the message "language" was probably different among different tribes and cultures, unwanted people (spies, whom the goblins seemed to be afraid of) couldn't have interpreted the messages.

Originally Posted by TH, Over Hill and Under Hill

Far, far away in the West, where things were blue and faint, Bilbo knew there lay his own country of safe and comfortable things, and his little hobbit-hole.
...
The summer is getting on down below.

I just started thinking, since there were no TVs, cameras or such in Middle-earth, Bilbo hadn't ever seen what it is like to watch the lands so far up above. That must have been quite an experience for him. Probably a good way to open his eyes to see that there's so much outside the borders of the Shire, too. What is it like to be so isolated from other people than your companions and be so far away from home that even the seasons can't reach you? Quite daunting for poor Bilbo, I guess.