Hobbit2 - Chapter 02 - Roast Mutton

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

what do you think of the burrahobbit?

Anytime I see that word, my head has programmed me to think about the long time member of the 'Downs. So, in an attempt of being like the burrahobbit...

clumsy.

Originally Posted by mark12_30

It seems to me that Gimli comes as a warrior resplendant, fresh from the gloriously rebuilt and refortified Lonely Mountain, wealthy, self-confident, and bold. In contrast, what we have in The Hobbit are a rag-tag assemblage of -- excuse me, but they admitted it-- coal-diggers and iron-miners. Thorin's thirteen are not all dwarves at the peak of their culture and glory. They are slummers; survivors; stubborn dreamers; and rather unlikely adventurers.

Wow, not joking when I say my mind has been blown, because I never paid attention to those details, and the backgrounds of the 13 dwarves. I have been so used to thinking pretty much every non-hobbit character was royalty, or had some kind of royal pedigree. Aside from hobbits, Beregond, Hama, and a few others in LOTR, the characters come from noble bloodlines. So, I've been assuming all these years it was the same for the dwarves who went with Thorin...but they are a very rag-tag bunch.

I went to bed wondering why the dwarves all approach the troll camp one at a time, because that was such a terrible strategy if they all wanted to avoid capture. I think your post has inadvertently been a partial answer, but it's still something I'm wondering. Approaching the trolls one-by-one (granted they didn't know whose camp it was) just seemed a strange way to not get everyone sacked.