The Hobbit: Novel vs. Film
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The Hobbit is a fantasy novel for children written by an English author, J. R. R. Tolkien, published in 1937, and it is the prequel to the author’s 1954 epic fantasy novel trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. The events in The Hobbit took place 60 years before The Lord of the Rings. It tells the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who goes on a quest with Gandalf the Wizard, Thorin Oakenshield, the crown prince of the Dwarf kingdom, and other 13 dwarves to take their home, Erebor or the Lonely Mountain, back from the occupation of a dragon named Smaug.
In July 2012, the director, Peter Jackson, and the studio behind the project announced that the novel would be adapted into three films, making it a trilogy (Urquhart, 2012). The first installment of the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was premiered on November 28, 2012, in New Zealand and released internationally on December 12, 2012. Despite being adapted from a children’s book, Jackson made the narrative in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey darker, more mature, and more violent with graphic scenes. For example, the film included the flashback sequences of Azog beheading King Thror and Thorin cutting Azog’s arm off with a sword during the Fight of Moria.
According to Klassen (2017), Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit is radical due to its hand-picking of specific parts from the novel and extending sentence-long descriptions into longer sequences. As a result, the film’s duration is much longer than the book, covering only one-third of the book in 2 hours and 49 minutes. Jackson did not only alter the overall tone of the story, but he also added extra scenes that were not in the novel and modified several aspects of the characters. It is believed that the changes were made to create a cinematic connection between The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was also directed by Peter Jackson.
Jackson created a cinematic connection between the two trilogies by inserting prologue scenes and adding scenes mentioned in one of the Lord of the Rings films. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has two prologue scenes to help establish the narrative in which old Bilbo (Ian Holm) tells the audience about the Dwarves’ kingdom, the fall of their home Erebor, and their current circumstances in the first prologue, and Bilbo talks to his nephew, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), about a party and a vague description of his adventure in the second one. Frodo, the protagonist in the Lord of the Rings story, makes a cameo in the prologue, emphasizing the connection between the two trilogies (Klassen, 2017). In the book, however, there are only short sentences to describe the situation of the Dwarves and their kingdom, and there is no interaction between Bilbo and Frodo.
Jackson extended Bilbo’s narration about the Dwarves’ kingdom in the film, and as a result, the two prologues combined lasted for 13 minutes. As mentioned earlier about the mentioned-only scenes, Jackson added the scene where Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the 13 dwarves encountered three mountain trolls, an event that old Bilbo told when he was telling his adventure tale to children in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship (2001). In a 13-minute The Hobbit featurette released by Warner Bros. in 2012, Philippa Boyens, co-writer of The Hobbit, mentioned how the audience gets the chance to see how the trolls’ scene played out is one of the film’s charms. Jackson then added that the encounter is one of the book’s iconic passages, and it is a scene they were looking forward to bringing to the screen.
There are significant differences between the depiction of Bilbo Baggins in the novel and the film. The first one is Bilbo’s aging process. The book established that the effect of having the One Ring in his possession is he will maintain a youthful appearance, even after 100 years since he found the Ring, which means Bilbo would still look the same in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Peeke, 2022). However, there is a contradiction regarding this detail in the film adaptation because Peter Jackson and his team cast Martin Freeman to play Bilbo in The Hobbit, who was 40 years younger than The Lord of the Rings’ Bilbo actor, Ian Holm. There is an evident contrast in their physical appearance for this detail to be left unnoticed. One of the possible reasons for this casting is because The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an action-filled film that requires its actors to do active stunts, which would be physically challenging for Ian Holm to film due to his age.
The second difference is Bilbo’s physical characteristics. In the book, Tolkien describes the hobbits, including Bilbo Baggins, as a race shorter than average humans and inclined to be fat in their stomachs. Bilbo in the film, on the other hand, is rather slim compared to Tolkien’s description because Bilbo in Jackson’s adaptation follows Martin Freeman’s physical figure. It seems that Jackson’s focus was not on the appearance of Bilbo but on Bilbo’s character development throughout the story and how he changes from a conservative, safety-conscious young hobbit to a brave and adventurous young hobbit (Warner Bros., 2012).
Jackson brought Tolkien’s expanded Middle-earth to the screen by adding a few characters, such as Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and the White Council. Jackson and Boyens claimed that the expansion of the story in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is based on Tolkien’s appendices at the end of the Lord of the Rings book, which narrates specific events that occurred in The Hobbit (Warner Bros., 2012). Tolkien described these characters only once or briefly in the book; however, they play rather pivotal roles in the film adaptation. Radagast is one of the five wizards in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings universe. Johnny Fraser-Allen, Weta Workshop concept artist for The Hobbit, described him as an animal-loving and forest-dwelling wizard (Warner Bros., 2012). In the book, Tolkien mentioned Radagast only a few times, but Jackson extensively developed his character and allowed him to interact with other characters in the film. His role is crucial because he was the first to recognize the emerging signs of evil in the forest and Dol Guldur and helped Bilbo and Thorin’s Company by distracting a pack of Orcs from chasing them. His character also acts as comic relief for his innocent, bizarre, and clumsy character (Peeke, 2022).
On the other hand, Azog is one of the villains in the story of The Hobbit, along with Smaug. He only appeared in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings book and not in The Hobbit book since he was beheaded by Dain, the cousin of Thorin, in the Battle of Azanulbizar long before the events in the book started (Martinez, 2012). He plays an essential role as a mortal enemy to Thorin after he beheaded Thorin’s grandfather, King Thror, showing more impact on the development of Thorin as a character. His presence in the narrative also constructs an intense sense of danger that both the quest group and the audience can feel throughout the journey to Erebor. Another possible reason why Jackson included Azog in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is to enhance the importance of the three mountain trolls capturing Bilbo and the Dwarves. Azog interrupting their journey, the three mountain trolls coming down from the mountains, and Radagast visiting Dol Guldur supported Gandalf’s claim during The White Council’s debate about the evil forces that have started to rise (Martinez, 2012).
Galadriel, one of the Elves’ higher-ups, is the third additional character, and she is the only female character in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Boyens answered a fan’s question regarding the reason for including Galadriel in the film: “… Galadriel, as you all know, is the most powerful being in Middle Earth at the time … because we did feel the weight of it being a “boys’ own” story” (Magicinthenumbers, 2012, 8:27–9:09). According to Martinez (2014), her character has been in the book since The Return of the King was published in 1955. Tolkien had already established Galadriel’s character from that year by writing about her in the appendices and stating that she was a part of the White Council. In addition, the White Council is the council of wizards and Elves rulers, which consists of Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel. In the 13-minute featurette (2012), Jackson described the White Council as the United Nations of middle-earth. Hugo Weaving, Elrond’s actor, explained that the White Council is the ruler of the more expansive political landscapes, and Saruman’s actor, Christopher Lee, said they symbolize power. Despite being completely different from the book, the presence of the White Council in the film added more intensity and suspense to the plot (Peeke, 2022).
In his adaptation of The Hobbit, Jackson turned Thorin’s character into more of a protagonist character and altered his appearance. His entrance at the beginning of the film is prolonged, thus making him seem more important to the story and the characters (Klassen, 2017). In the 13-minute featurette (2012), Boyens said that Thorin is a direct descendant of a line of Dwarf kings that goes back to the beginnings of the Dwarf race. The actor who portrayed Thorin in the film, Richard Armitage, also described him in the featurette as a battle-hardened warrior with a fierce sense of honor and an impenetrable outer shell due to his experiences in life. Thorin’s objectives in the film are to reclaim the homeland of his people, Erebor, from Smaug and avenge his forefathers. The book, however, described him as a greedy, incompetent, and inexperienced leader who wants to seize the gold Smaug guards in the Lonely Mountain. Despite being a dwarf, he does not have a wild, curly beard and has a normal-sized nose compared to the rest of his dwarf company. One of the possible reasons Jackson and his team altered his appearance is to accentuate his aura as the leader so the watching audience can differentiate him from the other dwarves.
Additionally, the 13 dwarves are depicted differently in the film and have different individual features to help viewers distinguish them from one another. Jackson stated that making the 13 dwarves come to life is one of the challenges in adapting The Hobbit, and he felt that distinguishing those characters for the audience was necessary. According to Jed Brophy (the actor who portrayed Nori) in the 13-minute featurette (2012), only three or four dwarf characters are expanded in the book. It will be difficult for the audience to distinguish them if all dwarves look the same. The Hobbit costume designer, Ann Maksrey, argued that if all the dwarves are walking on the mountainside, the audience should know who they are just by their figures (Warner Bros., 2012). Therefore, Jackson and his team made each dwarf sport distinct individual traits and weapons. In contrast to the film, the book differentiated the dwarves only by the color of their beards and their hoods, and the colors of their beards are blue, yellow, and purple, which are rather fairytale-like since it is a book for children (Watson, 2021).
In conclusion, Jackson emphasized the cinematic connection between The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by inserting scenes that the previous The Lord of the Rings films alluded to in their narratives. The characters in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could pass as the reimagined version of the characters in the novel. Jackson and his team modified them in specific ways to adjust to the watching audience without straying too far from Tolkien’s early manuscript, making his appendices the blueprint of his adaptation. Different individual characteristics are attached to these characters, which could help the audience learn more about them and grow an attachment to a particular character (Martinez, 2013). The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey might be considered a radical adaptation of the book, but the changes are necessary for the events in the two trilogies to correlate with each other as a completed story.
Klassen, A. (2017, July 14). ‘The Hobbit’: 19 Changes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Novel to Peter Jackson’s Movie. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hobbit-19-changes-from-jrr-tolkiens-novel-to-peter-jacksons-movie
Magicinthenumbers. (2012, July 15). The Hobbit, San Diego Comic Con 2012 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N9fDM5TEUc&feature=youtu.be
Martinez, M. (2012, December 18). Why Did Peter Jackson Change Azog from the Book? Middle-Earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog. https://middle-earth.xenite.org/why-did-peter-jackson-change-azog-from-the-book/
Martinez, M. (2014a, September 13). Why Is the Hobbit Movie So Different From the Book? Middle-Earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog. https://middle-earth.xenite.org/why-is-the-hobbit-movie-so-different-from-the-book/
Martinez, M. (2014b, November 25). Why Are Saruman, Radagast, and Galadriel in The Hobbit? Middle-Earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog. https://middle-earth.xenite.org/why-are-saruman-radagast-and-galadriel-in-the-hobbit/
Peeke, D. (2022, January 1). The Hobbit: 20 Differences Between The Book & The Movies. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/hobbit-differences-book-film-movie/
Urquhart, C. (2012, July 30). Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit to be extended to three films. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jul/30/peter-jackson-hobbit-three-films
Warner Bros.. Pictures [@HOLLYWOOD]. (2012, December 6). The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey — 13 Minute Special [HD] [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC5gk9qFsDE&feature=youtu.be
Watson, J. (2021, May 21). The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The One Ring. https://www.theonering.com/complete-list-of-film-changes/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey/
