Tag: death mention

what do you think of the ending songs to each of the hobbit films?

I actually went and listened to them all again in order to make a decision.

This has since been designated ‘a very big mistake’.

So, once I scraped my heart up off the floor, I put my muso’s hat on and gave your question a bit more thought, Nonnie. 

I think they all have such powerful strengths. They chose the music for these films very carefully and very well. They’re all very different, sure. But I really do love them all. Neil Finn’s version of The Song of the Lonely Mountain has a real pride and stridency to it, and the lyrics are PHENOMENAL. I completely ADORE the buildup of texture and volume in I See Fire.

But. The winner, for me – only JUST edging ahead – is The Last Goodbye. Billy, what an adorable prat, he makes my heart ache, he sings like an angel. THE OPENING GIVES ME GOOSEPIMPLES – the violins in open fifths, the guitar twanging like an ornament straight out of ‘Concerning Hobbits’ –  and then Billy’s voice: GUH. 

And the orchestration hearkens back to Howard Shore’s scores so beautifully – all those warm strings – at first long suspended notes,

the double-bass entering in the second verse, and then they climb and climb, doubling the melody an octave above, soaring high…  the barely-there ‘oooh’ of a lone soprano voice echoing, right at the end before Billy’s closing line… 

…oh, and also, whoever put together the official music video for it is a criminal genius. I actually got a fair way into it without losing my composure, but then the first clip of Sir Christopher Lee popped up and I DISSOLVED INTO TEARS. 

(of the LOTR songs, my fave is actually Gollum’s Song. By a country mile. THAT. TUNE. THAT CRY OF PURE AGONY IN MUSICAL FORM.)

Mundain headcanon: he has several Dain-dolls. He poses for Bofur for new dolls because it’s fun. He has also talked with Bocur about his parents to make sure that their dolls are accurate – this is a marker of how Bofur and Dain are kinda close. This discussion also involved lots of ale.

oh jeez, Nonnie. This is lovely and also sortakinda ouch… because Dain lost both (in my little headcanon, anyway, it’s both) his parents at the tender age of 32. Nain was butchered by Azog in front of his eyes.

So the image that came to me then was Dain and Bofur sitting together in warm, close lamplight. Dain has several empty tankards in front of him, and clutches another. His face is creased and sad as he wracks his memory. Bofur has a couple of empties sitting to to side, and a notebook resting in front of him, taking down as many details as Dain can remember… which isn’t many. It isn’t many at all. 

(He remembers that his father had red hair also, and that Daeris’ eyes were brown. He remembers the smell of his mother’s hair-oil, spicy and pungent, and he remembers the way his father’s body crumpled onto the steps of Khazad-dum, the head lolling on its broken neck)

Bofur is a bro, though, and wouldn’t draw attention to the shaking of the King’s voice. He’s far too kind for that.

Question: what happens to the dwarves that wake up in the halls but have nobody to dreally go to? As in all of their family is either alive or doesn’t care enough about them to go find them? Who do they have to help them adjust?

Ouch, Nonnie. 

Personally, I think this is where the Seven Fathers Progenitors of the Dwarves come into their own. Say a Stiffbeard dies, and they are an orphan and their own parents can’t remember them/can’t be there for a variety of different reasons (who knows why, let’s put that aside for now though)… 

The parent of the Stiffbeard clan, one of the original seven Dwarves made by Mahal in the days before the sun and moon and stars, would appear before that Dwarf and take them to their rooms. They would care for them, introduce them to other Dwarves, comfort them and help them adjust.

Slowly that Dwarf would make friends and build confidence. The Stiffbeard parent would then take a background role as the newly deceased Dwarf becomes less dependent upon their guidance.

Even after many centuries in the Halls, I don’t think the original seven would ever really abandon these lone Dwarves that they personally guide. They would appear to them often, and over and over, but always in that terribly unexpected and mysterious manner – and usually when their charge was in need of them. 

Headcanoning on the fly again, but I hope it answered your question Nonnie!