Thursday 16 June 2016

Hobbit Ranger

Did you know that in the earliest drafts of The Lord of the Rings, the character that would later become Aragorn was actually a hobbit ranger with wooden shoes named Trotter? I'm not kidding, you can read all about it in The Return of the Shadow (The History of Middle-earth vol. 6) by Christopher Tolkien. Thankfully Tolkien thought better of this idea, and Trotter was consigned to the literary dustbin. Still, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea of a hobbit ranger. We know for a fact that hobbits due produce the occasional adventurer.

The hobbit ranger seen here is my latest completed figure (and the only figure I have managed to paint in some weeks). Although he's a Reaper Miniature, sculpted by Bobby Jackson, I think he fits in pretty well with the Games Workshop, The Lord of the Rings ranger standing next to him.

10 comments:

  1. Somehow he is rather cute instead of being heroic 😀

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hobbits are the frickin' best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I must get the book and have a look. Are the others in the series as interesting?
    Alan
    p.s figures look great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have only read the four that focus on The Lord of the Rings. The first, Return of the Shadow is probably the most interesting as it contains the material that is most different from the final version, but all have interesting points. They also have a lot of discussion on the minutiae of maps and dates which I found pretty boring.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  4. Well I never knew that, I have to agree with joe5mc I was not particularly struck with the additional material in the later added books, too much like reading the bible in places. However I found that snippet thoroughly interesting, thanks :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you got any plans to continue the Glaurung campaign Joe? I was really enjoying it, would be good to see the rest of the voyage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really, really want to do more Glaurung stuff, unfortunately, it's pretty far down the priority list at the moment. That said, in some ways it is the most fun I've ever had with minis, so it is certainly possible!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great, I hope you find the time for it! I'm just getting into the LotR/Hobbit SBG, encouraged by GW's apparent new interest in it.

      Delete
  7. Nice conversion! Really amusing model ;)

    ReplyDelete