I may be crankier about fandom now than I was in my salad days, but there are certain, detail-oriented discussions that still make me smile. The Hobbit debate over what dwarves should or shouldn’t look like has been one of them.
Today we have another picture, courtesy of IGN, that gives another peek into the wild and woolly variety Peter Jackson will be putting onscreen. The stars are, from left to right, Stephen Hunter as Bombur, James Nesbitt as Bofur, and William Kircher as Bifur.
I suspect they’ve timed these past two deliberately, and followed the pretty boys up with beards. They knew someone would say “The dwarves tuck their beards into their belts!”, so they gave them Bombur, who is wearing his as a sort of chain. Kinky!
It’s also nice to see a dwarf sporting a hat. One of the most indelible images to me as a young Hobbit reader was the coat rack of colored hats that filled Bilbo with such despair. Pointy, tasseled hats don’t translate well onscreen (see: Harry Potter) so I’m not surprised they’ve been omitted. But Bofur’s ushanka is a nice and practical substitute, don’t you think?
