That was not a typo, nor was it a joke.
The lyrics are as follows:
Blunt the knifes, bend the forks!
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl!
Pound them up with a thumping pole!
And when you're finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Much later, the dwarves sing Misty Mountains. There are no instruments present, and the dwarves are humming a somber acappella. Thorin starts the singing by himself. Balin joins in, then Bofur, then Gloin. No other dwarves are explicitly shown singing. Here's the lyrics:
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold.
The pines were roaring on the height,
The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.
The Book: When the dwarves sing Blunt the Knives, there are no instruments present. They just sing while working:
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates -
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
Pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when you've finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So carefully! carefully with the plates!
Soon after they've sung this song, Thorin calls for the dwarves to fetch their instruments. Fili and Kili play the fiddle. Dori, Nori, and Ori play flutes. Bifur and Bofur play clarinets. Dwalin and Balin play violins, Bombur plays the drums, and Thorin plays a harp. No instruments are mentioned for Oin and Gloin. Thorin strikes his harp, and the music starts all at once. The singing starts with one dwarf, then another, then another; no mention is made of the singing order.
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.
For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, in twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day
To claim our long-forgotten gold.
Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.
The pines were roaring on the height,
The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
Then dragon's ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.
The mountain smoked beneath the moon;
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
The fled their hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.
Far over the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!
What does it matter? The change in the order in lines of Blunt the Knives, and the differing use of instruments, don't matter at all. Cutting Misty Mountains from ten verses to two, however, is a pretty big deal. The song in The Hobbit tells a complete story about the glory of Erebor, and of its fall. Lines like "they lay there long, and many a song / was sung unheard by men of elves" illustrate just how much the dwarves thought of their kingdom, and how badly they were afflicted when "the dragon's ire more fierce than fire / laid low their towers and houses frail."
My Opinion: As much as I loved both of the songs in the movie (especially Misty Mountains; I still get chills every time I see them singing it), I'm a bit annoyed at some of the changes. Blunt the Knives bothered me not because the changes were important or meaningful - but because they weren't important. It's such a minor change that it just galls me. Couldn't you have made the song like it was in the books, Peter Jackson? Why change the order of the lines? "I like my way better" is not an acceptable answer.
Maybe they were all just too hammered to remember the order?
The changes to Misty Mountains are pretty bad, but at least a little more understandable. If it was five times longer, there's a good chance I'd end up impatient and frustrated before it ended - I like the chills and dark vibes of the song. I would hate for it to last ten minutes. Still, though, it could've used more than two verses. The dwarves sing two songs in this scene: a quirky, fun song making fun of their uptight host, and a melancholy ballad full of oral history. Why make the silly one longer than the important one? Would another couple verses really have hurt?
I have a theory about the Misty Mountains song that may make it more palatable:
ReplyDeleteThe two verses that were included "coincidentally" describe not only the fall of Erebor, but the "modern events" of the entire movie itself. It's foreshadowing.
The first verse refers to the the Company travelling back to Erebor through the Misty Mountains.
The second references the burning trees as they escape from the Goblins.
In this way, the song does double duty: It is both past and future, history and foresight.
I suspect that the song will reappear in the second film, tweaked and expanded, choosing verses that follow the plot of that film.
That's an interesting theory! There's a few good unused stanzas that could provide the same utility in the second movie. I'll keep this in mind when I see Desolation of Smaug
DeleteI've just watched 1st DVD of the extended edition hobbit appendices, and there in the subsection "the songs of the hobbit" lies the answer to the question why "Blunt the Knives" was rearranged. It was changed by Stephen Gallagher who composed the music to it, but the whole idea of rearranging it came from Fran Walsh. She had told him to change it if he had any problems with composing the music to it.
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool. I need to get my hands on that DVD, so I can learn stuff like that, and maybe even make some new posts with the extra content!
Deleteyou can find the entire Misty mountanis 8 minute song, with correct lyrics on youtube. It's pretty amazing, and I hope it will be an extended scene or something because it sounds like it's really from the movie, not fan-made :)
ReplyDeleteI think the book also describes Gandalf as bobbing his head to the music of "Misty Mountains," implying that the music isn't slow and sad but rather music that people dance to. I always imagined it as sounding like Irish music, for some reason.
ReplyDelete