Conclusion
When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay; When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day; When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain I'll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again! - The Two Towers As a result of the inclusion of material from the LOTR appendices we are going to see a great many things in The Hobbit movies that were not present, or were only alluded to, in the book. The White Council, the Istari and the Necromancer of Dol Goldur will all feature more prominently than they did as their paperback incarnations. Jackson is to some extent locked into presenting The Hobbit in a form which allows it to meld more easily into his exquisitely crafted Lord of the Rings series, and by presenting characters from that trilogy via information gleaned from Tolkiens supporting works he will able to tell a richer, interconnecting and gradually darkening story- expect the tone to grow steadily bleaker as we move from movie to movie. Purists may criticise Jackson for his methods but we should remember that Tolkien himself retroactively amended the 1937 first edition of The Hobbit in the wake of the release of the Lord of the Rings books, significantly altering Chapter 5 Riddles in the Dark to reflect Gollums motivations as described by Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. I hope you enjoyed the article and that I have reacquainted you somewhat to Tolkiens wonderfully conceived world of Middle-earth. You are always welcome to respond with your comments below. Only one week to go!