The map is also one of the most evocative ways in which pastness is created in The Hobbit. In fact, we find out later in the Unfinished Tales that the entire quest nearly went ahead without Bilbo, and thus would almost certainly have ended in tragedy, if Gandalf had not produced the map and key at the last moment and convinced Thorin to do it his way. Gandalf had acquired these items from Thorin’s father Thráin, but had not recognised their significance (or indeed Thráin himself) until after he met with Thorin in Bree (as depicted in the The Desolation of Smaug).
The map and key produced by Gandalf during the Unexpected Party were made by Thorin Oakenshield’s grandfather Thrór and led to the secret entrance to the Dwarf-halls of Erebor. Maps, skeleton keys and treasure may seem like the stuff of weary cliché, but these items have fascinating biographies in their own right. 18: The Return Journey Fellowship I: 1: A Long-expected Party. As such, it presumably contains priceless artefacts of Dwarvish heritage, but such items were considered mathoms by Hobbits, that is, items of perceived value but no real use except as gifts or museum pieces. This is one of the “two small chests, one filled with silver, and the other with gold” that Bilbo accepts as a reward for his role in the Quest of Erebor, the subject of this trilogy. When the conversation turns to Bilbo’s greedy cousins the Sackville-Bagginses, he begins hiding anything of potential value, including a small chest of treasure (mostly silver cups, it appears).
The film opens with an aged Bilbo Baggins discussing his upcoming birthday party with his nephew Frodo, the event which also opens the first of the LOTR films, The Fellowship of the Ring. I suppose I should warn about spoilers, but I assume anyone still reading down to this point is already a terminal Tolkien nerd anyway. So for the benefit of no one whatsoever, I present here a short guide to the archaeology of the Hobbit films, starting with An Unexpected Journey (2012), with references to the source material for future research. Spending a moment fleshing out these objects’ biographies is just one way to study the sense of pastness created by both Tolkien and Jackson. Tolkien spent a lifetime fleshing out his legendarium, and virtually every name, place and artefact has a long history documented somewhere in his works. However, it is worth doing more than just listing all the Old Things that turn up in the movies.
These citations, callbacks and portents are played out in large part through artefacts and ancient monuments, which I notice more and more with every viewing. The return to Middle-earth with this new trilogy creates a veritable vortex of memory, visually calling up the pasts of both Middle-earth and the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which of course lies in the fictional future of the events in The Hobbit. The adaptation of the books to film provided several opportunities to showcase the rich material culture of Middle-earth. It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that there are numerous archaeological themes to be drawn out of Tolkien’s legendarium previous entries have identified both Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White as particularly keen anthropological researchers.
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