This is my first foray into fan fiction for a number of years. (and possibly the first ever serious attempt at writing canon characters). It was written for theforce.net's Dear Diary Challange, an annual writing challenge that takes place in the fan fiction forums to write a diary (or more than one diary!) from the point of view of a character as though they have written it and maintain it for a year. I have not worked on it for a while and I hope that posting it here will generatate my interest in writing it again.
- Author: Space_Wolf
- Title: A Hobbit in Ered Luin
- Fandom: The Hobbit, LOTR
- Characters: Thorin's Company, other dwarves, original characters.
- Timeframe: A year or so before the events of The Hobbit
- Summary: Two journals/diaries from the point of view of Hilda Greenhill, a Hobbit, (the original character) and Kili the Dwarf.
During a patrol searching for goblins that have been raiding and attacking dwarven and elven settlements in the Blue Mountains, Thorin and his nephews encounter a farm run by a Hobbit family with only one survivor. - Notes: Written in response to the Dear Diary Challenge. The diaries are separate, but to make things simple, I am keeping them all in one thread and introducing the "author" at the start of each diary entry. This way, I don't need to maintain more than one thread and it will be easier for readers to keep track of it.
The "canon" in the story will be a mixture of Tolkien's work, Peter Jackson's version of the Hobbit, and any other snippets I find relating to official game releases, etc. Any mistakes or misinterpretations of this material are my own (and most likely the result of sloppy researching...). I also use a lot of Norse Mythology, 'Viking' culture and Yorkshire village life of the early 21st centuary as inspiration for how my characters behave. (The latter because there is a lot of 'village' life that flavours the habits of Hobbits which pretty much reminds me of how my elderly relatives were in the 80's, and this includes using the works of James Herriot for inspriation, only without the 'modern' technology of the era. I do not focus my writing on 'popular' shipping culture that is usually found in fan fiction and roleplaying relating to The Hobbit so there will be no 'Bagginshield', Kili/Tauriel, etc.
Dramatis personae
- Thorin Oakenshield - exiled King under the mountain
- Fili - Thorin's oldest nephew
- Kili - Thorin's youngest nephew
- Dis - Thorin's sister, and mother of Fili and Kili
- Oin - a cousin of Thorin and brother of Gloin
- Gloin - Oin's brother
- Gimli - Gloin's son
- Balin - a cousin of Thorin
- Dwalin - Balin's brother
- Dori - a distant member of the line of Durin (the actual relationship is unclear, though)
- Nori - Dori's brother
- Ori - Dori's youngest brother
- Bombur - - one of Thorin's companions
- Bifur - Cousin of Bofur and Bombur
- Bofur - Brother of Bombur
- Gloa - Gloin's wife
- Skafid - mother of Dori, Nori and Ori
- Vif - Dwalin's wife (OC)
- Bild - Frerin's fiance (OC)
- Lyngheid - Dwalin's oldest daughter (OC) (Warrior)
- Lofnheid - Dwalin's second oldest daughter (OC) (Ori's friend)
Mentioned but doesn't make an appearance in the story:
- Thror - Thorn's grandfather
- Thrain - Thorin's father
- Frerin - Thorin's brother
- Vili - Dis' husband and father of Fili and Kili
Please note: some of the dwarves may look like they are original characters, but aren't. This is because they were never named in Tolkien's work, but must have existed. I have given them names because I can't keep referring to them as Kili's father, Gloin's wife, etc. This is my interpretation and other fan writers may differ (and most likely will!). Other characters, like Vif, Bild, Lofnheid and Lyngheid are my own inventions. Names of the dwarves have been taken from various poems in the Poetic Edda (which is where Tolkien got his dwarf names from originally). I am assuming that they are female names and it did take some picking out, but I am not an expert in Old Norse and there may be mistakes! It was fun doing it, though. Some names in the Poetic Edda for dwarves were unclear on wether they were male or not and I suppose this is where Tolkien got the notion that dwarf women are often mistaken for dwarf men! Vif and Gloa are names which don't appear specifically in the Eddas for dwarves, but do seem to fit quite nicely. Vif means wife and and Gloa is a feminised version of Gloin and seemed to fit.
In Norse Mythology, it is stated that Dwalin is the father of many of the minor Norns, and this is where the inspiration for him having many daughters came from.
- Firebeards - Uri's folk - tool-makers
- Broadbeams - Linnar's folk - crafters (toy-makers, and the like) Ironfists - Sindri's folk - Shamans, seers, etc.
- Stifbeards - Tulin's folk - tradesmen
- Blacklocks - Var's folk - artists
- Stonefoots - Vigdis' folk - stonemasons, builders, miners
- Jarl Andarvi (leader of Uri's folk)
- Jarl Bavor (leader of Linnar's folk)
- Gythia Verdani (leader of Sindri's folk - female)
- Jarl Alf (leader of Tulin's folk)
- Jarl Finn (leader of Var's folk)
- Jarl Frar (leader of Vigdis' folk)
- Brud - Daughter of Jarl Andarvi
- Svanni - Niece of Jarl Bavor
- Arinnefia - Cousin of Jarl Alf
- Flioth - Daughter of Jarl Finn
- Femia - Daughter of Jarl Frar
- Reginleif - traveling seer of Sindri's folk
I will, at some stage, be posting the history of the dwarf clans which is based on information from roleplaying games and LOTRO. (In Tolkien's writing, only the Longbeards (Thorin's clan), the Broadbeams and Firebeards have their history revealed.)