The Initial Movie Poster and Trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is Unveiled Today! June 11, 2013 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #416)

As revealed on  “The Hobbit” Facebook page with an accompanying sample movie  poster (left), Sir Peter Jackson and his creative team will release
“the new teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (logo above right) will be unveiled this Tuesday, June 11th, at 10am PT / 1pm ET!”
That is 12noon my time. Yes!  Thank goodness for lunch hours!   Ha!

So as RANet advised, keep checking The Hobbit Facebook page for the trailer.  Let’s hope the net doesn’t crash with everyone trying to view it.  Ha!

And, when an uploadable version of that trailer is available on YouTube, I will post it here (thanks to RANet and RACentral for tweeting this Facebook link to the DofS trailer:

Thanks to RANet (www.RichardArmitageNet.com) for the Warner Bros  You Tube link to the DofS trailer–be sure to select HD viewing:

This trailer is so AWESOME!  I can’t wait to see this film.  And I hope Thorin wipes that smug look off of Elven King Thranduil’s face.

 

In the meantime, thinking about Smaug and the Dwarves facing their mortal enemy in an attempt to reclaim their home at Erebor–and their birthright of gold that they toiled for with their own hands–made me want to go back to the original text of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien—-for some context about the impact of the dragon Smaug on the Dwarf people.

We had a glimpse of the devastation Smaug wrought in The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey’s opening prologue (my caps as illustrations at right and below, except where noted).  But reading Tolkien’s words adds another layer of understanding–both for the story and for the second film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Here is an excerpt from JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, p. 19-21–as told by Thorin Oakenshield (portrayed by Richard Armitage):

“… Anyway they [the Dwarves of Thorin’s grandfather Thror’s time’] grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the Mountain again and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who lived to the South, …”

 

“…They [the Dwarves]  built the merry town of Dale there in those days.  Kings used to send for our smiths, and reward  even the least skilful most richly.  …”

“… Altogether those were good days for us, and the poorest of us had money to spend and to lend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fun of it, not to speak of the most marvelous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days. So my grandfather’s halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the toy-market of Dale was the wonder of the North.

          Undoubtedly that was what brought the dragon.  Dragons steal gold and jewels you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically forever, unless they are killed), … There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold was probably getting scarce up there, …There was a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug. One day he flew up into the air and came South.   …”

“… Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire.  By that time all the bells were ringing in Dale and the warriors were arming.  The dwarves rushed out of their great gate;  but there was the dragon waiting for them. None escaped that way.  The river rushed up in steam and a fog fell on dale, and in the fog the dragon came on them and destroyed most of the warriors-the usual unhappy story, it was only too common in those days.  Then he went back and crept in through the Front Gate and routed out all the halls, and lanes and tunnels, alleys, cellars, mansions and passages.  After that there were no dwarves left alive inside, and he took all their wealth for himself.   Probably, for that is the dragons’ way, he has piled it all up in a great heap far inside, and sleeps on it for a bed.  Later he used to crawl out of the great gate and come by night to Dale, and carry away people, especially maidens, to eat, until Dale was ruined, and all the people dead or gone.  What goes on there now I don’t know for certain, but I don’t suppose anyone lives nearer to the Mountain than the far edge of the Long Lake now-a-days.

The few of us that were well outside sat and wept in hiding, and cursed Smaug, and we were unexpectedly joined by my father and my grandfather with singed beards.  They looked very grim but they said very little.  …”

“… After that we went away, and we have had to earn our livings as best we could up and down the lands, often enough sinking as low as blacksmith-work or even coalmining.  But we have never forgotten our stolen treasure.  And even now, when I will allow we have a good bit laid by and are not so badly off” –here Thorin stroked the gold chain round his neck – “we still mean to get it back, and to bring our curses home to Smaug–if we can.”

To lose everything they held dear–their homes, their livelihoods, their loved ones and their comrades could only have been born by a peoples whose inner fortitude would not let them give up.  And whose leader, Thorin Oakenshield, would also never give  up.

P.S.  And here again (below) is my mock movie poster that I made a while back for The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug (using the scroll graphics, dragon eyes from Filmit, and the  movie logo from TORN):