Feb
22
Riddles in the Dark: Episode Three
Prof. Corey Olsen and Dave Kale tackle one of their favorite events in all of Middle-earth history: The Battle of Azanulbizar. Heroic deeds, cinematic taunts, slaughter and death, and, of course, the burned dwarves: they cover it all. They share some of their favorite passages from Appendix A of The Return of the King, delve into the geography of the valley of Azanulbizar and its appearance in The Lord of the Rings, and speculate about how the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs may factor into the The Hobbit film and its backstory. They also address listener feedback about Thrain and Thror and share the “shadow and a threat” that have been growing in their minds: will the filmmakers conflate the Battle of Azanulbizar and the Battle of Five Armies?
Listen to Episode 3 now!
A question about the pronunciation of Thráin. Corey says it as “thray-in”, which seems to correctly follow the acute accent on the “a”, whereas Dave often pronounces it “thrine” (rhymes with “wine”), at least early in each episode so far.
Is the “thrine” pronunciation originating from an audio book version of the Hobbit which doesn’t get it quite right? Or is this a valid alternative?
Also, I’ve seen “thrain” (rhymes with “train”) also used: is this yet another way it could be said? Or is “thray-in” correct?
Actually, I suspect you could dedicate much of a future episode to the pronunciation of the various Dwarf names.
I’ve always thought it should be “thrine” (rhymes with wine), since the dwarf names are not supposed to be translated into Westron/English as the Hobbit names are. I was very surprised to hear “thrain” in the Jakson movie.