What Were the Toys of Dale Like?

Q: What Were the Toys of Dale Like?

ANSWER: J.R.R. Tolkien never described any of the toys made or sold in Dale and Erebor. There are three references to toys in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The reference in The Hobbit occurs as Thorin recounts the story of his family’s history:

…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 marvellous 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.

The first reference in The Lord of the Rings occurs just before Gandalf begins his fireworks display:

On this occasion the presents were unusually good. The hobbit-children were so excited that for a while they almost forgot about eating. There were toys the like of which they had never seen before, all beautiful and some obviously magical. Many of them had indeed been ordered a year before, and had come all the way from the Mountain and from Dale, and were of real dwarf-make.

The second reference occurs in the midst of Bilbo’s farewell speech:

…Noises of trumpets and horns, pipes and flutes, and other musical instruments. There were, as has been said, many young hobbits present. Hundreds of musical crackers had been pulled. Most of them bore the mark DALE on them; which did not convey much to most of the hobbits, but they all agreed they were marvellous crackers. They contained instruments, small, but of perfect make and enchanting tones. Indeed, in one corner some of the young Tooks and Brandybucks, supposing Uncle Bilbo to have finished (since he had plainly said all that was necessary), now got up an impromptu orchestra, and began a merry dance-tune. Master Everard Took and Miss Melilot Brandybuck got on a table and with bells in their hands began to dance the Springle-ring: a pretty dance, but rather vigorous.

The crackers mentioned in the text must be styled on paper crackers which pop when you pull on a string to open, and a toy falls out. The “other musical instruments” could have included anything but may have included the bells that Everard and Melilot used.

It would seem that the toys were made by the Dwarves, at least the enchanted components. But the crackers themselves could have been manufactured by the Men of Dale. Either way, Dale would have been a reasonable market for toys despite its apparent distance from “civilized lands”. Consider that there were Men living to the West and South of Dale (mentioned in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth) and that Dale’s boundaries extended as far east as the Red River in the year 3018 (less than a generation after the Party). The Elves of northern Mirkwood were also on friendly terms with Dale and Erebor, and of course there were Dwarves living in the Iron Mountains and quite probably also the Grey Mountains to the north.

Toys from Dale would have been popular with travelers who would want to buy keepsakes when visiting Erebor and/or Dale. J.R.R. Tolkien was probably very much aware that medieval European travelers often purchased toys from the cities they visited. Such toys have been found in excavations throughout Europe, even down to this day. Popular toys for medieval boys (especially among the nobility) included stick horses, wooden swords and shields, toy soldiers, and carved animals, especially horses.

This University of Michigan page shows several types of medieval toys. In fact, rattles and balls would have been popular with young children going back for thousands of years. This essay from the University of Pittsburgh’s Representing Childhood project includes a picture of a metal knight on horse and discusses other toys used by medieval children. We know a little bit about toys and play in ancient Greece and toys and games in ancient Rome. J.R.R. Tolkien may even have heard of toys from ancient Egypt.

Toy designs are only limited by their creators’ imaginations, skills, and materials. The Northmen of Dale could have made very interesting toys, especially if (as Thorin mentions in The Hobbit) they apprenticed their sons to the Dwarves of Erebor. And, of course, the Dwarves of Erebor could have made many types of magical toys, even if they only specialized in musical instruments of the type J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned in his books.

Of course, Tolkien often wrote about toys in the stories he made up for his children. The Father Christmas Letters may be his most well-known toy-associated stories but Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major also feature toys or have special connections with toys. Hence, it should be no surprise that toys would figure prominently in at least a few parts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

See also:

# # #

Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?

[ Submit A Question ] Have a question you would like to see featured here? Use this form to contact Michael Martinez. If you think you see an error in an article and the comments are closed, you’re welcome to use the form to point it out. Thank you.
 
[ Once Daily Digest Subscriptions ]

Use this form to subscribe or manage your email subscription for blog updated notifcations.

You may read our GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy here.

Tags