Bolg was an Orc leader of the Misty Mountains during the late Third Age, after his father Azog was killed at Moria.
Biography
Azog calling Bolg in Dol Guldur
In The Hobbit, Bolg was the son of Azog of Moria, succeeding him after his death in the Battle of Azanulbizar (the last battle of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs) in TA 2799 by Dáin II Ironfoot. He had resettled in the old refuge of Mount Gundabad after the kingdom of Angmar was abandoned, and apparently ruled Goblins of the Misty Mountains from their capital at Mount Gundabad during the Battle of the Five Armies.
Bolg and his father
Bolg ruled the northern goblins for about 150 years and led the army of goblins, Wargs, and Bats in the Battle of the Five Armies, in which he took his bodyguards with him. In that battle he was crushed by the mighty Beorn, avenging Thorin Oakenshield who had just been fatally wounded.[1]
Etymology
The meaning of the name Bolg is uncertain. As discussed in the book The History of The Hobbit,[3] the word bolg is listed as meaning "strong" in the vocabulary list for Mágol, one of the languages constructed by Tolkien. Mágol seems to have been based on Hungarian, and Tolkien seems to have worked on in the years he was writing The Hobbit, or even earlier. The History of The Hobbit also cites Bolg as being a word of unknown meaning in the language of the Iverni, a people of early Ireland mentioned in Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography.
Appearances in the Books and Films
In the books
- The Hobbit (First appearance)
In the films
Portrayals in adaptations
The Hobbit film trilogy
Original appearance of Bolg. This character was later known as Gundabad Orc Captain.
In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Bolg was played by Lawrence Makoare in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and John Tui in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. He is portrayed as a huge, pale Orc clad in armour and bones. Bolg's father Azog has a greatly expanded role in the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first film of the trilogy.
Bolg appears extensively in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. In the new film he bears a strong resemblance to his father, Azog the Defiler (who survives the War of the Dwarves and Orcs in the films). Azog is summoned to Dol Guldur to become the commander of Sauron's orc armies. While there, Azog dispatches his son Bolg to take his place in hunting Thorin and his company. With his pack of Orcs, Bolg tracks Thorin and Company through Mirkwood, where he and his pack of Orcs attack the Wood-elves as the Dwarves escape in barrels. Bolg and his pack continued to track down the Dwarves and followed their trail which lead them to Lake-town.
At around nightfall, Bolg and his Orcs arrive to Lake-town where they attack Bard's family in search of the Dwarves, but they only found four. When they attack, they are in turn attacked by Legolas and Tauriel who were tracking the Orcs down. He goes after Legolas, and the two begin a duel (in which Legolas uses Orcrist, the weapon that Thorin held during his quest). While Legolas is distracted by other Orcs, Bolg withdraws from the duel and rides away on his Warg down a dock. He is then pursued by Legolas, who was now on a horse and chased after him.
Bolg meets his death by the hands of Legolas.
Bolg later reports to his father that he was attacked by Legolas and Azog yells at him because the Elf Prince survived and would now send an army after the Orcs. He then tells Bolg to travel to Mount Gundabad and prepare a second Orc army for war along with swarms of Bats. Legolas and Tauriel follow Bolg to Gundabad and leave to warn the others. Bolg later appears at Ravenhill with his second army to aid Azog. Bolg knocks Bilbo out with his mace before finding Tauriel and badly injuring her in combat. Before he can finish her, Kili arrives and briefly duels the Orc but Bolg proves to be stronger and he impales Kili through the chest with his mace's hilt resulting in the Dwarf's death. In anger, Tauriel throws Bolg off the mountain and is dragged down with him. He is then spotted by Legolas and the two engage in a fierce duel ending with Legolas killing Bolg by stabbing a dagger through his head. The giant Gundabad orc then falls down to a large rock below, and was crushed by a giant boulder.
Personality
Hardly any different from Azog, Bolg is a murderous, callous, idealistic, merciless and cruel warrior. He is extremely sadistic, showing no qualms about massacring the Men of the Lake-town and even relishing Kili's death. He is also psychopathic and remorseless, shown by how he pitilessly orders the attack on Laketown. But he is highly intelligent, an excellent leader and tactician. Bolg is enigmatic and powerful, possessing immense strength of will and superb tactical ability. He shows himself to be just as pitiless as his warrior father and is almost unimaginably determined and ferocious. Despite this, he has a strong relationship with Azog as Bolg displays fierce loyalty to his father.
Abilities
Bolg is a skillful leader, Azog's second-in-command of the Gundabad Orc pack. He is a highly skillful hand-to-hand combatant and swordsman, showing excellent skill during his climactic fight against Legolas. His fighting style, unlike Azog's preferred Warg-riding style that emphasized blows with heavy momentum, is emphasized with lightning speed and agility, as well as martial arts techniques and using the environment against his opponent. His skill as a fighter is later shown by how he is put in charge of the Orc packs whilst Azog stays to fight Gandalf. Bolg has an astonishingly high tolerance of pain, shown by the fact that he refuses to be knocked out or even bleed when Legolas slams his head into a wooden pillar repeatedly. He is also a highly skilled Warg-rider.
Models and toys
Miniature by Games Workshop (N.B. This miniature was initially released under the name "Bolg," but after Bolg's appearance was re-vamped for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the miniature's name was changed to "Gundabad Orc General").
It was done as a Miniature by the Games Workshop.
Video games
Bolg appears as the final boss in The Hobbit gba game.
Translations around the World
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | 波格 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Hobbit, Chapter XVII: "The Clouds Burst"
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth, IX: "The Making of Appendix A"
- ↑ The History of The Hobbit is a two-volume work containing Tolkien's unpublished drafts of the novel, accompanied by commentary written by John D. Rateliff.
External link
pt:Bolg