@Virginia: I'm ''a devout Tolkienist'', too (LOL I love that) too, but I have a very different opinion of the movie.

BTW, speaking of The Hobbit, many people here will probably know that the dwarves' names (and Gandalf's) were taken from an Old Norse list of dwarves.

"Vig and Gandalf, Vindalf, Thrain...
Thekk and Thorin, Thror...

Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, , Bombur...

Fili, , Kili, Oin, Gloin...

but in researching Norse dwarves for something I'm drafting (waiting in my brain and on my hard drive for years) which is a homage to /deconstruction of Tolkien and high fantasy and draws on a LOT of Norse mythology, especially the famous legend of Andvari's cursed, gold-finding ring and Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, which some people will probably realise was Tolkien's favourite Norse legend (and now is also becoming mine). It's the one which inspired Narsil/Anduril in LOTR, and also the character of Smaug.

I found out that in one version of the story, Regin, Sigurd's dwarf foster father, is a prince, the youngest son of the dwarven king Hreidmar, exiled by his older brother Fafnir the dragon, and eventually becoming a blacksmith to a human king. Sound similar to parts of Thorin's backstory from The Hobbit?

I wonder whether this idea of "a dwarven prince driven into exile by a dragon, forced to work as a blacksmith for his living, and driven to claim his rights" was another part of the legend which inspired JRRT?