Learn English with The Hobbit

• ☐ ☐ ☐ take refuge [exp] - hide (and be protected) somewhere
• ☐ ☐ ☐ a foe [n] - an enemy
• ☐ ☐ ☐ lads [n] - boys, guys
• ☐ ☐ ☐ a host [n] - the owner of the house that you visit
• ☐ ☐ ☐ a skin-changer [n] - a man that can change into an animal
• ☐ ☐ ☐ unpredictable [adj] - acting in a way that is not easy to guess (or predict)
• ☐ ☐ ☐ be reasoned with [exp] - able to be persuaded
• ☐ ☐ ☐ not fond of [exp] - not like
• ☐ ☐ ☐ enslave [v] - make someone a slave
• ☐ ☐ ☐ torture [v] - cause severe pain or suffering on someone on purpose
• ☐ ☐ ☐ amuse [v] - cause (someone) to find something funny
• ☐ ☐ ☐ creep [v] - move slowly and carefully
• ☐ ☐ ☐ an alliance [n] - a union or agreement made for mutual benefit
• ☐ ☐ ☐ fell things [n] - evil things
• ☐ ☐ ☐ a necromancer [n] - an evil wizard (who can communicate with or control the dead)
• ☐ ☐ ☐ kin [n] - family
• ☐ ☐ ☐ be crawling with [exp] - be full of
• ☐ ☐ ☐ deem [v] - consider

[n] - noun,  [v] - verb, [phv] - phrasal verb,  [adj] - adjective,  [exp] - expression

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Bilbo	Gandalf	Thorin	Beorn

• The dwarves are on a quest to take back their home (Erebor) from a dragon (Smaug).
• The dwarves (and Gandalf and Bilbo) are running away from orcs.
• Azog the Defiler is the leader of the orcs.
• Thorin Oakenshield is Thorin's full name.
• Mirkwood is the name of a forest that they must cross.

1. Where does Gandalf say the house is located?
   Not Far away
   In Mirkwood
   On the Lonely Mountain
   
   
2. Is the owner of the house a friend or a foe?
   Friend
   Foe
   Neither
   
   
3. As they enter the house, what are the dwarves running away from?
   Orcs
   Wargs
   Goblins
   Beorn
   
   
4. How does Gandalf describe the man Beorn?
   He is helpful.
   He is dangerous.
   He is reasonable.
   He is unpredictable.
   
   
5. How does Gandalf describe the bear Beorn?
   He is helpful.
   He is dangerous.
   He is reasonable.
   He is unpredictable.
   
   
6. What does Gandalf say that Beorn does not like?
   Dwarves
   Goblins
   Hobbits
   Orcs
   Wargs
   Wizards
   
   
7. What happened to most of Beorn's family?
   They went to Mirkwood.
   They live with the Wood Elves.
   They were killed by Azog and the orcs.
   
   
8. How many skin-changers still remain?
   None
   One
   Many
   
   
9. Why must they travel through Mirkwood?
   Beorn will not let them travel through his land.
   It is the fastest route to the Lonely Mountain.
   They must get the help of the Wood Elves.
   The orcs are afraid to enter Mirkwod.
   
   
10. Why does Beorn tell the dwarves to avoid Mirkwood?
    It is full of evil creatures.
    The rivers and streams are poisoned.
    It is too dark to to see well.
    It is impossible not to get lost.
    
    
11. How does Gandalf want to travel through Mirkwood?
    He wants to fly with the eagles.
    He wants to follow the Elven Road.
    He wants to use a boat on the river.
    
    
12. What does Beorn say about the Wood Elves?
    They will protect the dwarves.
    Most of them have been killed.
    They are more dangerous than other elves.
    
    
13. Why does Beorn dislike dwarves?
    They are small.
    They are unwise.
    They are greedy.
    They are selfish.
    They are dangerous.
    They cannot see well.
    
    
14. Why does Beorn decide to help the dwarves?
    He likes Bilbo.
    He trusts Gandalf.
    He hates orcs more than dwarves.
    He wants the dwarves to find their home.
    
    

Score:

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Directions: What expressions from the video have the same meaning as the highlighted expressions in the sentences below?

Instrucciones: ¿Qué expresiones del video tienen el mismo significado que las expresiones destacadas en las oraciones siguientes?

Instruções: Quais expressões do vídeo têm o mesmo significado que as expressões destacadas nas frases abaixo?

지시 사항: 아래 문장에서 강조된 표현과 같은 의미를 가진 표현을 영상에서 찾아보세요.

1. There is a house where we might [ hide and be safe ].

   [ take refuge ]

   Show Hide
   
   
2. Are they friend or [ enemy ]?

   [ foe ]

   Show Hide
   
   
3. Caging skin-changers and torturing them seemed to [ entertain ] him.

   [ amuse ]

   Show Hide
   
   
4. [ Evil things ] creep beneath those trees.

   [ Fell things ]

   Show Hide
   
   
5. These lands are [ full of ] Orcs.

   [ crawling with ]

   Show Hide
   
   

Directions: Write sentences about the video clip using the words given. You can change the word form or add words, but you cannot change the word order. Use present tense.

Gandalf / tell / dwarf / house / where / can / refuge

Gandalf tell the dwarves about a house where they can [take/find] refuge.

Beorn / might / help / might / kill / dwarf

Beorn might help(,) or (he) might kill the dwarves.

dwarf / escape / bear / by / run / Beorn / house

The dwarves escape (from) the bear by running into Beorn's house.

Beorn / skin-changer

Beorn is a skin-changer.

as / man / Beorn / can / reason / but / as / bear / he / unpredictable

As a man Beorn can be reasoned with, but as a bear he is unpredictable.

Bilbo / wake / join / Beorn / Gandalf / dwarf / breakfast

Bilbo wakes (up) and joins Beorn, Gandalf and the dwarves for breakfast.

Beorn / want / know / why / orc / hunt / Thorin

Beorn wants to know why the orcs are hunting Thorin.

Azog / Defiler / kill / most / Beorn / family / and / enslave / torture / one / he / not / kill

Azog the Defiler killed most of Beorn's family and enslaved and tortured the ones ([that/who/whom]) he didn't kill.

Beorn / last / remain / skin-changer

Beorn is the last remaining skin-changer.

dwarf / must / travel / Mirkwood / because / run / time

The dwarves must travel through Mirkwood because they are running out of time.

Gandalf / think / Elven Road / Mirkwood / still / safe

Gandalf thinks (that) the Elven Road [through/in] Mirkwood is still safe.

Beorn / warn / Gandalf / Wood Elf / wise / dangerous / than / other / elf

Beorn warns Gandalf (that) the Wood Elves are less wise and more dangerous than other elves.

Beorn / think / dwarf / not / reach / Mirkwood / foot

Beorn thinks (that) the dwarves [can't/won't] reach Mirkwood on foot.

Beorn / dislike / dwarf / because / blind / suffer / other

Beorn dislikes dwarves because they are blind to the suffering of others.

Beorn / agree / help / dwarf / because / hate / orc / than / dwarf

Beorn agrees to help the dwarves because he hates orcs more than dwarves.

The text below is from the [ original novel ]. You can also read a [ shortened version ] of the novel.

1. Which parts of the video are the same as the novel?
2. Which parts of the video are different from the novel?
3. Which parts of the novel are not in the video?

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“The Somebody I spoke of—a very great person. You must all be very polite when I introduce you. I shall introduce you slowly, two by two, I think; and you must be careful not to annoy him, or heaven knows what will happen. He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind enough if humoured. Still I warn you he gets angry easily.”

The dwarves all gathered round when they heard the wizard talking like this to Bilbo. “Is that the person you are taking us to now?” they asked. “Couldn’t you find someone more easy-tempered? Hadn’t you better explain it all a bit clearer?”—and so on.

“Yes it certainly is! No I could not! And I was explaining very carefully,” answered the wizard crossly. “If you must know more, his name is Beorn. He is very strong, and he is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say, though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of.

“At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an oakwood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey.

Bilbo and the dwarves had now plenty to think about, and they asked no more questions. They still had a long way to walk before them. It was the middle of the afternoon before they noticed that great patches of flowers had begun to spring up, all the same kinds growing together as if they had been planted. There was a buzzing and a whirring and a droning in the air. Bees were busy everywhere. And such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. They were bigger than hornets. The drones were bigger than your thumb, a good deal, and the bands of yellow on their deep black bodies shone like fiery gold.

“We are getting near,” said Gandalf. “We are on the edge of his beepastures.”

After a while they came to a belt of tall and very ancient oaks, and beyond these to a high thorn-hedge through which you could neither see nor scramble. “You had better wait here,” said the wizard to the dwarves; “and when I call or whistle begin to come after me—you will see the way I go—but only in pairs, mind, about five minutes between each pair of you. Bombur is fattest and will do for two, he had better come alone and last. Come on Mr. Baggins! There is a gate somewhere round this way.” And with that he went off along the hedge taking the frightened hobbit with him.

They soon came to a wooden gate, high and broad, beyond which they could see gardens and a cluster of low wooden buildings, some thatched and made of unshaped logs: barns, stables, sheds, and a long low wooden house. Inside on the southward side of the great hedge were rows and rows of hives with bell-shaped tops made of straw. The noise of the giant bees flying to and fro and crawling in and out filled all the air.

The wizard and the hobbit pushed open the heavy creaking gate and went down a wide track towards the house. Some horses, very sleek and well-groomed, trotted up across the grass and looked at them intently with very intelligent faces; then off they galloped to the buildings.

“They have gone to tell him of the arrival of strangers,” said Gandalf.

Soon they reached a courtyard, three walls of which were formed by the wooden house and its two long wings. In the middle there was lying a great oak trunk with many lopped branches beside it. Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe. The horses were standing by him with their noses at his shoulder.

“Ugh! here they are!” he said to the horses. “They don’t look dangerous. You can be off!” He laughed a great rolling laugh, put down his axe and came forward.

“Who are you and what do you want?” he asked gruffly, standing in front of them and towering tall above Gandalf. As for Bilbo he could easily have trotted through his legs without ducking his head to miss the fringe of the man’s brown tunic.

“I am Gandalf,” said the wizard.

“Never heard of him,” growled the man. “And what’s this little fellow?” he said, stooping down to frown at the hobbit with his bushy black eyebrows.

“That is Mr. Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation,” said Gandalf. Bilbo bowed.

What do you want?”

“To tell you the truth, we have lost our luggage and nearly lost our way, and are rather in need of help, or at least of advice. I may say we have had rather a bad time with goblins in the mountains.”

“Goblins?” said the big man less gruffly. “O ho, so you’ve been having trouble with them have you? What did you go near them for?”

“We did not mean to. They surprised us at night in a pass which we had to cross; we were coming out of the Lands over West into these countries—it is a long tale.”

“Then you had better come inside and tell me some of it, if it won’t take all day,” said the man leading the way through a dark door that opened out of the courtyard into the house.

Following him they found themselves in a wide hall with a fire-place in the middle. Though it was summer there was a wood-fire burning and the smoke was rising to the blackened rafters in search of the way out through an opening in the roof. They passed through this dim hall, lit only by the fire and the hole above it, and came through another smaller door into a sort of veranda propped on wooden posts made of single tree-trunks. It faced south and was still warm and filled with the light of the westering sun which slanted into it, and fell golden on the garden full of flowers that came right up to the steps.

Here they sat on wooden benches while Gandalf began his tale.

“I was coming over the mountains with a friend or two. . .” said the wizard.

“Or two? I can only see one, and a little one at that,” said Beorn.

“Well to tell you the truth, I did not like to bother you with a lot of us, until I found out if you were busy. I will give a call, if I may.”

“Go on, call away!”

So Gandalf gave a long shrill whistle, and presently Thorin and Dori came round the house by the garden path and stood bowing low before them.

“One or three you meant, I see!” said Beorn. “But these aren’t hobbits, they are dwarves!”

“Thorin Oakenshield, at your service! Dori at your service!” said the two dwarves bowing again.

“I don’t need your service, thank you,” said Beorn, “but I expect you need mine. I am not over fond of dwarves; but if it is true you are Thorin (son of Thrain, son of Thror, I believe), and that your companion is respectable, and that you are enemies of goblins and are not up to any mischief in my lands. Go on telling, then!” said Beorn, who was never very polite.

“There was a terrible storm; the stone-giants were out hurling rocks, and at the head of the pass we took refuge in a cave, the hobbit and I and several of our companions. . .”

“Do you call two several?”

“Well, no. As a matter of fact there were more than two.”

“Where are they? Killed, eaten, gone home?”

“Well, no. They don’t seem all to have come when I whistled. Shy, I expect. You see, we are very much afraid that we are rather a lot for you to entertain.”

“Go on, whistle again! I am in for a party, it seems, and one or two more won’t make much difference,” growled Beorn.

Gandalf whistled again; but Nori and Ori were there almost before he had stopped, for, if you remember, Gandalf had told them to come in pairs every five minutes.

“Hullo!” said Beorn.

“Nori at your service, Ori at. . .” they began; but Beorn interrupted them.

“Thank you! When I want your help I will ask for it. Sit down, and let’s get on with this tale, or it will be supper-time before it is ended.”

“As soon as we were asleep,” went on Gandalf, “a crack at the back of the cave opened; goblins came out and grabbed the hobbit and the dwarves and our troop of ponies—”

Just at that moment Balin and Dwalin appeared and bowed so low that their beards swept the stone floor.

The big man was frowning at first, but they did their best to be frightfully polite, and kept on nodding and bending and bowing.

“Troop, was right,” he said. “Come in my merry men, and what are your names? I don’t want your service just now, only your names; and then sit down and stop wagging!”

“Balin and Dwalin,” they said not daring to be offended, and sat flop on the floor looking rather surprised.

“Now go on again!” said Beorn to the wizard.

“Where was I? O yes—I was not grabbed. I killed a goblin or two with a flash—”

“Good!” growled Beorn. “It is some good being a wizard, then.”

“—and slipped inside the crack before it closed. I followed down into the main hall, which was crowded with goblins. The Great Goblin was there with thirty or forty armed guards. I thought to myself ‘even if they were not all chained together, what can a dozen do against so many?”’

“A dozen! That’s the first time I’ve heard eight called a dozen. Or have you still got some more friends to come?

“Well, yes, there seem to be a couple more here now—Fili and Kili, I believe,” said Gandalf, as these two now appeared and stood smiling and bowing.

“That’s enough!” said Beorn. “Sit down and be quiet! Now go on, Gandalf!”

So Gandalf went on with the tale, until he came to the fight in the dark, the discovery of the lower gate, and their horror when they found that Mr. Baggins had been mislaid. “We counted ourselves and found that there was no hobbit.

There were only fourteen of us left!”

“Fourteen! That’s the first time I’ve heard one from ten leave fourteen. You mean nine, or else you haven’t told me yet all the names of your party.”

“Well, of course you haven’t seen Oin and Gloin yet. And, bless me! Here they are. I hope you will forgive them for bothering you.”

“O let ’em all come! Hurry up! Come along, you two, and sit down! But look here, Gandalf, even now we have only got yourself and ten dwarves and the hobbit that was lost. That only makes eleven. But now please get on with the tale.”

Beorn did not show it more than he could help, but really he had begun to get very interested.

When Gandalf came to their climbing into trees with the wolves all underneath, he got up and strode about and muttered: “I wish I had been there! I would have given them more than fireworks!”

“Well,” said Gandalf very glad to see that his tale was making a good impression, “I did the best I could. There we were with the wolves going mad underneath us and the forest beginning to blaze in places, when the goblins came down from the hills and discovered us. They yelled with delight and sang songs making fun of us. Fifteen prisoners in five fir-trees . . .”

“Good heavens!” growled Beorn. “Don’t pretend that goblins can’t count. They can. Twelve isn’t fifteen and they know it.”

“And so do I. There were Bifur and Bofur as well. I haven’t ventured to introduce them before, but here they are.”

In came Bifur and Bofur. “And me!” gasped Bombur puffing up behind. He was fat, and also angry at being left till last. He refused to wait five minutes, and followed immediately after the other two.

“Well, now there are fifteen of you.”

Mr. Baggins saw then how clever Gandalf had been. The interruptions had really made Beorn more interested in the story, and the story had kept him from sending the dwarves off at once like suspicious beggars. He never invited people into his house, if he could help it. He had very few friends and they lived a good way away; and he never invited more than a couple of these to his house at a time. Now he had got fifteen strangers sitting in his porch!

By the time the wizard had finished his tale and had told of the eagles’ rescue, the sun had fallen behind the peaks of the Misty Mountains.

“A very good tale!” said he. “The best I have heard for a long while. For this, you deserve a supper for the story.”

Let’s have something to eat!”

“Yes please!” they all said together. “Thank you very much!”

Inside the hall it was now quite dark. Beorn clapped his hands, and in trotted four beautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs. Beorn said something to them in a queer language like animal noises turned into talk. They went out again and soon came back carrying torches in their mouths, which they lit at the fire and stuck in low brackets on the pillars of the hall about the central hearth. The dogs could stand on their hind-legs when they wished, and carry things with their fore-feet. Quickly they got out boards and trestles from the side walls and set them up near the fire.

There they had a supper, or a dinner, such as they had not had since they left the Last Homely House in the West and said good-bye to Elrond. They sat long at the table with their wooden drinking-bowls filled with mead.

Soon Bilbo began to nod with sleep and the voices seemed to grow far away, until he woke with a start. The great door had creaked and slammed. Beorn was gone. The dwarves were sitting cross-legged on the floor round the fire, and presently they began to sing.

Soon, Bilbo began to nod again. Suddenly up stood Gandalf. “It is time for us to sleep,” he said, “—for us, but not I think for Beorn. In this hall we can rest sound and safe.

There was a growling sound outside, and a noise as of some great animal scuffling at the door. Bilbo wondered what it was, and whether it could be Beorn in enchanted shape, and if he would come in as a bear and kill them. He dived under the blankets and hid his head, and fell asleep again at last in spite of his fears.

It was full morning when he awoke. One of the dwarves had fallen over him in the shadows where he lay, and had rolled down with a bump from the platform on to the floor. It was Bofur, and he was grumbling about it, when Bilbo opened his eyes.

“Get up lazybones,” he said, “or there will be no breakfast left for you.”

Up jumped Bilbo. “Breakfast!” he cried. “Where is breakfast?”

“Mostly inside us,” answered the other dwarves who were moving about the hall; “but what is left is out on the veranda. We have been about looking for Beorn ever since the sun got up; but there is no sign of him anywhere, though we found breakfast laid as soon as we went out.”

The next morning, Beorn returned. “So here you all are still!” he said. He picked up the hobbit and laughed: “Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see”; and he poked Mr. Baggins’ waistcoat most disrespectfully. “Little bunny is getting nice and fat again on bread and honey,” he chuckled. “Come and have some more!”

So they all went to breakfast with him. Beorn was most jolly for a change. They did not have to ask where he has been, for he told them himself. He had been over the river and right back up into the mountains—from which you can guess that he could travel quickly, in bear’s shape at any rate. From the burnt wolf-glade he had soon found out that part of their story was true; but he had found more than that: he had caught a Warg and a goblin wandering in the woods. From these he had got news: the goblin patrols were still hunting with Wargs for the dwarves, and they were fiercely angry because of the death of the Great Goblin, and also because of the burning of the chief wolf’s nose and the death from the wizard’s fire of many of his chief servants.

“It was a good story, that of yours,” said Beorn, “but I like it still better now I am sure it is true. You must forgive my not taking your word. If you lived near the edge of Mirkwood, you would take the word of no one that you did not know as well as your brother or better. As it is, I can only say that I have hurried home as fast as I could to see that you were safe, and to offer you any help that I can. I shall think more kindly of dwarves after this. Killed the Great Goblin, killed the Great Goblin!” he chuckled fiercely to himself.

“What did you do with the goblin and the Warg?” asked Bilbo suddenly.

“Come and see!” said Beorn, and they followed round the house. A goblin’s head was stuck outside the gate and a warg-skin was nailed to a tree just beyond.

Beorn was a fierce enemy. But now he was their friend, and Gandalf thought it wise to tell him their whole story and the reason of their journey, so that they could get the most help he could offer.

This is what he promised to do for them. He would provide ponies for each of them, and a horse for Gandalf, for their journey to the forest, and he would lade them with food to last them for weeks with care, and packed so as to be as easy as possible to carry—nuts, flour, sealed jars of dried fruits, and red earthenware pots of honey, and twice-baked cakes that would keep good a long time, and on a little of which they could march far.

Water, he said, they would not need to carry this side of the forest, for there were streams and springs along the road. “But your way through Mirkwood is dark, dangerous and difficult,” he said. “Water is not easy to find there, nor food. I will provide you with skins for carrying water, and I will give you some bows and arrows. But I doubt very much whether anything you find in Mirkwood will be wholesome to eat or to drink. There is one stream there, I know, black and strong which crosses the path. That you should neither drink of, nor bathe in; for I have heard that it carries enchantment and a great drowsiness and forgetfulness.

And in the dim shadows of that place I don’t think you will shoot anything, wholesome or unwholesome, without straying from the path. That you MUST NOT do, for any reason.

“That is all the advice I can give you. Beyond the edge of the forest I cannot help you much; you must depend on your luck and your courage and the food I send with you. At the gate of the forest I must ask you to send back my horse and my ponies. But I wish you all speed, and my house is open to you, if ever you come back this way again.”

They thanked him, of course, with many bows and sweepings of their hoods and with many an “at your service, O master of the wide wooden halls!” But their spirits sank at his grave words, and they all felt that the adventure was far more dangerous than they had thought, while all the time, even if they passed all the perils of the road, the dragon was waiting at the end.

All that morning they were busy with preparations. Soon after midday they ate with Beorn for the last time, and after the meal they mounted the steeds he was lending them, and bidding him many farewells they rode off through his gate at a good pace.

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[ printable .pdf ]

1. Describe Beorn - both his appearance and personality? Does he seem scary? Friendly? Fun? Would you want to hang out with him?
2. Why is Beorn called a “skin changer”?
3. Why is Beorn willing to help Gandalf and the dwarves? Do you think they should trust Beorn? Why?
4. Beorn says dwarves are "greedy and blind to the lives of those they deem lesser than their own." Do you agree? Why?
5. If you were a skin-changer, what type of animal would you want to be able to change into? Why?
6. In this film, they usually try to make Gandalf appear large. However, in these scenes, they make him seem small. Why? What camera tricks does the film maker use to achieve this effect?