The final version of Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery is now available!

12/8/2015

Hopefully many of you have been able to watch J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit by now. If you enjoyed that fan edit, then you may also enjoy Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery, a companion film that focuses on the backstory of the dwarves and how it ties into the White Council's investigation into Dol Guldur. Below is the link to watch the film on Vimeo, where you can also download it directly under the video box. Alternatively, you can visit the Downloads Page and retrieve it via MEGA.

Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery will be included on the special features of the DVD/Bluray release of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Coming soon!

Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery from Dustin Lee on Vimeo.

33 Comments

Tom

12/8/2015 11:01:10 am

Fantastic edit! This really is a phenomenal supplement to your Hobbit edit. I'm honestly surprised at how well this comes together as a standalone film. I will most certainly be recommending this (along with your Hobbit edit) to all my friends, and together these will become my definitive choice for watching The Hobbit.

In my humble opinion, the only scene I felt missing from the whole thing was the small scene that takes place between Gandalf and Galadriel in Rivendell just after the White Council scene. I really like Gandalf's attempt to explain his reasoning for choosing Bilbo. Anyways, I can understand why it was cut from your Hobbit edit, as suddenly introducing Galadriel introduces other problems, so I had hoped it would at least make an appearance here.

Nevertheless, the removal of that scene does not detract from an otherwise astounding project. Congratulations on your completion, and I look forward to the Blu-ray iso!

Ron

12/8/2015 12:51:39 pm

I hope you are able to take some of the constructive criticism from the comments in the Hobbit page before making the final Blu-Ray release. I think your edit definitely has the potential to be the best and ideal edit possible from this film, with just a few changes. The Extended Editions of the LotR also kind of screw up the pacing, but people love them because they give us more of what Tolkien wrote translated to the screen. I feel similarly about some of the stuff you decided to cut such as the Beorn intros and some of the Mirkwood scenes. I hope that you can see that the almost complete consensus from fans of your edit on some of the changes that could be made to make it even better than it is.

Dustin

12/8/2015 01:00:05 pm

Thank you Ron. I have taken people's requests and suggestions into consideration, but since we have been working on subtitles the past week or so, I will no longer be adjusting/removing/adding any individual scenes. This would mess up the timestamps required for subtitles and would set things back a bit. I collected as much feedback as I could from viewers back in April when I released a first cut, and this final cut is the result of that feedback and my own personal preferences for the film.

However, that being said, I have taken the color correction criticisms seriously and adjusted them for the DVD/Bluray release. The AUJ sections will be warmed up a bit and the BOFA sections will be de-bloomed a bit. Thanks again!

Ron

12/8/2015 01:16:18 pm

If the blu-ray release will be your absolute final edit, would you be opposed to other people taking the work you've done and adding/removing certain scenes to better align with their preferences?

Sandro Algra

12/9/2015 11:21:38 am

That sounds great! I also read someone talking about possibly outsourcing the shot in which Smaug breaks out of Erebor to do a more extensive colour correction, completely removing the gold. I'm not sure if you want to do that or if it's even possible for anyone you know to fix that.

The way I see it, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to completely remove the gold from his body. He does shake off the gold once he's in the air. But maybe it could be covered up by adding something extra. What if a dust cloud was added, suggesting he's covered in dust after breaking through the rocks...

Dustin

12/8/2015 01:59:54 pm

I would not be opposed to that at all. Especially since I did just that to Peter Jackson's films!

Jake

12/8/2015 08:21:38 pm

Hey just wanted to let you know for the dvd release, that there is a moment during Bard and Thorins confrontation in Lake town that Thorin begins a sentence, but then is immediately cut away. Happens right around 2:22:15

Joe

12/9/2015 11:15:08 am

Jake is right. At 2:22:15 it sounds like there's an audio dissolve issue or something that picks up an extra word of dialogue before Thorin says "If we succeed..." It's a little jarring, but not a glaring issue. Maybe an easy fix?

Jackson

12/8/2015 03:22:54 pm

I'm really excited for the final cut with extras coming soon! It seems like the Mirkwood EE scene is definitely the most asked for deleted scene after the introduction to Beorn. Might you consider including in this special features with color corrections to match the movie like you did with Beorn's scene, so that fans can add it in if they want? I also don't know if you've decided to take another look at the timing of the Gandalf voice-over on the Eagles, which some people have pointed out sounds kind of weird in its present state.

Other than that, I can't wait- things look great!

Dean

12/8/2015 06:09:30 pm

Will the Blu-Ray release be just as compressed as the final cut released earlier? ~9.8GB seems really small for a 4 hour movie.

Dustin

12/8/2015 07:20:18 pm

The Bluray release will be massive in size. There will be two ISO files...one for each disc. They will each be around 30GB.

Dean

12/8/2015 07:34:53 pm

Jesus H. Christ, 60GB?! How is that even possible?

Dustin

12/8/2015 07:45:54 pm

HAHAHA well you want high quality don't you?? Better give yourself a few days to download!

Dante

12/8/2015 11:18:23 pm

How big do will the DVD ISO be?

Jared

12/8/2015 07:29:22 pm

Thank you very much for all your work here, Dustin. Really fantastic to see The Hobbit in such a finely cut edition! A true pleasure to watch. I look forward to any future work of yours.

I'd only agree with Tom above that I found the "I've found it is the small things that keeps the darkness at bay" scene between Gandalf and Galadriel to be one of the best characterizations of Gandalf and his ethos in any Peter Jackson film. It was one of the scenes that most captured me even years after seeing it in theater. I'd love to see it in a final cut. However, I trust in your directorial vision and know you'll do whatever is the best choice for the film. Thank you again!

Tobias link

12/9/2015 12:37:02 pm

Looks great. The Mega Link seems to be down though.

Dustin

12/10/2015 06:26:07 am

Yeah I think they flagged it. The Vimeo link is still available however.

Jon

12/10/2015 10:21:05 am

Thank you very much for this. Nice homage to the scenes that you couldn't include in your Hobbit fanedit.

Carlton

12/15/2015 07:20:03 pm

I do really like this as a supplement, but while watching it with someone that had not yet seen the Hobbit, the cuts and jumps with the dwarves are rather jarring. I feel you could have included many, if not all of the scenes where Gandalf was actually present to make a decent 2-hour standalone movie which is all from Gandalf's perspective, rather than a supplemental companion piece.
That's a movie I would like to see. Gandalf's perspective of the whole thing.

Shorzen

12/24/2015 06:54:54 am

Hi, Dustin! Are there any news about the English subtitles? This glorious project deserves to be completed!

varun

1/2/2016 01:51:50 am

First and foremost ... thank you for these fan edits. My disappointed kept increasing with each successive Hobbit film. The flaws in Hobbit trilogy are evident from the way it was conceptualized (Five Armies extras explains PJ's frustration in general at the lack of preparation for this trilogy). Each scene felt padded with unnecessary tension-building and the extra story-lines went no where. While I could envision a decent cut of the Hobbit, I had no idea (technically) how to achieve it. After experiencing your edit of the Hobbit and the companion film, I put together a 3.5 hour edit that includes key plot points from both your edits and the extended editions. My main goal was to make a hobbit film that would enhance the experience of watching LOTR trilogy by serving as a (3.5 hr) prologue. Radagast, Necromancer, Dol Gulor, Azog history, Smaug attack on Dale and Erabor are included and all the sequences are heavily edited to keep the focus on Bilbo. The version I put together is not meant to follow the book (an impossible task given the footage available), but rather to ensure that the LOTR trilogy viewing experience is not diminished by Hobbit film.

I felt that the characterization and actions of the White Council in hobbit degraded their significance in LOTR. For example, Galadrial's characterization in Hobbit completely ruins the suspense of her introduction in LOTR (powerful and mysterious). Similarly, Gandalf's attitude towards Saruman and Saruman's characterization in Hobbit doesnt match with why Gandalf sought Saruman's advice in LOTR. More importantly, in Hobbit everyone is second guessing Gandalf and refusing to heed his advice. Also the entire Dol Gulor subplot felt forced since all the related scenes imply that Gandalf is fully aware of the "ancient enemy", thereby rendering everything redundant. The design of the Ringwraiths was confusing as the Hobbit movies featured 3 designs and none are compatible with LOTR (Another example, Beorn is introduced as a Black bear in DOS and then appears as Brown Grizzly bear in BOFA).

In my version, the Dol Guldor plot-line is used to provide the needed breaks in hobbit story-line to indicate the passage of time (the entire Hobbit trilogy feels like a 6 day marathon). The story follows the following structure: Before the encounter with the trolls, Gandalf introduces to Bilbo the wizards and particularly, Radagast as the protector of Greenwoods. We get to see (heavily trimmed version of) the transformation of Greenwood to Mirkwood. After the troll cave scene, Radagast meets and informs Gandalf (no forced humor at Radagast's expense included) about the presence of a dark power in Dol Guldor (no mention of ancient enemy). At Rivendell, the hite council meets. Saruman and Elrond equally question Gandalf's assertions about helping Thorin to prevent Smaug siding with the enemy. Galadrial remains mysterious by effectively remaining neutral (no mind-talking or indication of support for Gandalf). Beorn informs Gandalf that orcs from Moria are gathering in Dol Guldur and dead had been seen walking around High Fells. While the dwarves are locked up in Mirkwood prison, Gandalf meets with Radagast to inform him that the 'enemy' is summoning his minions and preparing for war. Radagast drops Gandalf at Dol Guldor and goes off to bring the white council. At Dol Guldor, Azog confronts Gandalf but he escapes and hides in the fortess. The orcs march out. Gandalf is lifting the spell on Dol Guldor (after Smaug is killed) and the dark power confronts Gandalf. The dark power overpowers Gandalf and reveals itself as Sauron (this is the first time Sauron is mentioned by name). The White Council appears and hold off Sauron to get Gandalf out with radagast and then banish Sauron (this entire sequence appears as a montage without Ringwraiths). After Saruman's "Leave Sauron to me", we return to Gandalf and Radagast, where Gandalf takes the staff and a horse to warn Erabor of the approaching army. Gandalf appears directly at the gates of Erabor to prevent Thorin from hurting Bilbo (i.e., two key scenes are (with regret) not included (1) Gandalf warning Bard and Thranduril (2) Bilbo giving away the arkenstone as it happens in the presence of Gandalf). When Dain appears and the battle immediately starts between elves and dwarves without Gandalf and Dain talking. While elves and dwarves are fighting, Gandalf informs of the approaching army. Azog then leads the orc attack and everyone joins together to fight them off.

Also removed are all foreshadowing about the ring's evil power. The fact that Bilbo finds a ring and Gandalf does not inquire more about it seemed odd given how much the white council talks about the one ring. In this edit the ring is not discussed at all. The introduction of the rings-Sauron at the beginning of LOTR remains the first official mention of the connection. Thereby the Hobbit acts only as prologue to LOTR for the return of Saruon; the disc

varun

1/2/2016 01:59:35 am

Thereby the hobbit acts only as prologue for the discovery of a ring whose nature are not revealed; the return of Saruon and Bilbo's adventure.

The second issue I had with hobbit trilogy was the amount of action and the superhero syndrome in the movie. Tolkein's dwarves are not the bravest (except Thorin) but PJ's interpretation makes them into indestructible figures. For example, in the film the dwarves confront the trolls, survive stone giants, battle hundreds of goblins/orcs/wargs/trolls, confront Smaug and most ridiculously, 13 dwarves joining the fight somehow changes the course of the battle. Almost all the troll scenes in the battle are removed. They appear only in the wide shots and the viewer is expected to assume that the Elves fight them off-screen. I included the Azog-Thorin story as a flashback at Beorn's house to introduce Azog after the dwarves confront him. This introduction (scenes from hobbit 1 and extended hobbit2) somehow manages to indicate that even Thorin was afraid of Azog. It gives further meaning to Dain's comment during the battle ("you cant do this. you are our king") as dwarves having concerns about facing Azog. All this makes Azog-Thorin confrontation at the end more powerful.
The battle itself follows a structured plot-line (closer to the book): Dwarves, men and elves start fighting when Gandalf warns of the approaching army and Azog's army attacks Erabor. Dwarves and elves fight united and Azog attacks the Dale. Bard and Gandalf fight the orcs at Dale, while Elves and Dwarves (including the 13 dwarves) fight to protect Erabor. The orc armies overwhelm everyone and Thorin takes the goat chariot to Ravenhill killing orcs and wargs (no trolls) on the way. Once there, Fili and Kili are killed. Elsewhere the battle appears to be lost (Darkest Hour scene). With all odds against them, Thorin confronts Azog. While they are fighting, Beorn and the Eagles appear and decimate the orc armies. Thorin takes advantage of this distraction to sink Azog who jumps out and they stab each other.

The introduction in the Shire is also edited down to less than 25 min with specific structure. The film begins with Bilbo and Gandalf's meeting. At the unexpected party, all the childish humor is removed. Instead of dish cleaning song, Gandalf tells Bilbo about the story of Smaug's attack on Erabor and ends with the characterization of Thorin. Thereby Thorin's introduction at the Shire now carries weight and Bilbo is introduced to the goal of the adventure. There are some key flaws in this edit though. To make is a better cinematic experience, I had to remove two extremely good scenes: (1) Bilbo giving away the arkenstone and (2) influence of ring's corrupting power on Bilbo. Also the scene where Gandlaf tells Bilbo about Smaug's attack is in the voice of older Bilbo. It is distracting but the story flows much better.

After the first eagle scene, I did reintroduced the Eagle flight scene (without focus on wounded Thorin) and used your audio of Gandalf introducing Beorn to overlap with Beorn's night time scene (followed by dwarves pairwise introduction to Beorn). I also decided to exclude the broken bridge scene in Mirkwood as it provided no significant purpose. I did notice many complains about the color-correction, but I felt it was appropriate to make it consistent with LOTR.

Overall this edit (to me) enables the Hobbit to be the perfect prequel to LOTR films without ruining any of the magic of LOTR trilogy and I am very grateful that you created the single film version that I could modify to create the Hobbit I can enjoy. (Sorry about the long post.)

Haydon

1/4/2016 04:24:04 am

I'm intrigued by this. Any intention of sharing your work?
I would be very interested if you were to upload it

Ari

10/27/2020 10:27:00 am

Hi! It's been 4 years, and your Hobbit edit sounds quite interesting. Have you completed it, and if so, where can I find it?

Thomas

4/5/2016 01:46:24 pm

Dustin, I can't say how impressed I am with all the hard work! I haven't seen anything yet (except for the 1m "love story" which was hilarious) and I'm excited to see the finished product. Thanks again!!

Is it best to watch "Durin's Folk" movie before or after the main Hobbit movie?

Dustin

4/5/2016 06:36:57 pm

Thanks Thomas, I would recommend watching Durin's Folk after the main Hobbit film. It works as a sort of a bonus feature to the main quest!

David

7/5/2016 11:11:40 am

I'm watching this for the third time in three days. Brilliant. It gives me the same feeling I had when Fellowship came out. Your recut is much better than the official movies.

David

7/5/2016 01:51:36 pm

⬆️ Crap, wrong article. Too much caffeine.

Mike Drake

8/17/2016 08:44:28 pm

I want to download this but the Google Drive link is being crazy slow - any particular reason there isn't a separate torrent for this like there is for the main movie? I'd totally download and seed.

Dustin

8/17/2016 09:01:10 pm

Hmm. Try clicking on the Vimeo link for Durin's Folk, and downloading it there. You should see a Download button just below the video player.

Lucas

1/27/2019 04:07:56 pm

Hi, I just finished watching your version of The Hobbit on the day, I loved it.
Now I wanted to see Durin's Folk, but there are no subtitles in Spanish.
Do you have any to download?

Josepzin

2/15/2021 08:20:25 am

¿Conseguiste los subtitulos en castellano?

Patrick

2/10/2021 09:10:26 pm

This was just fantastic. Nice edit. I'm enjoying your Hobbit edit as well. Excellent work!!!

JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit