Hobbit villains disadvantaged by vitamin D deficiency

Posted on Tue, 17 Dec 13

Goblins and trolls have a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, hobbits and wizards fare better but should refrain from blowing too many smoke rings.

Because vitamin D has been shown to offer a number of health advantages, a study in the Medical Journal of Australia set out to see if better vitamin D levels could help with the triumph of good over evil.

Researchers examined the dietary habits, moral attributes and martial prowess of various inhabitants of Middle Earth, from J R R Tolkien's novel The hobbit. They then contrasted the goodness and victoriousness of characters with a vitamin D score (range, 0-4).

The characters lifestyles and diets were examined and discussed; “Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, lives in a hole in the ground but with windows, and when he is first encountered he is smoking his pipe in the sun overlooking his garden (it is worth noting [parenthetically] that smoking is itself associated with skeletal muscle dysfunction)” they noted.

In contrast “Spiders dwell in the dark and seem to eat caught prey exclusively. The dragon Smaug comes out at night to eat people and particularly favors maidens, though he will also eat ponies and Lake-men.”

It was discovered that the vitamin D score was significantly higher among the good and victorious characters (mean, 3.4) than the evil and defeated ones (mean, 0.2).

‘Systematic textual analysis of The hobbit supports our initial hypothesis that the triumph of good over evil may be assisted to some extent by the poor diet and lack of sunlight experienced by the evil characters” concluded the investigators.

Reference:

Hopkinson JA, Hopkinson NS. The hobbit - an unexpected deficiency. Med J Aust. 2013 Dec 16;199(11):805-6.