Bolg

Bolg was an Orc leader of the Northern Orcs of the Misty Mountains in the late Third Age, and the son of Azog.
== Biography ==
In The Hobbit, Bolg had succeeded Azog after the latter's death in the Battle of Azanulbizar (the last battle of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs) in TA 2799 by Dáin II Ironfoot, and had resettled in the old refuge of Mount Gundabad. There he would rule over the goblins of the Misty Mountains.
After about 150 years, he led an army of goblins, wargs, and bats in the Battle of the Five Armies, into which he took his bodyguards with him as well. In that battle he was crushed by the mighty Beorn, who in the act avenged Thorin II Oakenshield, who had been fatally wounded.The Hobbit, Chapter XVII: "The Clouds Burst"
== Etymology ==
The meaning of the name Bolg is uncertain. As discussed in the book The History of The Hobbit,The History of The Hobbit: Mr Baggins and Return to Bag-End is a two-volume work containing Tolkien's unpublished drafts of the novel, accompanied by commentary written by John D. Rateliff. 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 it 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. This would be supported by Celtic legends about the Fir Bolg; one of the enemies of the Tuatha de Danan.
== In adaptations ==
=== The Hobbit film trilogy ===
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 armor and bones.
Bolg appears extensively in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. 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, which eventually lead them to Lake-town.
Around nightfall, Bolg and his Orcs arrive at 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 to Erebor). Bolg gains the upper hand and then has a bodyguard deal with him. While Legolas is distracted by other Orcs, Bolg rides away on his Warg down a dock. He is then pursued by Legolas, who is now on a horse and chasing after him.
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, Kíli arrives and briefly duels the Orc but Bolg proves to be stronger and he impales Kíli 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. Bolg gains the upper hand, but Legolas ultimately kills Bolg in the end 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 Kíli's death. He is also psychopathic and remorseless, shown by how he pitilessly orders the attack on Lake-town. 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 extremely determined and ferocious. Despite this, he has a strong relationship with Azog as Bolg displays fierce loyalty to his father and a great desire to make him proud.
==== Abilities ====
Bolg is a skilful leader, which is likely why he was Azog's second-in-command of the Gundabad Orc pack. He is highly skilful in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship. 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 show pain or even bleed when Legolas plunges his knife into his hand nearing the end of their battle. Though his preferred fighting style is surely not Warg-riding, he is highly skilled at it.
=== Models and toys ===
A model of Bolg was done as a miniature by the Games Workshop, though the title became obsolete following the decision to change the identity of the character and create a new appearance for Bolg in The Desolation of Smaug.
== Video games ==
Bolg appears as the final boss in The Hobbit GBA game.
== Gallery ==
File:Bolgnewmovie.jpg|Bolg as he appears in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Trilogy
File:Bolg1.jpg|Bolg's appearance from Games Workshop, before it was changed.
File:Bolg - LOTR The Card Game.JPG|Bolg in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, The Hobbit: On the Doorstep expansion
File:The Lord of the Rings Online - Bolg.jpg|Bolg in The Lord of the Rings Online
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Amharic 	ቦልግ
Arabic 	بولج
Armenian 	Բոլգ
Belarusian Cyrillic	Болг
Bengali 	বল্গ
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Болг
Chinese (Hong Kong)	波格
Georgian 	ბოლგი
Greek 	Μπόλγκ
Gujarati 	બોલ્ગ
Hebrew 	בולג
Hindi 	बोल्ग
Japanese 	ボルグ
Kannada 	ಬೊಲ್ಗ್
Kazakh 	Болг (Cyrillic) Bolg (Latin)
Korean 	볼그
Kurdish 	بۆڵگ (Sorani)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Болг
Macedonian Cyrillic	Болг
Malayalam 	ബോൾഗ്
Marathi 	बोल्ग
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Болг
Nepalese 	बोल्ग
Pashto 	بولګ
Persian 	بولگ
Russian 	Больг
Sanskrit 	बोल्ग्
Sinhalese 	බොල්ග්
Serbian 	Болг (Cyrillic) Bolg (Latin)
Spanish 	Bolgo
Tajik Cyrillic 	Болг
Tamil 	பொல்க்
Tatar 	Болг
Telugu 	బొల్గ
Thai 	บอล์ก
Tigrinya 	ቦልግ
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Болґ
Urdu 	باولگ
Uzbek 	Болг (Cyrillic) Bolg (Latin)
Yiddish 	באָלג
== References ==
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de:Bolg
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fr:Bolg
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pt-br:Bolg
ru:Больг
Category:Orkish names & words
Category:Orcs
Category:Villains
Category:The Hobbit characters
Category:Characters in The History of Middle-earth
Category:The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey characters
Category:The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug characters
Category:The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies characters
Category:Deaths in battle
Category:Azog's army
Category:Non-canonical Servants of Sauron