This is something interesting that came off one of the threads at TORC concerning why Tolkien chose 13 dwarves in The Hobbit and not any other number.
The theory and all the obeservations were all made by Wilko185 there.
I will just quote directly.
Wilko wrote:The Dwarf names are specifically Icelandic. In Iceland there are 13 days of Christmas, which may be why they also have a tradition of the "13 Yule Lads" who visit children on each of the 13 days with toys (if they have been good). These spirits may be referred to as 'trolls', but also as dwarfs, e.g. as in this report in Northern Junket from an American who spent Christmas in Iceland in the 1940s:
Dorothea Thompson [5 MB pdf] wrote:The traditional American Christmas party followed, but Santa Claus was not too much of a success, for the Icelandic children believe that there are thirteen dwarfs who come out of the mountains who are responsible for all of the Christmas festivities, and not one huge giant from the north pole. Santa had to be most persuasive to lure the children to the tree to receive their stockings.
Tolkien would surely have been aware of this tradition: we know that the Tolkien family hosted an Icelandic visitor in the Christmas of 1927 [edit: apparently Tolkien had Icelandic au pairs while living at Northmoor Road in Oxford], thus in the "Father Christmas Letter" to his children that year:
Santa/Tolkien wrote:My messengers told me that you have somebody from Iceland staying with you. That is not so far from where I live, and nearly as cold. People don't hang up stockings there, and I usually pass by in a hurry, ...
Is this connexion between the proud warriors and smiths of Middle-earth, and the gnomes who visit children with Christmas gifts, a bit too fanciful? I don't think so. E.g. at Bilbo's Long Expected Party:
There were toys the like of which they had never seen before, all beautiful and some obviously magical. Many of them had indeed been ordered a year before, and had come all the way from the Mountain and from Dale, and were of real dwarf-make.
Just a bit of speculation
Yeah, I'm a bit surprised . I would find it odd if no one else has compared the arrival of the thirteen dwarves at Bilbo's door with the way the thirteen impish Jólasveinar arrive from the mountains, one at a time over the days of Christmas. But so it seems...
scirocco wrote:But certainly it seems extremely plausible to me. Everything stacks up: the Icelandic au pairs in the Tolkien household, who could well be imagined to have entertained the children with stories from their homeland (that JRRT may have heard as they were told); Tolkien's own keen professional and personal interest in Icelandic language and myth; and the nature of the tradition itself (the thirteen mischievous, disruptive characters who arrive one by one and cause havoc). A kind of "junior" version of the more serious and darker traditions that influenced his adult writing. Hard to imagine anything that he would think more suitable for incorporating to a children's story that he was writing.
These 13 lads were features in the Drabblecast, Episode 307, December 19, 2013, in the narrator's usual quirky, offensive spin. (You were warned! ) Here's the link: http://www.drabblecast.org/2013/12/19/d ... 6-ubelief/ . Just click on the play button and the lads are introduced a few minutes into the intro. Definitely not Tolkien!
Frankly, I think there might really be a connection. Given Tolkien's attachment with Icelandic myths and the matching descriptions of the yule lads and the dwarves (so contradictory to his later dwarves), it seems very plausible for me.
I saw this at TORC, and while I found it interesting, I didn't have anything to add there, either. I certainly don't have a direct line with Christopher Tolkien (my only interaction with him was through his attorney, and I doubt I am very popular with him, much as I respect his work and him personally), but I might be able to make some inquiries. No promises, but if I come up with anything I will post here.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Indirect lines are welcome too! Don't go through too much trouble, though. If CT knew the answer, I imagine he would have already commented on it by now...
And as far as I know, Rateliff and Anderson never mentioned it.
. I would find it odd if no one else has compared the arrival of the thirteen dwarves at Bilbo's door with the way the thirteen impish Jólasveinar arrive from the mountains, one at a time over the days of Christmas. But so it seems...
) Here's the link: 
