ndarville

There are two great tools for remembering a long list:

• Association
• Categorization

If you have to remember the number 4586486448464, you’ll want to break it down into somehow else than a sequence of thirteen arbitrary digits. The same goes for the thirteen dwarves (dwarrows) in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

I recently saw this clip of Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin, naming all the dwarves in The Hobbit. As someone with a dreadful memory, I was very impressed—and then I noticed a pattern.

This is the order in which Armitage named the dwarves; see if you notice the pattern:

1. Dori
2. Nori
3. Ori
4. Bifur
5. Bofur
6. Bombur
7. Dwalin
8. Balin
9. Oin
10. Gloin
11. Fili
12. Kili
13. Thorin

Let’s divide these names into families:

1. Dori, Nori, Ori
2. Bifur, Bofur, Bombur
3. Dwalin, Balin
4. Oin, Gloin
5. Fili, Kili

… and Thorin

Now we have reduced the burden of memorization to five families … plus one.

But there is another pattern to Armitage’s memorization. Can you see it? (It’s just like Sesame Street.)

• 3 members
  • Dori, Nori, Ori
  • Bifur, Bofur, Bombur
• 2 members
  • Dwalin, Balin
  • Oin, Gloin
  • Fili, Kili

… and Thorin.

In case you don’t see the pattern, we group families into threes and twos—plus one—based on the amount of members.

You might still get tripped up trying to recall how many families go in each group of threes and twos.

As long as you remember the number 6, this will never happen. You can see why, if you rewrite the list above:

• 3x2 (=6)
• 2x3 (=6)
• +1

You should be able to name all thirteen dwarves (dwarrows) now. I’m not kidding. Try it.