The Hobbit on trial in Dalhousie fundraiser for Halifax Humanities 101

For the sixth straight year, law students at Dalhousie University teamed up with real-life lawyers and a judge to help raise money for a good cause through a literary moot.

This year, in the spotlight of the theatrical mock trial was The Hobbit.

"We really like doing these things called moots which are like a mock trial," organizer and Dalhousie law student Christina Macdonald said Thursday evening.

"Law students are very competitive people, so we like to stage cases and pretend trials."

Fundraiser for education program

The fundraiser benefited Halifax Humanities 101, an educational outreach program that offers university-level education in liberal arts to adults living below the poverty line.

"One of the reasons why we love this particular fundraiser is that it's based on literature," program director Mary Lu Redden said. 

"Literature is the focus of our program so the chance to celebrate, and even to spoof literature is a really fun way to raise money."

The mock trial features Dalhousie Law school students, dressed in attire more appropriate to The Lord of the Rings.

'Silly, wacky, weird'

With a high level of comedy, the full house that turned out were entertained.

"It's silly, wacky and weird and we try not to plan out too much in advance," said Adam Norton, one of the third year students who played the role of the plaintiff's counsel in the case.

"We are enacting the trial of Bilbo Baggins for taking the ring from Gollum."

'A lot of fun'

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jamie Campbell presided over the trial. This was his third literary moot.

"It gets fairly ruckus and it's a lot of fun and my job is to try, to the extent that I can, to keep it all together and then sum it up at the end," Campbell said.

"I like informality—and I live in a world that's extremely formal—so it's a wonderful opportunity to mix with people in an informal and fun way."

Lord of the Rings is a trilogy of books written by English author J.R.R. Tolkien, to which The Hobbit is a prequel. Its enduring popularity has inspired movies, video games and other pieces of literature.

Last year's literary moot was based on Alice in Wonderland. Other mock trials focused on The Odyssey, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice and Hamlet.