This morning, I celebrate reaching the goal of even one poem thoroughly concordanced:
[01.064] Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates–
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
[01.065] Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Splash the wine on every door!
[01.066] Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
Pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when you’ve finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
[01.067] That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So, carefully! carefully with the plates!
Not bad at all. I have left out:
- The – 13 times
- And – 5 times
- On – 4 times
- A – 2 times
- Is – 2 times
- Them – 2 times
- That – 2 times
- With – 2 times
- What – 2 times
- When – 1 time
- If – 1 time
- Every – 1 time
- Any – 1 time
- In – 1 time
- Up – 1 time
- Down – 1 time
- To – 1 time
- You – 1 time
- Have – 1 time
- Are – 1 time
words that you were saying 
Reblogged this on A Pilgrim in Narnia and commented:
I’ve pointed out before Sparrow’s digital humanities project on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. In particular, she has been working through the Hobbit, drawing out trends she sees in the occurrences of words. Even in basic indexing, concordance work, and text scraping, there are neat discoveries that help us read better. Now Sparrow has done enough of her work to blog an entire poem with the text links. Sparrow has completed work on the “Chip the glasses and crack the plates!” bit with the dwarfs. It is a great milestone and good service to humanity (and good good service to some non-human races), that I thought I would share with you, dear readers.
And if I might add something to extend our enjoyment, a couple of clips. The first is J.R.R. Tolkien’s own little version of the jig. I don’t know the source of the clip, but it may be something from the BBC or from the recordings at George Sayer’s house. The second clip is from the first Peter Jackson Hobbit film, a chant song in dwarf style that would drive all good homemakers to distraction!
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