Now this word is distributed more evenly. The marvelous first reference is during the Unexpected Party when Bilbo thought there would be four more dwarves at the door, but no.

The Etymology notes in OED for this one are absolutely glorious:

The Indo-European base can be reconstructed with an initial labial (*p) and an internal labiovelar (*k^u).

— and many screensful of information follow which have fascinated me for almost a full cup of coffee. It is absolutely worth finding out if your local library, state library, or local community college library have an OED subscription you can use.

• 1.046 it was FIVE.
• 1.109 “Five feet high the door
• 3.040 beside the plain runes which say ‘five feet high the door
• 4.042 two, three, four, five, six,
• 6.074 Fifteen birds in five fir-trees,
• 7.009 in the battle of Five Armies.
• 7.030 mind, about five minutes between each pair of you.
• 7.063 in pairs every five minutes.
• 7.084 in five fir-trees… .’
• 7.087 He refused to wait five minutes,
• 8.108 But there were still five dwarves hanging at the end of the branch
• 11.038 A door five feet high
• 12.035 You ought to have brought five hundred burglars not one.
• 12.096 made of five hundred emeralds
• 13.055 Five hours march,
• 14.042 Only five days after the death of the dragon
• 16.004 that Dain and more than five hundred dwarves,
• 16.016 He had about five hours before him.
• 16.031 and has at least five hundred grim dwarves with him –
• 17.044 and it was called the Battle of Five Armies,

“Five, Adj. & N., Etymology.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, September 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1175082620.

Back to it, my friends!

Do I include numbers? I will have to think on that later. Yet here is a number in a poem, so away we go. Please do reply with words for the number 15 in any language you’d care to. This morning, I have learned more about the number fifteen — and ways of talking about numbers — than I can easily handle on only two sips of coffee. Therefore, I leave you with coig-deug in Gàidhlig and commend you to your days.

The word clusters into chapters six and seven and I am startled that it didn’t come up in Chapter One when discussing the number of the party. Hmmm.

• 6.074 Fifteen birds in five fir-trees,
• 7.002 as off rose fifteen great birds from the mountain’s side.
• 7.009 and his fifteen chieftains golden collars
• 7.084 Fifteen birds
• 7.085 Twelve isn’t fifteen
• 7.088 Well, now there are fifteen of you;
• 7.088 Now he had got fifteen strangers sitting

Whether for hobbits, Big People, or prairie dogs, this Germanic word, probably borrowed from Celtic origins, originally meant there was a wall around it.

• 1.116 the old town
• 1.122 They built the merry town of Dale there
• 3.040 and he grieved to remember the ruin of the town of Dale
• 5.055 Slays king, ruins town,
• 9.019 It seemed a town of Men still throve there,
• 10.007 was the strange town
• 10.007 was built a busy wooden town,
• 10.007 not a town of elves but of Men,
• 10.007 and was carted past the falls to their town;
• 10.007 The rotting piles of a greater town could still be seen
• 10.009 boats rowed out from the piles of the town,
• 10.018 in the town openly doubted the existence
• 10.020 I wish to see the Master of your town!’
• 10.028 and into the market-place of the town.
• 10.030 The Master of the town sprang from his great chair.
• 10.033 Nor is this town
• 10.033 of the town
• 10.034 like fire through all the town.
• 10.036 in the town
• 10.037 were brought into the town
• 10.041 and wiser than the men of the town,
• 10.042 in the town
• 11.001 but none of the men of the town would stay with them
• 11.007 in that town.’
• 12.067 in the town by the shore
• 13.055 in front of the ruined town.
• 14.002 From their town the Lonely Mountain
• 14.011 in the town was filled with water,
• 14.013 Roaring he swept back over the town.
• 14.014 seeking only to set their town ablaze.
• 14.016 Soon all the town would be deserted
• 14.024 Full on the town he fell.
• 14.025 lamenting their lost town
• 14.025 three quarters of the people of the town
• 14.026 who had left the town so soon,
• 14.031 and hope to rebuild our town,
• 14.033 in the roll of the benefactors of our town;
• 14.038 who had escaped uninjured from the ruin of the town;
• 14.042 and looked on the ruins of the town.
• 14.043 they began the planning of a new town,
• 14.043 amid the ruined piles of the old town.
• 14.044 from the ruin of the town
• 15.019 and Smaug has destroyed their town.
• 15.048 and towns,
• 19.043 Bard had rebuilt the town

Ruin is mostly a borrowing from French and ultimately Latin and seems to originally mean something about the downfall of angels and the the falling down of other things. Along the way, I discovered the gorgeous word rure, an obsolete Old English word completely different from ruin but meaning the same thing. It is, gods bless it, an ablaut variant of the equally obsolete word roese: To fall or fall down; to fall (in battle), perish; to descend, drop. Also: (of hair) to fall out

• 1.116 and so to the ruins of Dale –
• 1.123 until Dale was ruined,
• 3.040 and he grieved to remember the ruin of the town of Dale
• 5.055 Slays king, ruins town,
• 11.006 the grey ruins of ancient houses, towers, and walls.
• 13.046 They passed through the ruined chamber.
• 13.055 in front of the ruined town.
• 14.018 down the Running River from the ruin long ago.
• 14.023 in ruin.
• 14.025 and ruined houses.
• 14.033 Dragon-fire and ruin!
• 14.038 who had escaped uninjured from the ruin of the town;
• 14.042 and looked on the ruins of the town.
• 14.043 amid the ruined piles of the old town.
• 14.044 from the ruin of the town
• 15.048 and in recompense you have thus far brought ruin only,

Goodness. I shall give in to my more table-making nature this morning!

• 5.055 Slays king, ruins town,
• 12.025 They will be slain,
• 14.029 when the enemy was slain.
• 14.029 I am the slayer of the dragon!’
• 15.042 The Worm of Dread is slain
• 15.048 and by my hand was the dragon slain
• 15.051 and us slain.’
• 18.024 were there slain,

There are stone dragons, just sayin’.

• 2.029 and stumbled on stones;
• 2.030 Fortunately the road went over an ancient stone bridge,
• 2.106 and be stone to you!”
• 2.106 for he stood turned to stone as he stooped;
• 2.111 a big door of stone leading to a cave.
• 2.112 before he was turned to stone.
• 2.113 Then the stone door swung back
• 3.001 full of the noise of stones and foam.
• 3.009 The only path was marked with white stones,
• 3.010 as he looked for the stones,
• 3.010 and stones.
• 3.026 There was only a narrow bridge of stone without a parapet,
• 3.044 “Stand by the grey stone
• 4.002 and the crack of stone.
• 4.018 keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the stone,
• 4.025 There in the shadows on a large flat stone
• 4.032 and they are as dead as stones.
• 5.001 and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor.
• 5.055 Grinds hard stones to meal;
• 5.070 a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on,
• 5.127 nose almost to the stone.
• 5.128 hard stone,
• 5.133 on nasty jagged stones
• 5.135 a stone door,
• 6.040 of a wide steep slope of fallen stones,
• 6.040 soon larger bits of split stone went clattering down
• 6.040 and stones.
• 6.041 as the largest of the disturbed stones went bounding
• 6.043 but they won’t find it difficult to send stones
• 6.091 The eagle only sharpened his beak on a stone
• 7.005 almost a hill of stone,
• 7.010 on the top of the hill of stone
• 7.010 across which a ford of huge flat stones led
• 7.069 and bowed so low that their beards swept the stone floor.
• 8.092 there were many stones lying
• 8.092 Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone,
• 8.092 As a boy he used to practise throwing stones at things,
• 8.092 While he was picking up stones,
• 8.092 The stone struck the spider plunk on the head,
• 8.093 The next stone went whizzing through a big web,
• 8.093 from which the stones were coming.
• 8.094 he threw some more stones at these,
• 8.098 As he sang he threw some more stones
• 8.098 Quite apart from the stones
• 8.115 and all of them could get at stones;
• 8.118 and the throwing of stones;
• 8.119 and sending a shower of stones
• 8.130 and as the lights went out he fell like a stone enchanted.
• 8.132 Before his huge doors of stone
• 9.005 In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone
• 9.027 but glad as he was to get out of his wearisome little stone room,
• 10.035 The King of carven stone,
• 11.014 creeping behind a great stone that stood alone like a pillar,
• 11.019 in the crannies of stone.
• 11.019 But when they struck the stone
• 11.023 A large grey stone lay
• 11.028 in the grassy bay gazing at the stone,
• 11.030 There on the grey stone
• 11.030 and was knocking it on the stone.
• 11.032 the hobbit standing by the grey stone,
• 12.019 and blocked from closing with a stone,
• 12.032 not if a thousand years turned him to smouldering stone,
• 12.082 he picked up a stone
• 12.100 and getting up he kicked away the stone that wedged the door.
• 12.101 and stones fell from the roof on their heads.
• 12.101 the thrush’s stone,
• 12.101 and an avalanche of splintered stones fell
• 13.035 in a belt crusted with scarlet stones.
• 13.049 their feet slithered on stones rubbed smooth
• 13.058 and he rattled the precious stones
• 13.064 so on they trudged among the stones
• 13.064 and most of its stones were now only boulders
• 14.023 and split stone,
• 14.031 if they prefer the cold stones under the shadow of the Mountain
• 14.043 but was stretched cold as stone,
• 14.043 or recover the precious stones
• 15.004 and perched on a stone near by.
• 15.028 with a wall of squared stones laid dry,
• 15.031 and the Gate blocked with a wall of new-hewn stone.
• 16.002 That stone of all the treasure I name unto myself,
• 16.003 if the stone was found –
• 16.011 and stone passages.
• 16.017 when he missed his footing on a round stone
• 16.037 handed the marvellous stone to Bard,
• 17.010 That stone was my father’s,
• 17.023 Until then we keep the stone,’
• 17.029 that is to be set against the stone.
• 17.066 a stone hurtling from above smote heavily on his helm,
• 18.001 He was lying on the flat stones of Ravenhill,
• 18.001 and as chilled as stone,
• 18.007 What voice is it that speaks among the stones?’
• 18.020 and you made a great mess of that business with the stone;
• 19.016 And your snores would waken a stone dragon –
• 19.030 and over stone,
• 19.032 And horror in the halls of stone

Such a common word used so little! It’s a word from Germanic sources, but before that seems to be the conjecture of many Masters’ theses — Greek? Sanskrit? Please notice that in chapter 15, JRRT uses hard in its adverbial manner! I get excited about things like that.

• 1.047 but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door.
• 3.031 and they found it hard to leave.
• 4.002 It was a hard path
• 4.051 bumped his head on hard rock,
• 5.010 when he listened hard,
• 5.041 until he could think of a really hard one.
• 5.054 Then he thought the time had come to ask something hard
• 5.055 Grinds hard stones to meal;
• 5.119 but it was hard to believe
• 5.128 hard stone,
• 6.100 He slept curled up on the hard rock
• 8.089 and nipped hard at the nose that stuck out.
• 8.089 and hard.
• 9.023 I shall be hard at work tonight
• 9.061 by a little jutting cape of hard rock.
• 12.074 and hard gems.
• 13.055 A hard climb,
• 14.039 and he had a hard task to govern the people
• 15.026 So now they began to labour hard
• 17.036 but they will soon be hard put to it.
• 17.044 hard on the heels of Dain.
• 18.011 and a hard skull.

Even fewer references, of course. We’re in a time when making steel is artisanry: literal ages before it could be manufactured.

• 5.055 Gnaws iron, bites steel;
• 11.019 and the steel heads broke or bent like lead.
• 12.096 and strength of triple steel.
• 13.037 strengthened beneath with hoops of steel,
• 17.031 in a hauberk of steel mail
• 17.054 goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel.