Author: lfsaldenbirch

Hobbit Sayings: appetizer

lfsaldenbirch ,

Richard Blackwelder collected some of his favorite wise sayings in “Tolkien Phraseology”, a booklet companion to his thesaurus.  In honor of his method, I will share a few tidbits I found as I meandered this path.

[05.008] Hobbits are not quite like ordinary people; … they have a fund of wisdom and wise sayings that men have mostly never heard or have forgotten long ago.

Blackwelder, Richard E. Tolkien Phraseology: A Companion to A Tolkien Thesaurus Tolkien Archives Fund, Marquette University, 1990. Print.

Gl- Words

lfsaldenbirch ,

Well, gosh.  I observed but not out loud that “gl-” does have a lot to do with visual imagery – glimpse, glimmer, glitter.

This week among other things I am upgrading several concordance entries from “brief” (tagged just so) to having some kind of commentary.  I ran up against “gloat”, looked it up a bit pro forma, and lo and behold, “gloat” does not mean what I thought it meant.  It is a visual imagery word.

Today I am doing a mini-lesson on the “gl-” words!  In a couple of hours, you should be able to follow this “gl-” tag to see what we can see!  Please note that I explored these words this morning in reverse alphabetical order, so to follow my stream of thought you should begin with “glum” and work your way to “glade” in the tag list.  “Glimpse”, “glimmer”, and “gleam” I had done way back in May, not thinking of this little exploration.

On the Origin of Dwarven Names

lfsaldenbirch

Douglas Anderson notes in his annotation to The Hobbit that the dwarf names come (directly or by rhyming with something direct) from the Old Norse poem “Voluspá”, part of the Poetic Edda.  Anderson includes the relevant passage from the poem and short discussion.

My own theory on why Tolkien chose these names is quite simple:  when one is telling the children an exciting story, one uses the first names to spring into mind, like Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen.  So much the better if they rhyme.  Ask my kids sometime about the adventures of Mrs. Oliphaunt, a royal elephant in India, and her friends Niobe, Marissa, and Louise.  Backward alphabet to the rescue.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit.  Revised and expanded edition annotated by Douglas A. Anderson. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. Print.

A Much-Anticipated Party!

lfsaldenbirch

The pleasure of your company is requested

Monday, August Third

19:30 to 20:30 Eastern Daylight Savings Time

For a live presentation of

An Adventure Through the Words of The Hobbit!

In the comfort of your own home

via the magic of NetMoot.

The favour of registration is requested:

The event will be recorded for the convenience of those friends and relations who cannot join us in the moment.

This Week’s Adventure

lfsaldenbirch

I’m preparing the public presentation of the concordance and my findings this week.  The second pass through the text has been completed and next week is for making some beautiful slides.  Let me know if you have a favorite graph you’d like to see featured!

Right on time – I have to go back to regular work on Tuesday!

Proofreading Run and Behind-the-Scenes

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I’ve completed another proofreading run.  My, things do get boring that last week of June, but I call that a very fair price to pay for a complete Concordance to share.

Meanwhile, I’m preparing a public presentation of the tools I developed and my experiences with Lexos.  It will be a slide show, possibly with peregrinations through the Concordance.  The event should be held in the first week of August, and I’ll be sure to publish the registration link here and in social media.  If you are unable to join me live, a recording of the presentation will be made available within a day or two of the event.

More Hyphen Thoughts

lfsaldenbirch ,

I had the great pleasure of talking with Tech Support about the graph I shared on July 10th:

Hyphenated Graph

Tech Support made a few interpretations –

  • Clearly Bilbo’s native language of Westron is perfectly suited to hobbit life and has many specific words relevant to the Shire and the hosting of tea-parties that English simply can’t translate and hyphenated words must do to cover the inadequacy.
  • British English is plenty concerned with hunger and sogginess and dimness, so the Mirkwood scene was directly translatable into common English words.
  • He hazards a guess that Westron is agglutinative, that it is a more parochial and conservative language than a language that has reached the “modern” stage.

Shout-out to Mark Rosenfelder whose Language Construction Kit moved Tech Support from actively resisting the conventions of grammar (as nine-year-olds are wont to do) to giving Mama grammar lessons so she can do her thesis work.