Knock

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Old, old delicious word. Probably echoic, and if you’re old enough you’re allowed to pronounce the K.

• 1.047 a loud knock.
• 1.048 knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.
• 1.088 knocking over the poker
• 1.092 knocking over the table.
• 1.094 and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head
• 2.077 Who has been knocking my people about?”
• 3.044 when the thrush knocks,” read Elrond,
• 4.020 Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
• 4.048 knocking over those that were running after them.
• 5.145 was knocked over by a goblin who could not make out what he had bumped into,
• 9.050 knocking into one another,
• 10.012 Knocking outside
• 10.013 Bifur and Bofur were less knocked about
• 11.030 and was knocking it on the stone.
• 12.020 he had caught the dim echoes of a knocking sound
• 18.011 A nasty knock on the head,
• 18.040 don’t wait to knock!

Crush

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Oh, my, look at the use of this one. Not just the “smooshing” function!

• 4.020 Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
• 4.022 and the crush, smash!
• 5.004 Still at the moment he felt very crushed.
• 5.091 Curse us and crush us,
• 5.125 and crush them!
• 7.120 The hobbit felt quite crushed,
• 18.024 and crushed him.
• 18.043 but now that the goblins were crushed,

Crash

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

This word — so similar to “clash” — extends past the middle of the book.

• 1.088 and shovel with a crash.
• 4.004 and great crashes split the air
• 4.020 Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
• 6.040 crashing down with a dust
• 6.041 and the last faint crashes could be heard
• 8.059 bumping crash into trees,
• 12.101 like the crash of battering-rams made of forest oaks
• 14.023 and crashed down from on high
• 17.055 fell outward with a crash into the pool.
• 17.066 and he fell with a crash

Clash

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

So, so many little details on this delicious word in the OED. It joined our language in the early 1500s and was deliberately invented to signify a sound which begins sharply, like a clap, but ends in multiple small sounds, like a waterfall.

• 4.004 and clash.
• 4.020 Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
• 4.033 and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth, clashed their shields,
• 5.143 armour clashed,
• 6.071 clashed the shafts against their shields.
• 9.011 as they clashed together when the last elf passed;
• 9.050 with many a clash

Lad

lfsaldenbirch , ,

The source of this word is thoroughly obscure. OED names and rejects about half a dozen suggested origins. The good news, however, is that the meaning of a “low-birth” man is obsolete, and the current use includes boys, young men, shepherds, any male being addressed endearingly, and — if they work with horses in the right stable — girls.

It’s also one of those “first half of the book” words. Hmm. Might be time to examine all the words that goblins say.

• 1.017 for so many quiet lads
• 1.123 a fine adventurous lad
• 4.019 You go, my lad!
• 4.020 Ho, ho! my lad!
• 4.021 Below, my lad!
• 4.022 and to the ugly laughter of their ho, ho! my lad!
• 8.022 my lads;

Grab

lfsaldenbirch , ,

Friends, my tiny little inkling thought has just had (probably not significant) another data point of confirmation. The word “grab” is not used after chapter seven.

I know, I know. I hear what you’re saying. “Sparrow, you laid that ‘high versus low register’ idea to rest over six years ago.” But… but… it’s such a pretty idea. Like “eyebrows“. They don’t appear after Chapter Eight

• 2.050 and grabbed Bilbo by the neck,
• 2.113 Gandalf grabbed it
• 4.016 and they were all grabbed
• 4.016 and when goblins came to grab him,
• 4.019 Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
• 4.051 was grabbed from behind
• 5.012 which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking.
• 5.018 otherwise he would have grabbed first
• 5.130 and grabbed as the hobbit flew over him,
• 6.010 if a goblin had suddenly grabbed your legs from behind
• 6.028 which killed the goblins that were grabbing him
• 7.067 and grabbed the hobbit
• 7.073 I was not grabbed.

Grip

lfsaldenbirch , ,

After a delightful wander through the OED this morning, friends, I can tell you that yes, “grip” is related to “grope” sideways like cousins through “gripe” and that they all meet up at the Proto-Germanic biennial family reunion. Goblins, hobbits, and dwarves all do it!

• 4.019 Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
• 5.062 he gripped on his little sword;
• 13.033 Each now gripped a lighted torch;

Black

lfsaldenbirch ,

A common word — and I would say vital to the imagery of this tale! Along with Blacken and Blackness and Dark, I am spotting some very cool patterns. How about you?

I acknowledge the terrible, hurtful problems with associating “blackness” with spiritual or ethical void. Let the conversation continue. And may I recommend a great book?

Oh, my sweet goodness! This word has the most beautiful entry I’ve ever seen in the OED!!!

Of the darkest colour possible, that of soot, coal, the sky on a moonless night in open country,

“black, adj. and n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2021, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/19670. Accessed 2 December 2021.

• 1.007 and immense black boots.
• 2.086 So they got a great black pot,
• 4.019 Clap! Snap! the black crack!
• 5.127 Though he was only a black shadow
• 6.045 and over the black tops of those growing lower down
• 6.066 black in the moonlight,
• 6.078 fat melts, and bones black
• 6.082 and down they came like huge black shadows.
• 6.085 a red twinkle on the black floor;
• 6.087 moonlit spikes of rock sticking out of black shadows.
• 7.022 sometimes he is a huge black bear,
• 7.027 on their deep black bodies
• 7.034 Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard
• 7.038 with his bushy black eyebrows.
• 7.093 he put Beorn’s big black chair
• 7.102 there black and dark lay boulders stark
• 7.12 till he dreamed a dream of hundreds of black bears
• 7.126 black and strong
• 7.134 or waiting for them like a black
• 7.151 won’t need me to tell you tales of that black sorcerer.
• 8.003 There were black squirrels
• 8.005 so black that you really could see nothing.
• 8.006 and black moths,
• 8.006 black as a top-hat,
• 8.008 and it was black,
• 8.021 and with a piece of stick fended off the little black boat
• 8.042 they were a dark dark velvety black
• 8.043 He looked at the ‘black emperors’
• 8.072 in black smokes.
• 8.076 and his sword-blade was stained black.
• 8.081 when he noticed a place of dense black shadow ahead of him,
• 8.081 black even for that forest,
• 8.129 as evening wore to black night;
• 11.008 and again a black
• 11.021 over the wide lands to the black wall of Mirkwood,
• 11.03 nearly coal black,
• 12.007 in a pale sky barred with black
• 12.029 and black rock-shadows danced.
• 13.008 In fact so black was it
• 13.023 when a black shape swooped at him,
• 14.002 for the breeze was from the black East
• 14.014 with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet.
• 14.022 Black arrow!
• 14.023 The black arrow sped straight from the string,
• 14.028 his black hair hung wet over his face
• 16.007 The sky was black
• 17.04 A black cloud hurried over the sky.
• 17.048 black with a hurrying multitude.
• 17.048 black and red,
• 17.05 The rocks were stained black with goblin blood.
• 17.053 They had only stemmed the first onslaught of the black tide.
• 19.036 in black

Snap

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

This sound-play word has a bursting, sudden feel to it, and I rather love that it’s in the song the goblins sang about the snapping shut of the black crack…

• 1.100 till Bilbo shut his mouth tight with a snap.
• 4.017 The crack closed with a snap,
• 4.019 Clap! Snap! the black crack!
• 4.022 The walls echoed to the clap, snap!
• 5.130 his hands snapped on thin air,
• 6.028 just as it snapped to.
• 6.058 A wolf snapped at his cloak as he swung up,
• 6.064 biting and snapping
• 8.022 looking at the snapped painter that was still dangling from it.
• 8.093 snapping its cords,
• 8.103 nippers and spinners snapping,
• 11.037 Snap!
• 12.074 he snapped.
• 12.100 and it closed with a snap
• 14.013 and snapped

Reduplicatives

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

It’s time to separate out this very lovely sound from similar ones in our text. Reduplicatives are very simply sounds which have been duplicated for sonorous effect. I call my dog “Sgiob-Sgiob” when I suddenly need two syllables to make a minor-third calling sound. We hear it a lot used with children learning to speak, as well.

The roll-roll-roll repetition here both suits the syllables to the beat of the work song and to mimic the sound of the action described thereby.

• 09.049 roll-roll-rolling down the hole!