Loaf

“Loaf” presents us with a little mystery.  Thorin says that the Lake-men will not get “even a loaf’s worth” of treasure.  Does he mean “the value of a ‘prized-loaf’ (obsolete, an official assized bread-price)” or “a pile of coins the weight of an ‘assize-loaf’ (obsolete, an official assized weight of bread)?

  • 06.100 though really he would have liked a loaf
  • 07.116 he had eaten two whole loaves
  • 09.063 carrying a loaf
  • 15.050 not even a loaf’s worth,

“loaf, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 13 May 2015.

Update 2016.05.18: It is not impossible that I, Dear Readers, when searching through my word-hoard for this word lit on a sufficient substitute: “skein”.

Larder

“Larder” does come from “lard” and shows its origins as the room where bacon was stored.

  • 01.058 about the inside of my larders
  • 02.116 at what they had got from the trolls’ larder.
  • 09.062 of a well-filled larder.

“larder, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 13 May 2015.

Kettle

I find it poignant and comforting that the kettle, silent since Beorn’s house, returns in Chapter 19, the healing chapter.

  • 01.025 and put on the kettle,
  • 02.029 with the kettle just beginning to sing!”
  • 03.004 and of the kettle singing.
  • 05.042 The answer’s not a kettle boiling over,
  • 07.001 and put his kettle on –
  • 19.039 and the sound of the kettle on his hearth

Jug

And another food storage vessel!  Gandalf’s contained mead in Chapter 7.  There are no such good and comforting things as jugs and their contents after Chapter 9.

  • 01.047 A big jug of coffee had just been set
  • 02.043 and they were drinking out of jugs.
  • 02.045 who was taking a pull at his jug.
  • 02.075 and the spilled jugs,
  • 07.116 and jug –
  • 09.042 Here’s the old villain with his head on a jug!
  • 09.045 in a jug!

Honey

Everyone knows what honey is, but there is none mentioned in Bilbo’s larder, the feasts of Rivendell, or the food of the lake-men.  Only Beorn the bear-changer keeps bees and in his house honey figures largely.

  • 07.023 and honey.
  • 07.116 and honey
  • 07.121 and honey,’
  • 07.126 and red earthenware pots of honey,
  • 07.126 but honey was