Supper

In a search for “sup” and its forms, only “supper” is found.  The uncommon “supper-time” is found in its own entry.

  • 01.046 and whether they would all stay to supper.
  • 01.061 I suppose you will all stay to supper?’
  • 02.031 and Thorin muttered something about supper,
  • 02.035 and there was mighty little left for supper,
  • 02.037 and anything was better than little supper,
  • 02.059 who had already had a fine supper,
  • 02.063 if only you won’t have me for supper.”
  • 02.064 He had already had as much supper as he could hold;
  • 03.024 Supper is preparing over there,” he said.
  • 03.026 But the dwarves were all for supper
  • 06.038 or we shall be made into supper,
  • 06.092 and to begin to think of being torn up for supper like a rabbit,
  • 07.090 but you deserve a supper for the story all the same.
  • 07.094 There they had a supper,
  • 07.113 and the dwarves were having supper,
  • 07.115 and none till after supper!
  • 09.062 He no longer thought twice about picking up a supper uninvited
  • 16.012 and for a soft bed after a good supper!

Table

Tables – full of good things to eat and a venue for fellowship… until chapter 13, when tables turn into rotten things and are never mentioned again.

  • 01.029 They had not been at table long,
  • 01.037 and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends
  • 01.043 while the four dwarves sat round the table,
  • 01.059 and a couple of small tables
  • 01.068 or under the table,
  • 01.092 knocking over the table.
  • 01.101 On the table
  • 05.054 Fish on a little table,
  • 05.054 man at table sitting on a stool,
  • 07.093 under the table)
  • 07.093 and he probably had them low like the tables
  • 07.093 so soon they were all seated at Beorn’s table,
  • 07.094 and on the table were two tall red beeswax candles.
  • 07.096 They sat long at the table
  • 09.011 from store or table
  • 09.024 and see if it is fit for the king’s table.
  • 09.025 and sat down at a table on which two large flagons were set.
  • 09.026 then he laid it on the table
  • 09.026 but soon his head too nodded to the table,
  • 09.040 I haven’t seen him at the tables tonight.
  • 10.028 looking at long tables filled with folk.
  • 10.030 Pressing forward before the Master’s table they cried:
  • 10.036 Even Bilbo was given a seat at the high table,
  • 13.046 Tables were rotting there;

Cup

Cups may be necessary for tea, but in this tale it’s the golden cup of Thror that deserves the most attention!

  • 01.025 and put out another cup
  • 01.122 and cups,
  • 12.016 He grasped a great two-handled cup,
  • 12.017 but still he clutched the cup,
  • 12.019 The dwarves were still passing the cup
  • 12.020 Then he missed the cup!
  • 12.034 for bringing away a cup
  • 12.063 for that cup last night?’
  • 12.096 the great golden cup of Thror,

Drink

Drinking-bowl and Drinking-horn have their own entries, here is just “Drink”, a delightfully strong verb.

  • 01.022 and a drink of something
  • 01.043 and have a drink.’
  • 01.051 and drink!
  • 01.092 on the drawing-room sofa with a drink at his elbow,
  • 01.095 and a drink he crept nervously to the door of the parlour.
  • 02.043 Also there was a barrel of good drink at hand,
  • 02.043 and they were drinking out of jugs.
  • 02.045 and the drink runnin’ short,
  • 02.049 William was having another drink.
  • 05.046 Never thirsty, ever drinking,
  • 05.144 which held drink for the goblin-guards,
  • 06.039 and he drank from a small mountain-stream that crossed the path,
  • 07.116 and drunk at least a quart of mead –
  • 07.126 will be wholesome to eat or to drink.
  • 07.126 That you should neither drink of,
  • 08.008 or they would have drunk from it,
  • 08.036 there was practically nothing left to eat or to drink.
  • 08.048 and drink.’
  • 08.058 and drinking
  • 08.140 and drink,
  • 08.144 and drink,
  • 09.010 and drink,
  • 09.023 so let us have a drink first to help the labour.’
  • 09.025 Soon they began to drink
  • 09.044 while you fellows drink
  • 09.046 Then they drank once round
  • 10.018 were drinking
  • 10.039 They drank his health,
  • 13.039 for a drink of something cheering
  • 13.062 There may be drink,
  • 16.012 of a strong drink
  • 18.048 I have drunk much of your wine
  • 19.015 Your lullaby would waken a drunken goblin

Cake

Twelve cakes in Chapter 1, two cakes in the rest of the story, none at all after Beorn’s home.  I’ve included the only hyphenated form, seed-cake, here as well as in its own entry as an uncommon word.  It’s milk that makes a dough cakey in my experience.

  • 01.022 but he thought a cake or two
  • 01.023 just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake
  • 01.025 and an extra cake or two,
  • 01.029 in fact they had hardly reached the third cake,
  • 01.033 He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short,
  • 01.035 But I don’t mind some cake –
  • 01.035 seed-cake, if you have any.’
  • 01.036 to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes
  • 01.037 and the cake
  • 01.046 and all of them for cakes;
  • 01.047 the seed-cakes were gone,
  • 01.056 And more cakes –
  • 03.028 “Mind Bilbo doesn’t eat all the cakes!”
  • 07.126 and twice-baked cakes that would keep good a long time,

Tea

In case you are researching all forms of tea in The Hobbit, I’ve included tea-time here as well as in its own, uncommon, entry.  There is no instance of tea-pot or tea-kettle joined thus into single words by hyphen.

  • 01.021 But please come to tea –
  • 01.022 What on earth did I ask him to tea for!’
  • 01.024 Gandalf Tea Wednesday.
  • 01.025 Just before tea-time
  • 01.028 he added: ‘I am just about to take tea;
  • 01.034 and have some tea!’
  • 01.051 Tea!
  • 01.098 here this Wednesday tea-time.’
  • 02.029 It was after tea-time;
  • 03.010 Tea-time had long gone by,
  • 07.001 nor tea nor toast nor bacon for his breakfast,
  • 18.040 Tea is at four;

Tobacco

The herb is “tobacco” (through Spanish probably originally from Carib) – in The Hobbit and “pipe-weed” (spelled as one word without hyphen and formed in English out of English parts) in later works.  In his Letters, Tolkien refers to the tobacco essay in his Appendices.  I know that our fellow scholars have addressed the substitution of the latter word for the former.  I’m counting on you, Word Fans, to point out articles on these words in our Comments section.  Tolkien mentions tobacco and pipe-weed in the same sentence in a 1958 letter to Rayner Unwin.

In this home of ‘smoking’, pipe-weed seems specially to have caught on. There were clay pipes on the table and large jars of tobacco –

We have elsewhere the uncommon word “tobacco-jar“.  Now, may I present “tobacco”?

  • 01.010 And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors,
  • 02.027 and tobacco.
  • 05.004 and there was some tobacco
  • 05.004 and the smell of tobacco

“pipeweed, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2016. Web. 10 March 2016.

“tobacco, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2016. Web. 10 March 2016.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (2014-02-21). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Kindle Locations 5661-5662). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Pipe

“Pipe” gets the “food” tag just as rooms and food storage containers do.  We must note, however, that the use in 14.040 refers to the sound of birds, not to a tool for smoking tobacco.  Word Fans, I’m counting on you to double-check me when it comes time to graph all the food words, that I do not count that instance of “pipe”, and I’m sure many other words to come which have double meanings.  “Clay-pipe” has already been addressed as an uncommon word.

  • 01.006 smoking an enormous long wooden pipe
  • 01.010 And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors,
  • 01.010 If you have a pipe about you,
  • 01.068 and found Thorin with his feet on the fender smoking a pipe.
  • 02.027 and Bilbo’s pipe
  • 04.013 got out their pipes
  • 05.004 After some time he felt for his pipe.
  • 07.116 and he took out his pipe.
  • 14.040 and piping.

Breakfast

Tolkien does not separate the elements of this word, does not say that Bilbo “broke his fast”, or any variation thereof.  In fact I can’t find any instance of “fast” as “to abstain from food”, nor any clear case of “breakfast” as a verb (possibly in 07.122).  We do have that very important hour, “breakfast-time“, which has its own word and which poor English can only render with a hyphen.   I wonder if there’s also a special word for second-breakfast-time.  I note that there are rather more mentions of breakfast than of dinner.

  • 01.006 and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast
  • 01.022 He had only just had breakfast,
  • 01.096 and breakfast to be thought fierce.
  • 01.140 I will give you a good breakfast before you go.’
  • 01.141 and breakfast.
  • 01.142 After all the others had ordered their breakfasts
  • 01.142 and cook everybody else’s wretched breakfast.
  • 02.001 and hurried breakfast.
  • 02.002 Then he had a nice little breakfast
  • 02.002 to a nice little second breakfast
  • 02.003 and here you are having breakfast,
  • 02.019 leaving his second breakfast half-finished
  • 02.035 and less for breakfast.
  • 02.037 less breakfast,
  • 02.063 a perfectly beautiful breakfast for you,
  • 02.116 By that time they felt like breakfast,
  • 07.001 nor tea nor toast nor bacon for his breakfast,
  • 07.004 and late breakfast on the lawn afterwards;’
  • 07.109 or there will be no breakfast left for you.’
  • 07.110 Breakfast!’
  • 07.110 Where is breakfast?’
  • 07.111 though we found breakfast laid as soon as we went out.’
  • 07.115 I haven’t had a bite since breakfast.’
  • 07.122 So they all went to breakfast with him.
  • 07.146 He had gone just inside the forest after breakfast
  • 08.074 with no hope of any breakfast to revive him.
  • 13.052 if there is any breakfast to have.
  • 13.056 and more climbing without breakfast!
  • 13.056 I wonder how many breakfasts,
  • 13.059 I would give a good breakfast to know.
  • 13.064 and had such a breakfast as they could,

 

“fast, v.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2016. Web. 10 March 2016.

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