Once again, Tolkien made a compound word where English has none. Of the three types of flowering plans called “rock rose” in the OED, two are obsolete and rare.
“rock rose, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“Wrought” is the archaic past participle of the very common word “work”, but I simply couldn’t bear to throw it away.
While the past participle “laden” is not archaic, the present form is!
“lade, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
The old plural of “cow”. Some Middle English and earlier plurals were formed with and “n” ending (housen = houses, eyen = eyes, oxen). This word appears in an elven poem, so it gets a double boost in register!
“kine, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“Bode” is archaic, but “forebode” is not. I am fascinated. Based on “bode” and since foreboding is certainly uncanny, I have given it a high tag.
“bode, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“forebode, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Uncanny – in meaning 4 “not to be trusted as being associated with supernatural arts or powers” – made perfect sense as the opposite of canny – “wise and safe and to be trusted.” Gandalf is both uncanny and canny in these senses, as he is wise and eminently trustable and good. This word is a Scottish regionalism and here I am eating another slice of humble pie, as the word is used not for low effect but by painting the picture with mystery and magic, to heighten the passages.
“unˈcanny, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
I am learning humility.
The word “delve” is labelled by the OED as northern and Scottish – and right up against Wales, one source says it is specifically to dig two spades deep. Clearly that’s a regional, parochial word, one which I should by my own arbitrary rule tag as “low”. It’s also in the middle of a rather high-register poem in a position rhyming with “elves”, which by any first approximation should make it be tagged “high”. I have tagged it both.
“delve, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since I saw “accursed” used as an example a few words ago. It could be “a-” prefix 1, the unemphasized form of “on-“, implying motion onward and therefore adding intensity – Old English “oncursie”. It could be an occurrence of “a-” prefix 3, the unemphasized form of a completely different preposition spelled “on-” which formed verbs, adverbs, and prepositions with the meaning “onto”. Or… in classical Latin, the “ad-” prefix before C or QU changed to “ac-” for mouth-ease reasons, as in accumulare. The doubling of the C was applied to a number of words beginning with the sound regardless of the word’s origin.
We do have “bless” in a previous entry, so I’m pleased to see a form of “curse” here as well. I wonder about the two different ways we saw “bless” used. Does Thorin describe Mirkwood as “accursed” because he needs a good cuss-word with which to show his contempt of the place? Or does he shudder and mop his brow and shift his eyes and feel the cold influence of the Necromancer?
“a-, prefix1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“a-, prefix3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“ac-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“accurse, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“accursed, adj. and n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
Bilbo’s riddles with Gollum sharpened his wit for riddling with Smaug. The Chapter 8 references to riddling are about recounting the story of “Riddles in the Dark”. Tom Shippey classifies riddles as one type of truth found in Old English poetry, “the basic rule of which is that all statements in them must be true, but also misleading”. I suggest you begin with his essay when you launch your own study of riddles and the many papers which have been published on the influence of Old English poetry on Tolkien’s work.
Shippey, T. A. “Approaches to Truth in Old English Poetry”. University of Leeds Review 25. 1982. PDF of reprint.
While an omen can be for good or ill, only ill-omened things are ominous. I am declaring that only high and adventurous things are important enough to be ominous.
“omen, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.
“ominous, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.
words that you were saying 