low

Pony

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Ponies are mentioned 73 times in our book.  Thorin & Co. lost their original ponies in the goblin cave, had the loan of ponies for some of Chapter 7 from Beorn, they received ponies in Laketown only to have most of them eaten by Smaug.  Finally, Bilbo has a pony on which to ride home and which will carry his treasure.  Being by definition only of a certain height or less, I shall declare them “low”.

Richard Blackwelder wrote an essay on the horses of The Lord of the Rings, including a mini chapter on the ponies of The Hobbit.

“Pony” has the food tag because both goblins and Smaug like to eat them!

  • 02.022 They were on ponies,
  • 02.022 and each pony was slung about
  • 02.022 There was a very small pony,
  • 02.026 on laden ponies;
  • 02.029 the pony was tired
  • 02.035 Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing
  • 02.039 leading their ponies
  • 02.047 or even pony,
  • 02.117 Then they brought up their ponies,
  • 03.001 leading their ponies,
  • 03.008 but a pony that walked there
  • 03.010 Bilbo’s pony began to stumble over roots
  • 03.012 or bumped his nose on the pony’s neck.
  • 03.014 Your ponies need shoeing!
  • 03.017 Your ponies are straying!
  • 03.019 “Just look! Bilbo the hobbit on a pony,
  • 03.026 leading their ponies,
  • 03.026 as narrow as a pony could well walk on;
  • 03.026 each leading his pony by the bridle.
  • 03.034 the ponies as well,
  • 04.005 and their ponies were standing with their heads down
  • 04.009 and ponies
  • 04.012 and their ponies along.
  • 04.012 There was just room to get the ponies through with a squeeze,
  • 04.013 At one end there was room for the ponies;
  • 04.013 and that was the last time that they used the ponies,
  • 04.015 in time to see the last of the ponies’ tails disappearing into it.
  • 04.023 The ponies were already there huddled
  • 04.024 of those excellent little ponies,
  • 04.024 and ponies
  • 04.042 No ponies,
  • 06.001 cloak, food, pony, his buttons
  • 06.036 and ask the goblins nicely to let you have your pony back
  • 07.012 and no ponies to ride;
  • 07.067 and our troop of ponies –
  • 07.068 Troop of ponies?
  • 07.069 there were more than six ponies,
  • 07.092 in trotted four beautiful white ponies
  • 07.093 The other ponies came
  • 07.093 Beside them a pony pushed two low-seated benches
  • 07.126 He would provide ponies for each of them,
  • 07.127 and my ponies.
  • 07.130 if they had still had their ponies,
  • 07.131 and Wargs run swifter than ponies.
  • 07.135 Now you must send back these excellent ponies
  • 07.136 but to keep an eye on the ponies too.
  • 07.143 and unpack the ponies.
  • 07.145 Then at last they said good-bye to their ponies
  • 09.060 a round-bellied pony that was always thinking of rolling on the grass.
  • 10.045 and ponies had been sent round by circuitous paths
  • 11.001 and the ponies for their own use that had been sent to meet them.
  • 11.001 They packed what they could on the ponies
  • 11.003 each leading another pony heavily laden beside him;
  • 11.013 and there was some grass for their ponies.
  • 11.016 to guard the ponies
  • 11.028 some were exercising the ponies down below,
  • 12.025 and all our ponies too,
  • 12.029 The ponies screamed with terror,
  • 12.032 He guessed from the ponies,
  • 12.032 from the valley where the ponies had been standing;
  • 12.033 Their ponies were lost or killed,
  • 12.060 Let me tell you I ate six ponies last night
  • 12.060 Maybe Barrel was your pony’s name;
  • 12.062 that I can eat a dwarf-ridden pony
  • 12.078 Ponies take some catching,
  • 12.087 and the ponies.
  • 15.027 they heard that three of their ponies had escaped
  • 15.027 to find the ponies
  • 15.028 The ponies they had brought
  • 18.037 such as one strong pony could carry.
  • 19.001 their ponies were tired,
  • 19.024 where the pony had fallen
  • 19.027 and slung them on the ponies,

Blackwelder, Richard E. The Horses of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Personal correspondence.  July 8, 1980.  Photocopy.

Yammer

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

It turns out that goblins and wolves yammer, as do dwarves in their presence.  Yammer, yelling or shouting, has an earlier obsolete meaning in the Oxford English Dictionary – specifically to make that noise in mourning and lamentation.  Yammering in The Hobbit occurs only in the context of goblins and wolves.

  • 04.021 Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
  • 04.022 and more than one of the dwarves were already yammering
  • 04.036 The yells and yammering,
  • 06.065 and yammering
  • 06.082 The wolves yammered

“yammer, v.”.  OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Attercop!

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

This good Old and Middle English word was used from the mid 1930s onward, which is a bit like being handed one’s own silver platter for collateral.  But!  We learn from Google’s Ngram viewer that it was also used from the mid 1800s right up to before publication of The Hobbit.  Most of those references seem to be dictionaries – philological attempts to gather rustic spoken words as the Grimms did, but also in the occasional written work.  The word survives as a fragment “cob” in “cobweb”

  • 08.096 Attercop! Attercop!
  • 08.097 Attercop! Attercop!
  • 08.098 no spider has ever liked being called Attercop,
  • 08.119 and ‘Attercop’ from among the trees away on the right.
  • 08.119 ‘Attercop’ made them so angry

Update 2015.06.08: since no spider has ever liked being called it, I am considering it an insult and tagging it “low”.

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

Troll dialect

lfsaldenbirch ,

The trolls have quite a few words which slipped through the “Ten Thousand” filter, but which turn out only to be dialect or accent variations on common words.  I present them for your curiosity as a table for ease of reading

anyways anyway 02.056 anyways?” said William.
a-arguing argue 02.084 “Who’s a-arguing?” said William,
ain’t be 02.087 We ain’t got no water,
afore before 02.067 “as I’ve said afore this evening.”
blimey blind 02.051 “Blimey, Bert,
d’yer’ do you 02.046 How much more d’yer want?
d’yer’ do you 02.062 How much more d’yer want?
gettin’ get 02.105 “The night’s gettin’ on,
ell hell 02.045 “What the ‘ell William was a-thinkin’ of
ere here 02.050 “‘Ere,
liar lie 02.086 “You’re a liar,” said William;
lumme love 02.053 “Lumme, if I knows!
nassty nasty 02.060 yer nassty little rabbit,” said he looking at the hobbit’s furry feet;
praps perhaps 02.060 “P’raps there are more like him round about,
runnin’ run 02.045 and the drink runnin’ short,
a-sneakin’ sneak 02.060 are there any more of your sort a-sneakin’
a-talkin’ talk 02.104 “Who are you a-talkin’ to?”
a-thinkin’ think 02.045 “What the ‘ell William was a-thinkin’ of
tomorrer tomorrow 02.044 if it don’t look like mutton again tomorrer,”
oo who 02.050 oo are you?” it squeaked,
yer you 02.046 “Shut yer mouth!”
yer you 02.046 “Yer can’t expect folk to stop here for ever
yer you 02.046 and a half between yer,
yer you 02.046 when yer’d have said ‘thank yer Bill’
yer you 02.053 What are yer?”
yer you 02.103 so shut yer mouth!” said Bert.
yer you 02.057 “And can yer cook ’em?” said Tom.
yer you 02.058 “Yer can try,” said Bert,
yer you 02.060 yer nassty little rabbit,” said he looking at the hobbit’s furry feet;
yer you 02.088 and yer can fetch the water yerself,
yer you 02.088 if yer say any more.”
yer you 02.100 “Then what did yer say
yer’d you 02.046 when yer’d have said ‘thank yer Bill’
yerself you 02.095 “Don’t talk to yerself!” said Tom.
yerself you 02.088 and yer can fetch the water yerself,
yerself you 02.089 “Shut up yerself!” said Tom,
yerself you 02.091 “Booby yerself!” said Tom.

Lout

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Lout is another Troll-only word.  Its meaning of clown or bumpkin seems to come from a Middle English verb louten, to bow down, and is related to “lurk” and “little”.

  • 02.068 “And you’re a lout!”

“lout, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Booby

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Booby, which comes not only from the gannet family of ungainly seabirds but from a Latin root meaning “to stammer” (and therefore presumed dull-witted), is used only by our trolls.

  • 02.090 “You’re a booby,” said William.
  • 02.091 “Booby yerself!” said Tom.

Harper, Douglas. “Booby”.  Online Etymology Dictionary.  Web.

Blight

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Only the Trolls use the word “blight”.  Both times, William refers to Bilbo as “blighter”, a chiefly British derogatory term for “fellow” from the negative connotation of a disease.

02.064 “Poor little blighter,” said William.
02.064 “Poor little blighter!

Harper, Douglas. “Blight”.  Online Etymology Dictionary. Web.

Blink

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Blink, to shine briefly or to briefly close one’s eyes (as though something just shone in them) occurs a handful of times in the work.  It may come through Old English blican.  Yet there is a different meaning.  The Online Etymology Dictionary explains that Tom the Troll’s use of “blinking” in Chapter 2 “as a euphemism for a stronger word” is attested by 1914.

  • 01.044 he said, blinking.
  • 02.045 “Never a blinking bit of manflesh
  • 04.044 The blink of red torches could be seen
  • 05.087 and made his eyes blink
  • 05.136 Bilbo blinked,
  • 06.067 that could look at the sun unblinking,
  • 08.042 and blink.
  • 10.028 and stood blinking

Harper, Douglas. “Blinking”.  Online Etymology Dictionary. Web.

Bless

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Bless is a complicated word indeed – Bilbo, Thorin, Gollum, Balin, the narrator himself, and even Gandalf and Smaug use it as an interjection, blessing themselves in a folksy manner.  Gandalf is being disingenuous with Beorn in 07.081 and putting off the dwarves in a teasing manner in 07.116.  “Bless me” (or in Gollum’s case, “us”) sounds like a verbal habit of a slightly superstitious, perhaps parochial dialect.

But whence the superstition?  What is blessing?  In the more solemn sense of spiritual gift, the word is used three times.  In chapter 12, Bilbo wordlessly blesses the luck of his ring and Balin lifts up the importance of knowing about Smaug’s bare patch.  In chapter 18, Thranduil names Bilbo “elf-friend and blessed.”  Although Tolkien had not planned Bilbo’s future trajectory as he wrote that, we certainly see this blessing play out in Bilbo’s story going forward.

What do we make of it?  Two uses of bless.  Do we chart them differently?  I propose that when characters bless themselves, we think of it as a parochial saying and when characters bless others that it is a word of high register.  Well, bless us and splash us.

  • 01.017 Bless me,  (Bilbo)
  • 01.120 Bless me!’ said Thorin,
  • 05.015 Bless us (Gollum)
  • 06.014 Bless me, (narrator)
  • 07.081 And, bless me! (Gandalf)
  • 07.116 but bless me! (Gandalf)
  • 08.127 Gollum! Well I’m blest! (Balin)
  • 12.044 and blessed the luck of his ring.  (Bilbo avoiding Smaug)
  • 12.067 Bless me! (Smaug)
  • 12.089 and a blessing yet to know of the bare patch (Balin)
  • 18.008 Well I’m blessed!’ (Bilbo)
  • 18.049 And I name you elf-friend and blessed.  (Thranduil)
  • 19.035 Bless me! (Bilbo)