Here’s your own Paragraph Comparisons 37 – 51 as both a graphic and a text table in PDF form. I will link a copy on the About page as well. You will need the paragraph index from the About page to follow the text rather than just get the gist of the comparison.
results
Dwarf
Do I list all 300-plus instances of “dwarf”? My mind has changed – and hoping that this becomes a useful reference, I will. I’ll go back and fix previous entries wherein I did not list every instance. This word occurs as “dwarf”, “dwarf’s”, “dwarves”, “dwarves'”, and “dwarvish”. I had the pleasure of running a little Lexos graph of the distribution of this word:
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The peak passes 7 instances of “dwarf” per thousand words near the end of Chapter 8, and bottoms out at 0 in Chapter 5.
- 01.004 and smaller than the bearded Dwarves.
- 01.026 It was a dwarf
- 01.028 if an uninvited dwarf came
- 01.031 Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf
- 01.038 It was two more dwarves,
- 01.039 my dwarves?’ he said.
- 01.043 while the four dwarves sat round the table,
- 01.046 Another dwarf had come along
- 01.047 and the dwarves were starting
- 01.048 More dwarves,
- 01.050 Thorin indeed was very haughty,
- 01.056 called the other dwarves through the door.
- 01.059 Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’
- 01.060 with the thirteen dwarves all round:
- 01.060 The dwarves ate
- 01.063 Thereupon the twelve dwarves –
- 01.063 But the dwarves only started to sing:
- 01.072 deep-throated singing of the dwarves
- 01.074 The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
- 01.081 The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
- 01.083 the desire of the hearts of dwarves.
- 01.083 He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining
- 01.083 until all the dwarves had gone away.
- 01.087 We like the dark,’ said all the dwarves.
- 01.090 Gandalf, dwarves and Mr. Baggins!
- 01.091 and perhaps to one or two of the younger dwarves
- 01.092 He was an important dwarf.
- 01.092 All the dwarves sprang up,
- 01.100 that the dwarf huddled back
- 01.102 in answer to the dwarves’ excited questions.
- 01.109 certainly not after devouring so many of the dwarves
- 01.111 That is the usual dwarves’ method –
- 01.123 and dwarves,
- 01.123 with the dwarves flying south or getting killed,
- 01.123 Some of the dwarves who happened to be outside
- 01.123 The dwarves rushed out of their great gate;
- 01.123 After that there were no dwarves left alive inside,
- 01.133 and all the dwarves shivered.
- 01.136 of all the dwarves put together,
- 02.026 he couldn’t be mistaken for a dwarf,
- 02.028 and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business.
- 02.030 Still the dwarves jogged on,
- 02.034 Dwarves can make a fire almost anywhere out of almost anything,
- 02.042 at what he called “all this dwarvish racket,”
- 02.047 quite likely to try roasted dwarf,
- 02.072 The dwarves had heard noises from a distance,
- 02.072 Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves
- 02.073 but lots of these here dwarves.
- 02.075 As each dwarf came up
- 02.076 as dwarves will when cornered.
- 02.081 The trolls had just decided to roast the dwarves now
- 02.108 and let out the dwarves.
- 03.018 Dwarves don’t get on well with them.
- 03.018 Even decent enough dwarves like Thorin
- 03.026 But the dwarves were all for supper
- 03.033 as venerable as a king of dwarves,
- 03.037 since the dwarf
- 03.040 for if he did not altogether approve of dwarves
- 03.042 The dwarves invented them
- 03.045 “He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves,
- 03.047 “The first day of the dwarves’ New Year,”
- 04.001 The dwarves
- 04.003 Dwarves had not passed that way for many years,
- 04.008 and being the youngest of the dwarves by some fifty years
- 04.008 (or so Thorin said to the young dwarves)
- 04.016 There were six to each dwarf, at least,
- 04.017 and the dwarves were on the wrong side of it!
- 04.017 and the dwarves
- 04.022 and more than one of the dwarves were already yammering
- 04.023 when the dwarves
- 04.025 but the most skilled dwarves,
- 04.025 They did not hate dwarves especially,
- 04.025 in some parts wicked dwarves had even made alliances with them.
- 04.027 “Dwarves, and this!”
- 04.029 “Thorin the dwarf at your service!” he replied
- 04.043 – for dwarves can roll along at a tremendous pace,
- 04.044 Still goblins go faster than dwarves,
- 04.044 so that do what they could the dwarves heard the cries
- 04.049 By that time the dwarves had gone on again,
- 04.050 That is why neither Bilbo, nor the dwarves,
- 04.050 give out a faint light to help the dwarves
- 05.002 no sign of dwarves.
- 05.019 I have lost the dwarves
- 06.002 and the dwarves have got to?
- 06.006 Gandalf was arguing with the dwarves.
- 06.006 The dwarves were grumbling,
- 06.008 The dwarves wanted to know
- 06.014 with the dwarves after this.
- 06.023 The dwarves looked at him
- 06.025 for if Gandalf had explained it all by now to the dwarves,
- 06.026 at the top of the pass the dwarves had taken,
- 06.043 The dwarves (and Bilbo)
- 06.046 that he could hear the dwarves’ breathing
- 06.052 if you had seen the dwarves sitting up
- 06.061 and all the excitement caused by the dwarves
- 06.065 The dwarves and Bilbo
- 06.070 and cursing the dwarves
- 06.072 nearest to the trees where the dwarves were.
- 06.072 all round the dwarves,
- 06.078 So dwarves shall die,
- 06.082 and seized the dwarves,
- 06.094 for carrying the dwarves
- 06.095 but we will not risk ourselves for dwarves
- 06.099 and the figures of the dwarves round it cooking
- 06.099 The dwarves managed all the preparations.
- 06.099 (Dwarves have never taken to matches even yet.)
- 07.002 The dwarves were crying farewells
- 07.009 (made of the gold that the dwarves gave them)
- 07.012 The dwarves groaned
- 07.019 The dwarves all gathered round
- 07.024 Bilbo and the dwarves had now plenty
- 07.030 said the wizard to the dwarves;
- 07.052 they are dwarves!’
- 07.053 said the two dwarves bowing again.
- 07.054 I am not over fond of dwarves;
- 07.067 and the dwarves
- 07.082 and ten dwarves
- 07.088 and the story had kept him from sending the dwarves off
- 07.095 The dwarves listened
- 07.097 The dwarves were sitting cross-legged on the floor round the fire,
- 07.106 the dwarves
- 07.108 One of the dwarves had fallen over him
- 07.111 answered the other dwarves who were moving about the hall;
- 07.113 and the dwarves were having supper,
- 07.120 and while the dwarves were still singing songs he dropped asleep,
- 07.122 with Wargs for the dwarves,
- 07.122 might soon be made to find the dwarves,
- 07.123 I shall think more kindly of dwarves after this.
- 07.136 The dwarves were inclined to grumble at this,
- 07.136 in letting dwarves ride them so far
- 07.149 You have got to look after all these dwarves for me,’
- 07.154 grunted the dwarves,
- 08.004 Even the dwarves felt it,
- 08.029 It charged into the dwarves
- 08.033 three of the dwarves had leaped
- 08.033 in vain the dwarves shot their arrows after them.
- 08.034 the excited dwarves had wasted their last arrows,
- 08.042 He could hear the dwarves shouting up at him from far below,
- 08.043 but at length the cries of the dwarves,
- 08.068 as he lay down beside the dwarves
- 08.072 in the eyes of the dwarves,
- 08.076 of the wizard or the dwarves
- 08.078 in what direction he should go first to look for the dwarves.
- 08.081 They were talking about the dwarves!
- 08.088 to see a dwarvish foot sticking out
- 08.093 and they forgot the dwarves for a bit,
- 08.094 and further away from the dwarves,
- 08.094 and also to let the dwarves hear his voice.
- 08.104 and came back to their trees where the dwarves were hung.
- 08.105 Bilbo’s next job was to loose a dwarf.
- 08.105 the wretched dwarf would tumble
- 08.105 (which made all the poor dwarves dance
- 08.107 between them they started to haul up first one dwarf
- 08.108 But there were still five dwarves hanging at the end of the branch
- 08.111 the other dwarves were working at the rest of the captives,
- 08.113 he shouted to the dwarves on the branch.
- 08.113 and crawling along the boughs above the heads of the dwarves.
- 08.114 Down the dwarves scrambled or jumped or dropped,
- 08.115 Some of the dwarves had knives,
- 08.115 only four of the dwarves were able to stand firmly,
- 08.116 except to let the dwarves into the secret of his ring.
- 08.118 and to the great astonishment of the dwarves he vanished.
- 08.119 The dwarves huddled together
- 08.120 the dwarves went on.
- 08.124 The dwarves then noticed
- 08.129 twelve dwarves
- 08.130 All the noise of the dwarves lost
- 08.133 for they did not love dwarves,
- 08.133 in ancient days they had had wars with some of the dwarves,
- 08.133 It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account,
- 08.133 All this was well known to every dwarf,
- 09.001 and the dwarves made one last despairing effort
- 09.001 and called the dwarves to halt.
- 09.002 Even if the dwarves had not been
- 09.002 when the elves bound the dwarves
- 09.003 Each dwarf was blindfold,
- 09.003 for the elves were making the dwarves go
- 09.007 he questioned the dwarves about their doings,
- 09.010 Then he ordered the dwarves each to be put
- 09.011 He did not wish to desert the dwarves,
- 09.013 he managed to find out where each dwarf was kept.
- 09.013 and to learn that there was another dwarf
- 09.013 and to have a word with the chief of the dwarves.
- 09.015 to each of the other imprisoned dwarves,
- 09.016 The other dwarves quite agreed
- 09.027 and locked it again carefully as soon as the dwarf was outside.
- 09.029 Drat this dwarvish racket!’
- 09.032 how the dwarves would take it.
- 09.038 with room enough for a dwarf
- 09.038 in the dwarves thought anxiously of the shaking
- 09.038 At last twelve dwarves were stowed.
- 09.050 some were tubs neatly packed with a dwarf each;
- 09.051 he had precious small chance of ever finding the dwarves again.
- 09.051 for he had not had time to tell the dwarves all that he had learned,
- 09.057 Bilbo wondered what the dwarves were feeling
- 09.057 and he guessed that these had dwarves inside.
- 09.058 to remember the dwarves.
- 09.062 Poor dwarves!
- 10.003 (to say nothing of the poor dwarves underneath him)
- 10.003 when dwarves dwelt
- 10.003 which the dwarves had followed
- 10.010 and out crept a most unhappy dwarf.
- 10.011 more than the dwarves,
- 10.012 about six dwarves that could answer.
- 10.013 (for dwarves)
- 10.018 and did not hear the noise of the unpacking of the dwarves
- 10.020 said the dwarf
- 10.031 wandering vagabond dwarves
- 10.037 Soon afterwards the other dwarves
- 10.037 or cheered if any dwarf showed so much as his nose.
- 10.038 and they did not particularly please the dwarves,
- 10.039 the dwarves’ good feeling towards the little hobbit
- 10.040 about keys or barrels while the dwarves stayed
- 10.040 in any case the king knew now the dwarves’ errand,
- 10.041 in dwarves fighting
- 10.043 that the dwarves would actually dare
- 10.043 and there is no knowing what a dwarf will not dare
- 10.045 dwarves,
- 11.013 It was he that made the dwarves begin the dangerous search
- 11.014 and the dwarves found traces of a narrow track,
- 11.017 to lower one of the more active dwarves,
- 11.021 The hobbit was no longer much brighter than the dwarves.
- 11.021 If the dwarves asked him what he was doing he answered:
- 11.027 the dwarves were on the rocks
- 11.028 Next day the dwarves all went wandering
- 11.031 and hailed the dwarves,
- 11.032 and the dwarves with wagging beards watching impatiently.
- 11.032 The dwarves groaned,
- 11.033 the dwarves rushed to the rock
- 12.001 For a long time the dwarves stood
- 12.006 for the dwarves is this:
- 12.006 dwarves are not heroes,
- 12.007 It was a passage made by dwarves,
- 12.012 or dungeon-hall of the ancient dwarves
- 12.015 and with the desire of dwarves;
- 12.018 and hardly noticing the excitement of the dwarves,
- 12.019 The dwarves were still passing the cup
- 12.020 Then the dwarves forgot their joy
- 12.022 The dwarves heard
- 12.033 the terror of the dwarves grew less.
- 12.036 the dwarves begged his pardon.
- 12.041 Naturally the dwarves accepted the offer eagerly.
- 12.060 don’t have more to do with dwarves than you can help!’
- 12.061 Dwarves!’
- 12.062 of dwarf –
- 12.069 had the dwarves forgotten this important point too,
- 12.071 in the tunnel the dwarves huddled together
- 12.081 The dwarves revived him,
- 12.086 cried the dwarves.
- 12.094 in earnest that the dwarves at last did as he said,
- 12.095 about the dwarves.
- 12.095 that the dwarves now were absolutely honest
- 12.096 which the dwarves had found
- 12.098 beyond the murmurs of the dwarves,
- 12.100 gave the dwarves an uncomfortable feeling.
- 13.001 the dwarves sat
- 13.002 So several of the dwarves got up
- 13.004 just when the dwarves were most despairing,
- 13.008 The dwarves could not,
- 13.015 The dwarves,
- 13.017 but he could not persuade the dwarves
- 13.019 and fashioned by the dwarves,
- 13.021 But I suppose I must tell the dwarves about it –
- 13.022 of the watching dwarves.
- 13.027 Faintly the dwarves heard his small cries,
- 13.032 had rekindled all the fire of their dwarvish hearts;
- 13.032 and when the heart of a dwarf,
- 13.033 The dwarves indeed no longer needed any urging.
- 13.034 But most of the dwarves were more practical:
- 13.035 Now the dwarves took down mail
- 13.039 than the dwarves did.
- 13.039 Long before the dwarves were tired
- 13.043 the dwarves went,
- 13.060 That idea disturbed the dwarves mightily,
- 14.001 like the dwarves,
- 14.016 about the dwarves.
- 14.034 were now heard as loudly crying that the dwarves
- 15.001 and the dwarves.
- 15.016 shouted the dwarves.
- 15.018 before Thorin could bring the dwarves
- 15.019 that their sorrows are due to the dwarves;
- 15.020 among dwarves
- 15.025 cried the dwarves as if they had not heard him;
- 15.026 you will see that the dwarves still had some days before them.
- 15.026 and at such work the dwarves were still very skilled.
- 15.031 That night the dwarves slept little.
- 15.034 Some of the younger dwarves were moved
- 15.035 Then the dwarves themselves
- 15.037 The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.
- 15.038 The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
- 15.049 nor with dwarvish hearts.
- 15.059 and the dwarves were left to consider their case.
- 16.001 Many of the dwarves spent their time piling
- 16.004 and more than five hundred dwarves,
- 16.007 and the dwarves kept only one watchman at a time.
- 16.010 grumbled the fat dwarf.
- 16.010 yet he was ever a dwarf with a stiff neck.’
- 16.021 Are you the dwarves’ hobbit?
- 16.029 and the dwarves of the Iron Hills?’
- 16.031 and has at least five hundred grim dwarves with him –
- 16.031 in the dreadful dwarf
- 16.039 and the dwarves can do what they like to me.
- 16.040 I have more knowledge of dwarves
- 16.047 without listening to the old dwarf’s thanks
- 17.003 the dwarves saw
- 17.018 I have been told that dwarves are sometimes politer
- 17.026 More than one of the dwarves
- 17.031 that a host of dwarves had appeared
- 17.031 The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height,
- 17.031 but most of these were strong even for dwarves.
- 17.032 Before long the dwarves could be seen
- 17.034 refused to allow the dwarves
- 17.034 for the dwarves can carry very heavy burdens,
- 17.034 and by that time yet more dwarves might come,
- 17.035 for the dwarves of Dain were advancing
- 17.037 The dwarves cannot pass us,
- 17.038 But he reckoned without the dwarves.
- 17.041 between the advancing dwarves
- 17.042 The dwarves halted
- 17.044 and Dwarves.
- 17.044 for the dwarves
- 17.048 and dwarves.
- 17.051 the dwarves of the Iron Hills plunged in,
- 17.055 in the gloom the great dwarf gleamed like gold
- 17.058 rushed all the dwarves of Dain to his help.
- 17.059 and many dwarves,
- 18.003 Dwarves seemed to be busy removing the wall.
- 18.023 The dwarves were making a stand still
- 18.032 of the dwarves could not be taken
- 18.032 in time many other dwarves gathered to his throne
- 18.039 Then the dwarves bowed low before their Gate,
- 19.038 and had the honour of dwarves,
- 19.041 and a dwarf;
- 19.041 and the dwarf was actually Balin.
- 19.043 and dwarves
Project Gutenberg Words
As you may recall, I first filtered the text using Leech, Rayson, and Wilson’s word frequencies, which had fewer than ten thousand words. Later, I discovered the Project Gutenberg word frequency lists, created by the Wiktionary folks, not the Project Gutenberg folks, and filtered again, sure of a ten-thousand word filter. A couple of hundred words were eliminated from our list (which had been in the 5,000 to 10,000 range), and another seventy five which would have been eliminated had already been added to the concordance, so we let those stand pat. The Project Gutenberg lists also added the following words to our study:
cargo casket drought fever gigantic hoof itch lair loathsome necklace nibble ninepins whisk whisker wrath
These are words that the modern filter classified as common, but Project Gutenberg – the corpus of out-of-copyright work – called uncommon. These words have risen in use over the last seventy five years.
Word Fans, is “whisker” an inflection of “whisk” or a word in its own right? I’ll put the kettle on – let me know what you think.
Leech, Geoffrey, Paul Rayson, and Andrew Wilson. Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. Harlow: Longman, 2001. Print.
Non-Intersection of 1937 and 1951
I’m still intrigued by the uncommon words which are only in the 1937 Chapter 5 and not the 1951 and vice-versa. What else can we see?
- 1937: 1811 words, 152 uncommon words, 8.4% uncommon words
- 1951: 3571 words, 347 uncommon words, 9.7% uncommon words
So – about the same percentage of uncommon words, about 2.2 times as many in the newer as the elder. Good. Now, what about our special categories of words?
Food Words?
- 1937 – none
- 1951 – none – excellent, I’m down with 0 = 0.
Archaic words?
- 1937: durstn’t – [1937.05.095] “Here’s the passage,” he whispered. “It musst squeeze in and sneak down. We durstn’t go with it, my precious, no we durstn’t, gollum!”
- 1951: dursn’t – [05.124] He peered in, and shrank back. ‘But we dursn’t go in, precious, no we dursn’t. Goblinses down there. Lots of goblinses. We smells them. Ssss!’
One word in each edition, different spellings of the same word in the same spot in the story, although additions in 1951 give the paragraph a higher number. Very well, then, I will continue to be intrigued by the disappearing T from “durstn’t” and call this “almost no change”. By the way, “leapt” and “smelt” do not qualify as archaic, but I would like to give them a nice shout-out for being older, less-common forms, and in particular “leapt” for its strong-verb status.
What about sound play words?
- 1937: croaking flip-flap fuss spluttering squeeze
- 1951: cracking flapped gurgling hiss hissed hissing screech shriek shrieked shrieking sniffed squeaked squeaker squeaking ssss
Five in ’37 to fifteen in ’51, all of those are called onomatopoeic or echoic or imitative by the OED. Let’s add to that, shall we? What about Gollum’s sibilance, which has made uncommon words out of some common ones?
- 1951: creepsy eyeses goblinses guesses hates iss losst musst nassty pocketses ssorry tricksy (“guesses” and “hates” qualify when gollum-wise-agreeing with “we” as the pronoun!)
Eleven more sound play words. But not all the added Ss are mis-spoken by Gollum; some are spoken correctly by him and some are outside of direct speech.
- cursing guesses noser nosey shambling sharpened sharper sheathed shiver shivering shriek shrieked shrieking side-passages slide slimy sloping smells smelt snag sneaking softer splayed squeezes stab stiffened swayed unlost
Twenty-eight new words with Ss, most of which begin with S. My, my, my.
Once upon a time, I thought of tagging words which bespoke violence or danger, but that proved fruitless.
‘But you speak of him as if he was a friend. I thought Fangorn was dangerous.’
‘Dangerous!’ cried Gandalf. ‘And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord. And Aragorn is dangerous, and Legolas is dangerous. You are beset with dangers, Gimli son of Glóin; for you are dangerous yourself, in your own fashion. Certainly the forest of Fangorn is perilous…’
However, as an exercise, I would like to point out how many of the non-intersecting 1937 vs 1951 words speak to me of peril or just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up?
- 1937 – recklessly slipping
- 1951 – blindly blood-curdling bowstring crawling creepsy crouched cursing gnaw goblin-imp goblinses groping gurgling hates hiss hissed hissing jagged maddened menacing menacingly nassty noser nosey orcs palely pang panted pinch screech shambling sharpened sharper sheathed shiver shivering shriek shrieked shrieking slimy smells smelt snag sneaking sniffed splayed squeaked squeaker squeaking squeezes stab stiffened swayed tense tricksy tripping tunnels unmarked
Alert readers may notice that some words like “slimy” are listed as non-intersecting although they can be found in both versions. Remember that we analyzed only those paragraphs which differ. “Slimy” is found in paragraphs 11 and 13 in both versions and is added to paragraph 12 and 77 in descriptions of Gollum.
“crack, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 19 June 2015.
“fuss, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 19 June 2015.
“leap, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 19 June 2015.
“smell, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 19 June 2015.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (2012-02-15). The Lord of the Rings: One Volume (p. 499). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
footnote: there’s a word for the hair on one’s skin standing up – horripilation. I didn’t want to put cool jargon in the the way of comprehension, but wanted to be sure my Word Fans have this delightful word in their back pocketses!
1937 words
Only an observation today to satisfy our curiosity. Details and conclusions and error-checking will come in the weeks ahead. These words appear in the 1937 Chapter 5 of The Hobbit and do not appear in the 1951 edition, the one with which we are most familiar:
croaking daresay durstn’t findings flip-flap funnily fuss good-bye jags politely recklessly shuddered slipping sneak sometime spluttering squeeze unsuspecting
My goodness! “Funnily” and “good-bye” and “politely”! what a different feeling. Here follow those words which were added in our 1951 edition. I have included links for those which have entries in the Concordance or other posts:
back-door backwards Baggins betterment birthday-present blindly blood-curdling bowstring brooded cracking crawling creepsy crouched cursing dursn’t eyeses flapped flattened forefinger galled gleamed gnaw goblin-imp goblinses groping guesses gurgling hates hiding-place hiss hissed hissing humped iss jagged leapt losst maddened menacing menacingly mouse musst nassty noser nosey oddments orcs paddling palely pang panted peered pinch pocketses pouch pricked quicker screech shambling sharpened sharper sheathed shiver shivering shriek shrieked shrieking side-passages slide slimy sloping smells smelt snag sneaking sniffed softer splayed squeaked squeaker squeaking squeezes ssorry ssss stab stiffened swayed tense tricksy tripping tunnel-wall tunnels unlost unmarked
Please do note that both editions have “ss”, “sss”, and “sssss” in them – it’s just four esses, “ssss” which is unique to the 1951. So many things to say about these words, but I had better save it for another day, in the morning after coffee when I’m fresh.
Paragraph Comparison of 1937 with 1951
To begin, I’m happy to share my list of the 1937 and 1951 paragraphs – which ones match identically, which ones are close, which ones are unique to their edition.
Paragraph Comparisons 1937 & 1951
I won’t analyze the entire chapters, as there is so much overlap, and I’m excited about the differences. Removing the identical paragraphs, we will examine:
1937: 29 paragraphs, 1811 words, 152 uncommon words
1951: 66 paragraphs, 3571 words, 347 uncommon words
A Little Time-Travel Through Chapter Five
I plan to spend the rest of today exploring differences in word use between Chapter 5 of The Hobbit as we all know and love it and Chapter 5 as it was published in 1937. At that time, Tolkien didn’t conceive of Gollum’s ring as anything other than a small magical ring with invisibility powers. Once he began work on The Lord of the Rings, however, he knew the ring to be far more. He rewrote Chapter 5 and managed to get the whole book re-published.
‘Very well,’ said Bilbo. ‘I will do as you bid. But I will now tell the true story, and if some here have heard me tell it otherwise’ – he looked sidelong at Glóin – ‘I ask them to forget it and forgive me. I only wished to claim the treasure as my very own in those days, and to be rid of the name of thief that was put on me. But perhaps I understand things a little better now. Anyway, this is what happened.’
What we begin with:
| 1931 | 1951 | |
| Paragraphs | 111 | 145 |
| Words | 5258 | 7,021 |
I’ll report back in with the list of which paragraphs are identical as well as the number of uncommon words in each chapter soon, Word Fans.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (2012-02-15). The Lord of the Rings: One Volume (p. 249). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
Hunger and Archaism
Word fans, did you see what I saw?
The food words generally decrease over the course of the book. We predicted that. If we read the dip in Chapter 1 as an abundance of common food words and the spike in chapter 6 as a spike in thinking about food they weren’t getting, it’s a trend.
Then there was the archaic word graph, which broadly rises.
What if we were to flip over the food word graph? I suppose we could call it a hunger graph.
And then if we put those graphs on top of one another…
We could, if we squint hard, call those matching trajectories. If you had asked me last week if I had a prediction about this, I would probably have said, “Sure, as food and comfort go down across the book, archaism and lofty things increase, I’ll put a nickel on that.” What piques my curiosity this morning? Where and why these lines diverge from the predicted pattern.
Chapter 1? I believe that’s a straightforward “many food words here are common” phenomenon and that the beginning and end of the chapter are my guides for where to think of the blue line.
Chapter 4? Oh, yes. Goblins. No archaic words at all. All current-use. And food? No. Goblins do not serve tea. Or supper. Or even cram. Modern words, no manners. Uncouth, uncultured, ignorant.
Chapter 6 I chalk up to another measurement anomaly – the blue line shows us words about foods which the company is not eating.
But oh, yes, the beginning of Chapter 9. Archaic words and food (remember, the blue line going down means hunger goes away). Bilbo embraced being a hero and we enter Thranduil’s realm. Spiders talked about food, elves treated their prisoners humanely. In fact,
[08.144] … They gave [Thorin] food and drink, plenty of both, if not very fine; for Wood-elves were not goblins, and were reasonably well-behaved even to their worst enemies,
Goblins are the contrast to elves? Many scholars more learned than I have held forth on this topic. I present this little lexomic morsel to nourish the discussion.
Presenting: The Sound Play Words
I had a thought that the words we tagged “onomatopoeia” would be steady throughout – they they are among the most-used tools in Tolkien’s kit. Here they are, fairly steady, with two delicious peaks:
There’s Gollum! His delicious sounds which follow that star in Chapter 5 and the goblins’ “Clap! Snap!” and battle sounds before it are the peak of the sound-imagery of the work. Both here and at the local peak in Chapter 9 (which includes snoring, bumping, and grumbling), the uncommon sound words are so plentiful as to account for a good deal of those particular peaks in the uncommon word (red) line.
Preview of the Sound Play Words
Just a sneak peek as I prepare the whole graph. Remember these are words labeled “onomatopoeic” or “echoic” or “imitative” by the OED plus the names “Gollum” and “Roäc” and “Carc”.
Before I erase it for the comparison graph, notice the y-axis! Many more sound words than the others – the peak reaches right up to 0.02, half of all the uncommon words in the Chapter 1 low point and Chapter 19 denouement.
words that you were saying 