And now we have stars to contemplate. Dream Follow Up Study Number Eight Hundred: when stars are mentioned, what are they looking down on and possibly influencing?

• 1.076 The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
• 1.083 The stars were out
• 3.001 They camped under the stars,
• 3.013 and he looked up at the stars.
• 3.025 in June under the stars,
• 5.038 It lies behind stars and under hills,
• 7.103 and stars were fanned to leaping light.
• 8.131 but loved best the stars;
• 9.001 like hundreds of red stars.
• 9.053 Follow, follow stars that leap
• 9.061 and of stars.
• 10.006 where the stars of the Wain were already twinkling,
• 10.016 And I suppose we ought to thank our stars
• 12.007 The stars were coming out behind him
• 12.018 and clouds had covered the stars,
• 12.090 till at last when the stars began to peep forth,
• 12.097 like snow under the stars,
• 13.071 when the first cold stars came out.
• 14.002 the stars shine out from the smooth patches of the lake
• 15.039 The light of stars, on crowns they hung
• 16.036 in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars.
• 19.003 The stars are far brighter
• 19.004 The stars are all burning!
• 19.011 The stars are in blossom, the moon is in flower,
• 19.031 Under cloud and under star,

So many in chapter 7!!

• 1.017 also that he was very fond of flowers.
• 1.076 The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
• 3.008 with flowers growing bright
• 5.055 Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
• 6.039 in flower,
• 7.025 that great patches of flowers
• 7.045 and fell golden on the garden full of flowers that came right up to the steps.
• 7.046 and looked at the flowers
• 7.133 and flowers
• 8.071 Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers;
• 9.005 In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers.
• 12.096 and flowers
• 15.033 and they caught faintly the fragrance of woodland flowers
• 18.052 for the flowers of the gardens of Beorn
• 19.011 The stars are in blossom, the moon is in flower,
• 19.030 And through the merry flowers of June,

Not string, precious…

• 1.076 On silver necklaces they strung
• 5.076 String, or nothing!’
• 5.080 Not string, precious,
• 8.074 Something like a strong sticky string was against his left hand,
• 8.105 If he cut the string which hung him up,
• 13.034 strung with silver they took them
• 14.023 The black arrow sped straight from the string,
• 15.039 On silver necklaces they strung
• 17.048 A few brave men were strung before them

In honor of the lovely, scholarly, charming, and Mightily Fangirlish Ashley Thomas, we are concordancing her word of choice this morning. Thank you very much, Ashley, for being our guest speaker today in class.

The OED admits that the word is of obscure origin:

Etymology: Of obscure origin.Commonly supposed to be an adoption of Dutch kolf, kolv- (= German kolbe, Old Norse kólfr, etc.), ‘club’, the name of the stick, club, or bat, used in several games of the nature of tennis, croquet, hockey, etc. But none of the Dutch games have been convincingly identified with golf, nor is it certain that kolf was ever used to denote the game as well as the implement, though the game was and is called kolven (the infinitive of the derived verb). Additional difficulty is caused by the absence of any Scottish forms with initial c or k, and by the fact that golf is mentioned much earlier than any of the Dutch sports. Some modern Scots dialects have gowf ‘a blow with the open hand’, also verb to strike.

“golf, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2019, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/79822. Accessed 13 November 2019.

But we all know better…

[01.094] If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took’s great-grand-uncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.

I believe that the color silver meant a great deal to Tolkien – he often used it in compounds: silver-grey, silver-hafted, silver-steel. Most famously, it is used in clothing – whether with green or white, I posit that anyone clothed in silver in the stories is to be admired. Well, then. A project for my eighties when everything else is done?

• 1.007 a silver scarf
• 1.038 silver belts,
• 1.046 and silver belts to join the others.
• 1.050 and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel.
• 1.076 On silver necklaces they strung
• 1.113 made of silver.
• 3.040 in a broad silver crescent.
• 3.042 and wrote them with silver pens,
• 7.013 and silver
• 7.095 and silver
• 7.095 there were no things of gold or silver
• 8.133 and silver,
• 8.133 especially for silver
• 10.010 with its tarnished silver tassel.
• 10.035 The lord of silver fountains
• 12.013 and silver red-stained
• 12.096 and silvered
• 12.096 for it was wrought of pure silver
• 12.097 it shone like silver
• 13.034 strung with silver they took them
• 14.008 his silver like a fountain,
• 14.021 and silvered his great wings.
• 15.039 On silver necklaces they strung
• 17.019 in silver
• 17.021 and silver?’
• 17.034 and silver
• 18.017 and silver,
• 18.033 Yet a fourteenth share of all the silver and gold,
• 18.037 one filled with silver,
• 18.046 of silver and pearls
• 19.003 Than silver in treasure;
• 19.012 The river is silver, the shadows are fleeting;
• 19.037 Many of his silver spoons mysteriously disappeared
• 19.039 and silver was largely spent

A blessing for Armistice Day, dear friends around the world:

His sword he hung over the mantelpiece.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit.  Revised and expanded edition annotated by Douglas A. Anderson. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. Print. [19.039].

• 1.075 To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
• 1.083 and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.
• 1.117 Swords
• 2.113 and among them were several swords
• 2.114 but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit.
• 3.035 That day he looked at the swords they had brought
• 3.035 They are old swords,
• 3.035 very old swords of the High Elves of the West,
• 3.036 looking at his sword with new interest.
• 3.038 “I will keep this sword
• 4.025 and the bent swords that they use.
• 4.025 Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs,
• 4.032 He held out the sword which Thorin had worn,
• 4.032 the sword which came from the Trolls’ lair.
• 4.033 They knew the sword at once.
• 4.037 Suddenly a sword flashed
• 4.037 before the sword shrieking into the darkness.
• 4.038 The sword went back into its sheath.
• 4.041 He took out his sword again,
• 4.041 This sword’s name was Glamdring the Foe-hammer,
• 4.042 handing his sword back to Thorin with a bow.
• 4.047 “Draw your sword Thorin!”
• 5.004 his hand came on the hilt of his little sword –
• 5.007 and trotted along with his little sword held
• 5.009 as he knew by the glimmer of his sword,
• 5.010 The sword was hardly shining at all.
• 5.020 looking at the sword,
• 5.021 A sword,
• 5.022 and until he found out more about the sword
• 5.062 he gripped on his little sword;
• 5.077 and held out his little sword.
• 5.078 He could see the sword
• 5.088 and its nassty little sword will be useless,
• 5.103 that no sword had any more terror for him.
• 5.106 and fell flat with his little sword under him.
• 5.107 or wave his sword,
• 5.108 and sheathed his sword,
• 5.128 Gollum had no sword.
• 5.136 with drawn swords sitting just inside the door,
• 5.138 and forgetting even to draw his sword
• 5.143 swords rattled,
• 8.075 until he remembered his sword
• 8.075 and stuck it with his sword right
• 8.076 as he wiped his sword on the grass
• 8.102 Out came his little sword.
• 8.103 The spiders saw the sword,
• 8.112 His little sword was something new
• 10.025 and the great sword Orcrist too.
• 10.025 Bilbo had his short sword,
• 12.014 could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and axes, swords and spears hanging;
• 12.020 in size but provided with a bitter sword
• 12.072 my teeth are swords,
• 15.037 The sword is sharp, the spear is long,
• 17.003 At the beginning of the narrow way they laid aside sword
• 17.031 but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side
• 17.050 Their spears and swords shone
• 17.051 and beside them came the men of the Lake with long swords.
• 18.032 the elvish sword that had been taken from Thorin
• 19.002 Though sword shall be rusted,
• 19.032 Eyes that fire and sword have seen
• 19.039 His sword he hung over the mantelpiece.

Nowhere does this word mean “the skin of an animal”.

• 1.075 To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
• 1.084 and go and hide behind the beer-barrels
• 1.105 That marks a hidden passage to the Lower Halls.’
• 1.111 in what way this one has been hidden
• 1.124 sat and wept in hiding,
• 2.078 “They’re hiding
• 2.110 dug somewhere near to hide from the sun in?
• 2.111 until hidden by bushes they came on
• 3.006 Hidden somewhere ahead of us
• 3.008 for they saw now that the house might be hidden
• 5.008 and hide easily,
• 5.040 Yet golden treasure inside is hid,
• 5.087 and now usually he hid it
• 6.052 He was quite hidden
• 7.064 where were you hiding?
• 7.107 and hid his head,
• 8.029 in case any hidden guardian of the boat appeared.
• 8.062 No one is to stir from hiding till I say.
• 9.011 in hiding,
• 9.019 Hiding behind one of the largest barrels
• 9.059 and there for a while they stuck against some hidden root.
• 9.063 and wherever he tried to hide
• 10.025 hidden as usual,
• 11.006 the western spurs of the Mountain for the hidden door,
• 11.008 until lying hidden behind a rock they could look out
• 11.019 the door was hidden.
• 12.029 and scorched them as they lay hid.
• 13.067 here we can now lie hid
• 15.009 to hide
• 16.018 Hide your lights!
• 16.046 and hid it,
• 17.036 and spearmen now hidden
• 18.021 could not be altogether hid.
• 18.051 and hidden in the deepest holes they could find;
• 19.025 still hidden