word

Wonder

lfsaldenbirch ,

I dedicate the entry for this common word to Professor Verlyn Flieger, in honor of her gracious inspiration to all scholars.  It’s a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, all of long lineage from Old English to Old Norse, but the OED says, ultimately, “of unknown origin”.

I am particularly enchanted by the use of the word in 07.022 – “In the name of all wonder…”  In Gandalf’s mind, at least, “all wonder” fits nicely into a phrase where we might call upon deity.

  • 01.017 Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties,
  • 01.046 and wondered what had happened,
  • 01.046 while he was wondering
  • 01.058 and was beginning to wonder
  • 01.122 and the toy market of Dale was the wonder of the North.
  • 01.125 I have often wondered about my father’s
  • 02.054 and wondering how to make owl-noises
  • 02.072 who was wondering where
  • 03.020 Most astonishing wonderful!
  • 03.036 I wonder?” said Thorin
  • 05.001 he wondered if he had;
  • 05.008 and recover wonderfully from falls
  • 05.013 but he was wondering a lot about Bilbo,
  • 05.084 very wonderful.
  • 05.105 I wonder?’ he said to himself,
  • 05.119 and wonder.
  • 06.003 He wondered whether he ought not,
  • 06.006 and wondering
  • 06.024 and the hobbit wondered if he guessed
  • 06.087 and wondered if he could hold on any longer.
  • 06.090 He wondered what other nonsense he had been saying,
  • 06.092 He had just strength to wonder
  • 07.022 and in the name of all wonder don’t mention the word furrier
  • 07.046 wondering what their names could be,
  • 07.093 for the convenience of the wonderful animals
  • 07.107 Bilbo wondered what it was,
  • 07.113 waited on by Beorn’s wonderful animals,
  • 07.122 nor did they have to wonder long where he had been or why he was so nice to them,
  • 08.041 All the time he was wondering whether there were spiders
  • 08.078 and he stood a long while wondering
  • 08.125 Indeed they really expected him to think of some wonderful plan for helping them,
  • 08.129 They wondered what evil fate had befallen him,
  • 08.145 he began to wonder what had become of his unfortunate friends.
  • 09.021 and wondered if it could be used for the escape of his friends,
  • 09.044 Small wonder if I fall asleep from weariness!’
  • 09.045 Small wonder,’
  • 09.051 He wondered what on earth would happen to them without him;
  • 09.057 Bilbo wondered what the dwarves were feeling
  • 09.058 and he wondered if he would die of it before the luck turned,
  • 10.036 The Wood-elves themselves began to wonder greatly
  • 10.043 and he wondered if Thorin was
  • 11.031 wondering what on earth was the matter;
  • 12.015 in the days when all the world was wonderful.
  • 12.020 and wondered why he had never blocked it up.
  • 12.068 He had never bothered to wonder
  • 12.076 and wonderful, indeed,’
  • 12.096 They wondered
  • 13.013 Now I wonder what on earth
  • 13.039 and he began to wonder nervously
  • 13.056 I wonder how many breakfasts,
  • 13.071 and wondered;
  • 14.020 in wonder
  • 15.049 yet he had an eye for many another wonderful thing
  • 16.003 wondering what would happen,
  • 16.036 whose eyes were used to things of wonder and beauty,
  • 16.040 The Elvenking looked at Bilbo with a new wonder.
  • 16.040 But I wonder if Thorin Oakenshield will see it so.
  • 16.046 and wondered anxiously
  • 17.003 Wondering,
  • 17.010 But wonder overcame him
  • 17.065 Many wondering eyes looked up,
  • 18.002 Now I wonder what has happened?’
  • 18.014 I began to wonder if even your luck would see you through!
  • 19.037 it was a great deal more than a nine days’ wonder.

“wonder, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 5 September 2017.

Roll

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

This very common word has joined the concordance in honor of its unusual use in the apple-barrel song of Chapter 9:

[09.049] Roll – roll – roll – roll,

roll-roll-rolling down the hole!

In the top line, the words “roll” are separated by spaces and hyphens, a repetitive phrase; but my goodness!  roll-roll-rolling has no spaces!  It is one word, and the OED assures us that the reduplicative is “a word form created by reduplication”.  I think that such a reduplicative even qualifies “roll-roll-rolling” as a vocable and sound play.

  • 01.066 Send them down the hall to roll!
  • 01.066 Send them down the hall to roll!
  • 02.070  and rolling nearly into the fire
  • 04.004  and go rolling
  • 04.036  and rolling
  • 04.043  – for dwarves can roll along at a tremendous pace,
  • 04.051  and the hobbit rolled off his shoulders into the blackness,
  • 06.040  rolled away from their feet;
  • 06.040  and rolling;
  • 06.065  and unless they rolled over quick they were soon all
  • 06.065  Very soon all about the glade wolves were rolling over
  • 07.035  He laughed a great rolling laugh,
  • 07.093  in rolling round drum-shaped sections of logs,
  • 07.094  Beorn in his deep rolling voice told tales
  • 07.099 and like a tide it roared and rolled;
  • 07.108  and had rolled down with a bump from the platform on to the floor.
  • 08.104  and rolled off the branch dead.
  • 08.108  that he just rolled off the branch
  • 09.048  they answered rolling the barrels to the opening.
  • 09.049  Roll – roll – roll – roll,
  • 09.049 roll-roll-rolling down the hole!
  • 09.054  was being rolled to the doors!
  • 09.055  the barrel rolled round
  • 09.059  roll off again
  • 09.060  a round-bellied pony that was always thinking of rolling on the grass.
  • 10.034  and it rolled loud
  • 12.076  The dragon rolled over.
  • 13.008  and rolled headlong into the hall!
  • 14.033  in the roll of the benefactors of our town;
  • 16.047  in turn rolled himself up
  • 17.040  Winter thunder on a wild wind rolled roaring up
  • 17.046  rolling away to the South-East;

 

“reduplicative, n. and adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 5 September 2017.

Were-worm

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

This word escaped our original edition of the concordance because I lemmatized it under “worm”, a common word.  But now that we’re thinking about hyphens, I’ve returned to rescue this delightful word from the shadows.  If anyone knows of a good paper about were-worms, I would love to link it here –

  • 01.097 and fight the wild Were-worms

The word does not appear in OED.

Hobbit-smell

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

A one-of-a kind scent, I’m sure!  This tells us about the refinement of Smaug’s olfactory sense and the distance of Lonely Mountain from The Shire.

  • 12.062 that there was one smell he could not make out at all, hobbit-smell;

Although “Hobbit” is listed in OED – and an invention of Tolkien’s – no hyphenated forms are.

“hobbit, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87449. Accessed 14 September 2017.

Hobbit-legs

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

This is one of the clearest clues that these hyphenated words are Tolkien’s putative translation artifacts.  If I were decsribing this scene about a person of my own species, I would say that the steps were not made, all the same, for a child’s legs, or for a middle-aged woman’s legs…

[13.044] The steps were not made, all the same, for hobbit-legs, and Bilbo was just feeling that he could go on no longer, when suddenly the roof sprang high and far beyond the reach of their torch-light.

I believe that “hobbit-legs” indicates a single word like “shank”, in Westron, meant to convey “the legs of a hobbit” – a very specialized word indeed.  The passage takes place as Bilbo and the dwarves clamber through the Mountain to the chamber of Thror.

  • 13.044 for hobbit-legs,

Although “Hobbit” is listed in OED – and an invention of Tolkien’s – no hyphenated forms are.

“hobbit, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87449. Accessed 14 September 2017.

Hobbit-lands

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

The best way to become familiar with the hobbit-lands is with The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad, a professional cartographer who turned her skills to charting the maps of fictional worlds based on close reading of the texts.

  • 02.028 At first they had passed through hobbit-lands,

Although “Hobbit” is listed in OED – and an invention of Tolkien’s – no hyphenated forms are.

“hobbit, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87449. Accessed 14 September 2017.

Hobbit-hole

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

And that means comfort!

  • 01.001 it was a hobbit-hole,
  • 01.005 built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her
  • 01.005 in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father,
  • 01.070 and very far from his hobbit-hole under The Hill.
  • 01.110 and only of hobbit-holes).
  • 03.004 in his hobbit-hole,
  • 03.031 right back to his hobbit-hole without trouble.
  • 04.002 and his little hobbit-hole.
  • 04.017 and again for his nice bright hobbit-hole.
  • 04.045 “Why, O why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole!”
  • 08.074 of his far-distant hobbit-hole
  • 09.012 in my hobbit-hole
  • 11.020 in his hobbit-hole,
  • 11.022 and his hobbit-hole under it.
  • 15.035 in Bilbo’s little hobbit-hole.
  • 19.037 in his nice hobbit-hole so very much.

Although “Hobbit” is listed in OED – and an invention of Tolkien’s – no hyphenated forms are.

“hobbit, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87449. Accessed 14 September 2017.

Hobbit-boy

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

In our endeavor to tease out the hyphenated words and study them, I present “hobbit-boy”; the word is still listed in the entry for “hobbit” as well.

  • 01.006 since they were all small hobbit-boys
  • 01.043 as if some naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

Although “Hobbit” is listed in OED – and an invention of Tolkien’s – no hyphenated forms are.

“hobbit, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87449. Accessed 14 September 2017.