word

Food-supplies

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,
  • 01.122 especially in food-supplies,

I am struck by this passage.  Thorin explains that the dwarves of the mountain didn’t bother to grow or hunt food for themselves, since they could very easily be paid in food for their amazing work.  That seems a recipe for disaster.  If this is true, then the drive to work things out peacefully with the people of Dale would be foundational to any child of any leading house of that community.  Do we take the dwarves as a sub-community of the larger Long Lake region, as we would a monastery providing medicine and prayer to a medieval village upon whose farming they depend?  If you don’t have food, about two days of siege would lose you all your gold.  Can one of our Word Fans point us to scholarly work or speculative fiction on the subject?

This word is attested in OED both with and without hyphens.

“food, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/72632. Accessed 13 September 2017.

Food-bags

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Concerning rain as they traveled.

  • 02.029 and into the food-bags,” thought Bilbo.

Considering food preservation techniques in such an age, I would have been sad to even lose cram to rain damage.  If only salted things were left after the weather of Chapter 2, that certainly would have contributed to my enthusiasm in finding Rivendell in the next chapter!

“Food-bag” is not attested in OED.

Foil

lfsaldenbirch ,

I have never understood this passage.  Word Fans, can you help me out?

[14.012] Amid shrieks and wailing and the shouts of men he came over them, swept towards the bridges and was foiled! The bridge was gone, and his enemies were on an island in deep water – too deep and dark and cool for his liking. If he plunged into it, a vapour and a steam would arise enough to cover all the land with a mist for days; but the lake was mightier than he, it would quench him before he could pass through.

Sure, Smaug didn’t want to fall into the lake – I am pleased and surprised to learn that the lake was mightier than he – but couldn’t he just fly over?

  • 14.012 and was foiled!