I’m trying to parse the difference between enchant (verb) and incantation (noun).  “Enchanting” is the adjective.  “Enchantment” seems to be the noun of just as much lineage as “incantation“, both from the Latin root incantare – through French “enchanter” in this case and “incantation” in the other.  Hmmm.

To exert magical influence upon; to bewitch, lay under a spell. Also, to endow with magical powers or properties.

• 01.072 To seek the pale enchanted gold.
• 07.023 he is under no enchantment but his own.
• 07.107 in enchanted shape,
• 07.126 for I have heard that it carries enchantment
• 08.029 safe across the enchanted stream.
• 08.035 They had crossed the enchanted stream;
• 08.037 About four days from the enchanted stream
• 08.059 was so enchanting that,
• 08.130 and as the lights went out he fell like a stone enchanted.
• 12.007 when the hobbit crept through the enchanted door
• 12.015 and pierced with enchantment
• 12.098 But the enchanted desire of the hoard
• 13.020 drawn by its enchantment.

“enchant, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 25 July 2015.

“enchantment, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 25 July 2015.

This delightful word has clear cognates in Germanic and Romantic language families as well as Sanskrit.

• 12.096 made of five hundred emeralds
• 18.034 To the Elvenking he gave the emeralds of Girion,

“smaragd, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

“En-” or “em-” as before a bilabial plosive like “broider” is all about placing things.  For example, one might place decorations – like braids or “browds” – on cloth with needlework.  Görlach notes that use of the prefix was pretty fluid in Early Middle English.  Tangent, the noun “embroider” can be the person who does the embroidery.

• 07.093 One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges

“broider, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

“† browd, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

“embroider, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

Görlach, Manfred. Introduction to Early Modern English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print.

What is the relationship between this word and Elf-king, I wonder?

2016.02.04 I answer myself: both words refer to the King of the Mirkwood Elves (Thranduil, except possibly the very first reference  in chapter 8).  “Elvenking” is used exclusively in Chapter 9 and onward; “Elf-king” is used only in Chapter 8.

• 09.005 sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood.
• 09.011 about the Elvenking’s palace.
• 10.033 by the Elvenking
• 10.034 The Elvenking was very powerful
• 14.040 The Elvenking had received news
• 14.040 Even before the Elvenking rode forth
• 14.042 in return for the Elvenking’s aid.
• 14.044 and the most of the Elvenking’s array,
• 15.027 that the Elvenking had turned aside to the Lake,
• 15.044 They bore with them the green banner of the Elvenking
• 15.053 Nor at all with the people of the Elvenking,
• 15.054 The Elvenking is my friend,
• 16.025 both the Elvenking
• 16.036 The Elvenking himself,
• 16.040 The Elvenking looked at Bilbo with a new wonder.
• 17.003 and the Elvenking,
• 17.037 But the Elvenking said:
• 17.045 in council with the Elvenking
• 17.060 he preferred on the whole to defend the Elvenking.
• 18.032 Upon his tomb the Elvenking then laid Orcrist,
• 18.034 To the Elvenking he gave the emeralds of Girion,
• 18.043 Gandalf and Bilbo rode behind the Elvenking,
• 18.044 Farewell! O Elvenking!’

• 07.005 and elms,
• 07.014 and the tall elms.