Tolkien's use of exclamations
Oct. 26th, 2004 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerThe other day when a discussion took place about words that seem out of place in Middle-earth, the subject of oaths and exclamations came up. Out of curiosity, I thought I would check through and see just what words JRRT *did* use. These are my findings:
There are surprisingly few of these, considering the number of words he wrote, and the amount of dialogue. I was a bit arbitrary. I did not include, for example, Orc speech, or the sounds the Ents made. I have listed each one once, in the order in which they appear. I did not include battle-cries, such as “Elendil!” or “Death!”. I also did not include those occasions when characters cried out in Elvish, calling upon Elbereth or the Valar, except for one. That was the cry Frodo made at the Ford of Bruinen, and I was a bit iffy about that. Technically, he is using it as an oath rather than calling upon her. But it was definitely not done lightly. This is the *only* use I came across using the name of Elbereth in that way.
Eru and the Valar are never referred to at all except once, and that is at Aragorn’s coronation, as a blessing by Gandalf.
Unless otherwise indicated, the exclamations are those used by hobbits. If someone of another race uses it, I indicate that.
I did find *one* use in the entire thing of the word “damned”, used as an epithet, not as a curse, and that was by an Orc. I did not include epithets or insults. However, I found that even these were surprisingly mild.
I was also surprised at an exclamation I did *not* come across. I was certain that somewhere Bilbo used the phrase “Bless my buttons!” but I did not come across it anywhere. If I missed it, please let me know of its location!
EXCLAMATIONS IN THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE HOBBIT
“Good gracious me!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Confusticate and bebother…”
“struck by lightning!”
“Curse his name!” (Thorin)
“Great elephants!” (Gandalf)
“Bother…”
“Bless us and splash us…” (Gollum)
“Curse us and crush us…” (Gollum)
“Good heavens!” (first by Dori, then Beorn, then some of the other Dwarves)
“Upon my word!” (Thorin)
“By the beard of Durin,” (Thorin)
“Well, I’m blessed!”
“Thank goodness!
In The Hobbit the two exclamations used most frequently were “Dear me!” and “Bless me!”
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
“Fiddlesticks!”
“Well, well, bless my beard!” (Gandalf)
“Lor bless me!”
“Hooray!”
“Good heavens!”
“Thank goodness,”
“Lawks!”
“bless you,”
“Oi! Oi!”
“Oh, indeed!”
“Well!”
“By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair…”
“Splendid!”
“Alas!” (used first by Legolas, and then by various and numerous characters of several races, including the hobbits)
“Ai! Ai!” (Legolas)
“Hi!” (not used as a greeting)
“Hullo!” (not used as a greeting)
“Behold!”
“Well, well!”
“…in the name of wonder…” (Gandalf)
“Ninnyhammers! Noodles!”
“Snakes and adders!”
“Curse him!”
“…what the plague…”
“Whew!”
“…dratted…”
“O dear, o dear!~”
“O come!”
“Hurrah!”
“How splendid!”
“Well now!”
“Good!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Lo!”
“O great glory and splendour!”
“Garn!”
In The Lord of the Rings the exclamation most frequently used was “Alas!”.
Anyway, I’ve wasted several days on this bit of trivia, and thought perhaps others might find it as interesting as I did. Or not. 8-D
There are surprisingly few of these, considering the number of words he wrote, and the amount of dialogue. I was a bit arbitrary. I did not include, for example, Orc speech, or the sounds the Ents made. I have listed each one once, in the order in which they appear. I did not include battle-cries, such as “Elendil!” or “Death!”. I also did not include those occasions when characters cried out in Elvish, calling upon Elbereth or the Valar, except for one. That was the cry Frodo made at the Ford of Bruinen, and I was a bit iffy about that. Technically, he is using it as an oath rather than calling upon her. But it was definitely not done lightly. This is the *only* use I came across using the name of Elbereth in that way.
Eru and the Valar are never referred to at all except once, and that is at Aragorn’s coronation, as a blessing by Gandalf.
Unless otherwise indicated, the exclamations are those used by hobbits. If someone of another race uses it, I indicate that.
I did find *one* use in the entire thing of the word “damned”, used as an epithet, not as a curse, and that was by an Orc. I did not include epithets or insults. However, I found that even these were surprisingly mild.
I was also surprised at an exclamation I did *not* come across. I was certain that somewhere Bilbo used the phrase “Bless my buttons!” but I did not come across it anywhere. If I missed it, please let me know of its location!
EXCLAMATIONS IN THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE HOBBIT
“Good gracious me!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Confusticate and bebother…”
“struck by lightning!”
“Curse his name!” (Thorin)
“Great elephants!” (Gandalf)
“Bother…”
“Bless us and splash us…” (Gollum)
“Curse us and crush us…” (Gollum)
“Good heavens!” (first by Dori, then Beorn, then some of the other Dwarves)
“Upon my word!” (Thorin)
“By the beard of Durin,” (Thorin)
“Well, I’m blessed!”
“Thank goodness!
In The Hobbit the two exclamations used most frequently were “Dear me!” and “Bless me!”
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
“Fiddlesticks!”
“Well, well, bless my beard!” (Gandalf)
“Lor bless me!”
“Hooray!”
“Good heavens!”
“Thank goodness,”
“Lawks!”
“bless you,”
“Oi! Oi!”
“Oh, indeed!”
“Well!”
“By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair…”
“Splendid!”
“Alas!” (used first by Legolas, and then by various and numerous characters of several races, including the hobbits)
“Ai! Ai!” (Legolas)
“Hi!” (not used as a greeting)
“Hullo!” (not used as a greeting)
“Behold!”
“Well, well!”
“…in the name of wonder…” (Gandalf)
“Ninnyhammers! Noodles!”
“Snakes and adders!”
“Curse him!”
“…what the plague…”
“Whew!”
“…dratted…”
“O dear, o dear!~”
“O come!”
“Hurrah!”
“How splendid!”
“Well now!”
“Good!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Lo!”
“O great glory and splendour!”
“Garn!”
In The Lord of the Rings the exclamation most frequently used was “Alas!”.
Anyway, I’ve wasted several days on this bit of trivia, and thought perhaps others might find it as interesting as I did. Or not. 8-D
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Date: 2004-10-26 10:20 am (UTC)hugs*
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Date: 2004-10-26 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 10:48 am (UTC):)
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Date: 2004-10-27 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 11:34 am (UTC):)
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Date: 2004-10-27 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 11:40 am (UTC)I remember coming to this same conclusion when I was beginning to write and must confess to using 'Lor bless me!' a few more times than I ought. This is a very handy bit of research you've done!
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Date: 2004-10-27 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 12:18 pm (UTC)“Confusticate and bebother…”
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Date: 2004-10-27 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 02:18 pm (UTC)I don't think it's wasted time. Thank you for sharing your findings!
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Date: 2004-10-27 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 03:45 pm (UTC)Not a waste of time at all- a very interesting study! Thank you for sharing it with us.
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Date: 2004-10-27 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 04:35 pm (UTC)And, for me, it is very hard to write very intense scenes or ruffians without any cussing of any sort. It makes me appreciate his restraint, even for orcs, in the language. Thank you for wasting two days on this, for iff you did not- I would have had to!!!
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Date: 2004-10-27 01:07 am (UTC)Orcs language is not pretty. I didn't include epithets, but they called people things like "swine" and "maggots". As I said, the only use of "damned" in the entire four books was an Orc saying "damned rebel". But there was the use of the Black Speech in a couple of places, and he would sometimes be coy, by saying things like "they shook their fists and cursed".
I'm glad I saved you some time. I took more than two days at it, but I was also working on some other stuff at the same time.
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Date: 2004-10-27 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-10-27 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 08:43 pm (UTC)I think Bilbo may have said "Bless my buttons" in the Rankin-Bass version of The Hobbit. I'm not entirely certain, though... but I watch it fairly often to help with insomnia (don't laugh---the music is a guaranteed soporific!) and so I'll let you know. :)
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Date: 2004-10-28 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 08:18 am (UTC)Prissy! LOL! They do sound a bit prissy to modern ears, accustomed to much coarser language. But when I consider how sparse he used any exclamations, even the few mild ones he uses have more impact, than the modern practice of filling the page up with the "f word" as punctuation. 8-)