Interesting book

[dreamflower]

I just finished a *very* interesting book about JRRT. It's called "The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary" by Paul Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner.

Review behind cut:

As most of us know, JRRT was one of the people who worked on the OED, beginning right after WWI. The first part of the book is rather technical, dealing with his work there, and explaining how it was all put together. (His first work was on the letter "W".) Nowadays, when one can search for references at the click of a mouse, it's hard to remember the days when trying to find the first time a word was quoted meant physically skimming through book after dusty book, by hand. Their methods, of writing things out in longhand on little slips of paper seems so haphazard, yet it was the only way to do it. It seems to have been work that he really enjoyed. Still, unless you are really *into* that yourself, you may want to skip to the second part of the book.

The *second* half of the book deals with words that are in the OED, directly attributable to JRRT--they may be words he coined, such as "mithril", "eucatastrophe"or "malefit" (that last one means the opposite of "benefit"), words he resurrected from obscurity, such as "ent" or "mathom", and words others coined about him, such as "Tolkienesque" or "Tolkienish". It is truly fascinating to see how his mind worked: most words seemed to have several layers to them--the literal meaning in the way he actually used them, and the various other words and meanings that contributed to them. Some of his words were really puns that no one except another linguist would understand.

By the way, he used the word "dumbledore" long before JKR did--in a version of the poem "Errantry". It *means* "bumblebee", LOL!

At any rate, it was a very enjoyable read, and cast light on another facet of this brilliant man.

Comments

[aspenjules.livejournal.com]

That really *is* fascinating.

I would probably like *best* the part about the words he resurrected from obscurity, because I love old words, the ways their meanings evolved, etc.

Also the bit about the words with several layers calls to me.

Words are such magical things, aren't they? And people who really can manipulate them properly are the ones who make magic with them. Like JRRT.

Thanks so much for sharing!

[dreamflower]

It just floors me how much he understood about language and words and meanings--they just don't *make* scholars like him nowadays! But I think it was more than just his philogical training--I think he seemed to understand a lot about how language worked by instinct.

[aspenjules.livejournal.com]

they just don't *make* scholars like him nowadays!

I don't know... maybe they do but we just aren't aware of them. The only reason most of us are aware of JRRT is because he *took* that training and instinct and love for language (that was the root of it I think, or else the instinct and the love worked off each other) and made a timeless piece of art to which we are all drawn because of our own love of language.

I think that more than anything is what binds the LotR fandom together.

[dreamflower]

Well, no, they don't. Sadly, the sort of learning and training he had, which *gave* him the ability to *use* his instinct for language to the utmost is no longer offered by universities. Even schools which still offer courses in the old languages and degrees in philology do not follow the sort of philosophy which was behind the learning that JRRT recieved and taught in his turn. He fought hard for Oxford to retain the syllabus he devised when he had his chair there, but to no avail.

Few young people have the grounding in languages that was common for students in the earlier part of the 20th century. One didn't even get into a university without at least knowing Latin first, and usually Greek as well. Once there, other languages were added if one wanted a degree in English. It's just not done that way anymore.

[aspenjules.livejournal.com]

Good point. *concedes*

Ummm... what exactly *is* philology, by the way?

[dreamflower]

Basically the study of words and where they came from--their origins, and so forth. JRRT was part of the "old school" philologists who thought that it was an essential part of the study of literature. He was also of the opinion that mythology had more to do with word origins than most people thought.