Quote:
Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Frankly, I think this kind of word play is the opposite of what Lal calls a desire to avoid boastfulness: it's the very kind of arrogance that hides its silliness in a seeming display of learnedness. We tend to take Tolkien's languages as something serious, sacred, even sacrosanct, but I think The Good Professor was too eccentric to be so sombre. Tollers was a Python before their time.
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And there's another aspect of British culture, the urge to downplay everything, and it's maybe why Tolkien's work is full of jokes and amusing characters. It's all very well, being sort of grand and Wagnerian, but it's just not cricket to get too pompous about things.
Take a look at Gandalf and his sense of humour. You can just imagine him coming down from Caradhras and giving a little shiver and saying "Bit nippy up there chaps!" Captain Oates words to Scott in the Antarctic were typically British: "I am just going outside and may be some time" which meant he was walking off into a blizzard in order to commit suicide for the sake of his comrades.
Though to be truly mad, you really need to be stinking rich, as then you can get away with it - ordinary mad people just get locked up but if Lords go barmy we just laugh and go "Heh, look, he's a real eccentric." Like at the 5th Duke of Portland, my favourite Mr Mad.
