Tolkien Monster Manual

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Since you are planning to include the sentient races, I guess my problem boils down to the terminology - I would not call a list that includes Men, Elves, etc. a "Bestiary", since that word suggests "beasts" and is used for animals.

[Bêthberry]

Yes, Estelyn, I am aware that 'bestiary' is reserved mainly for medieval lists of real or imaginary animals, and includes fables and allegories of such creatures. I was simply wondering if Makar was using a more philosophic or scientific definition which includes, for example, homo sapiens as animals. Since at least hobbits, dwarves and elves are fabled species, I wondered if he was extending the list of sentient beings.

This is not just a quibble over definition, though, I would think, but goes to the nature of sentient beings in Middle earth and is related to how Tolkien discusses language.

For instance, if orcs are corrupted elves, they apparently have lost the ability to generate their own vocabulary and perhaps grammar, whereas other species, like Ents, clearly have language. Black Speech is apparently a foul form of speech, its vocabulary stolen from other languages. Yet it is, clearly, called speech.

'It is said that [the Orcs] had no language of their own, but took what they could of other tongues and perverted it to their own liking...'
The Lord of the Rings
Appendix F I The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age

But in that Appendix Tolkien refers to orcs as "foul people."

'Orc is the form of the name that other races had for this foul people as it was in the language of Rohan. In Sindarin it was orch. Related, no doubt, was the word uruk in the Black Speech...'
The Lord of the Rings
Appendix F I The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age

Did the elves create the word 'orc' which was perverted into uruk, or was it vice versa? Perhaps Black Speech was not orcish, but Sauron's own language, which the orcs then aped.

With walking trees, talking dragons (even dragon spells), eagles imbued with the spirit of Eru (Thorondir could talk and was mighty as the elf-lords), and the fabulous element of faerie, I'm not sure that sentience (or language) can be used to draw a hard and fast line between the beasts and the ... two legged creatures.

Edit: Then there are those two "river spirits", Goldberry and her mother, the River-woman. And as for Tom's race, well ...

[Makar]

Let's not call it a bestiary, let's call it a list. A list of all the living things that exist in ME that don't exist in our world, or exist in some manner that is different from our world.

[Bêthberry]

Oh but 'list' is so prosaic. I like "bestiary." It recalls fables and legends. It comes out of the Middle ages. It suits the fairie realm.

EDIT: My point about the beastial conundrum was to suggest that the old line drawn between humans and beasts or animals is not tenable in Middle earth. Nor, in fact, has it always been observed in our primary world. But that is a different argument.