Neckless and proofless?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

I kid because I love. I've always preferred "grey" to "gray" for instance, which I'm almost certain traces back to Tolkien.

I've always been very confused when people wrote "gray". I always spell it with an "e".


I didn't notice any mistake in my version of TH if it was there, and I don't have the book on me to check. But the first thing I thought upon reading the first post was a choker.

[Alfirin]

For what it's worth I recently discovered I use the british spelling for a LOT of words, including some I wasn't even aware HAD alternate spelling. For example I collect sea shells in particular those of the genus Cyparaea (or more acccuratly those that were in that genus before it was divided up into many smaller genera). I had always known the spelling of the common name of these shells as "cowrie", and that was how I wrote it. however when I got serios I discovered that, in American English it is considered proper to spell it "cowry". I still use the British spelling (To me it just looks better) but I had to learn to do searches under both spellings. I also tend to write "colour" and "theatre".

[Mister Underhill]

And we named a pub-slash-brewery after you, my friend!



You'll have to forgive the missing apostrophe. The sign-maker is one of those artsy types who insisted on sampling the fare before setting to work on the sign so that "the energy of the place would come out in the piece". I consider it a smashing success.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

And let's not forget "flammifer", "bebothered", "flummoxed", "glede" and "confusticated".

If Lorenz Hart had been a Tolkien fan, maybe Ella Fitzgerald would have sung "Bewitched, Bebothered, and Confusticated" instead. One can dream.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

I also tend to write "colour" and "theatre".

I heard about your anglophilic spelling proclivities, but all this time I thought it was just rumour.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I've always been very confused when people wrote "gray". I always spell it with an "e".

I was quite startled on the first morning of my first visit to the States, when I queried why the bus didn't seem to be going where I expected to be told "the bus has been re-routed because it's Labo(u)r Day" You would expect one rout to be enough for a bus.. if not completely unnecessary...

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally Posted by Mister U

And we named a pub-slash-brewery after you, my friend!

Had I been given a choice, that's what I'd have chosen to be named after me, and the honour is overwhelming. That is the best Downs-related out-of-context reproduction of someone's business advertising that I have ever seen.

Returning by herculean effort to something like the topic: the reason I ended up starting a thread about what would otherwise be a mere collector's footnote was that it's often hard to tell with Tolkien what's a mistake and what's JRRT arguing with the dictionary. Thrawn, for example, isn't standard English; it's a Scots dialect spelling of 'thrown' in what my dictionary calls an "obsolete sense" (not in 1954 it wasn't, apparently). It appears to be common across the north of England, deriving ultimately from OE thrawan, and I suspect that JRRT liked it because phonologically it's changed less since Old English than the standard English alternative, a bit like the situation that would exist if *dwarrows had survived in a dialect form instead of being reintroduced by JRRT himself: the Oxford Dictionary of English now lists dwarves as a legitimate plural of dwarf.

All of the above means that when I find an unusual spelling in Tolkien, I have to check to make sure that it isn't deliberate. This makes a typesetting error far more annoying than it would normally be, although any kind of copyist's error is a gross irritation. I'm reminded of something Michael Drout said on his blog about (inter alia) Herman Melville.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Anyway, I put "neckless" down to a Freudian slip on some editor's part, looking at a colleague across the room whose head appeared to sit directly on his shoulders.

"It's as though he has no neck at all. How can someone wear so big a collar with so little space to put it in? What was I doing again? Oh yes: '...and he brought out...'"

Something like that?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

"It's as though he has no neck at all. How can someone wear so big a collar with so little space to put it in? What was I doing again? Oh yes: '...and he brought out...'"

Something like that?

Exactly. I've known a fellow or two like that in my time.

[HerenIstarion]

Well, my paperback copy (not the original one, that got lost having been borrowed and re-borrowed and never returned to me) in another room with kids sleeping in for me to check now, but Kindle edition does say necklace at least.

As a side note, I had to get closer to the screen to reassure myself this were a recent topic indeed - the names of the posters, they looked like something back from 2003 you know )

[Inziladun]

H I! Good to see you, sir!

I can't find my oldest copy of TH, which is no doubt buried in one of the plastic containers in my basement. I'm curious about this.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally Posted by Heren Istarion

As a side note, I had to get closer to the screen to reassure myself this were a recent topic indeed - the names of the posters, they looked like something back from 2003 you know

And now even more so. Any minute now, Mithadan will come along and tell us to get back on topic.