Tolkien vocabulary I (serious) - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

***Sharkû*** · 01-18-2002, 11:08 AM

Settling down from my victory dance that I was able to reply six minutes before the hobbit, let me dwell on the word dwimmerlaik a bit.

Shippey's invaluable "Road to Middle-Earth" provides some information:

"Éomer says Saruman is 'dwimmer-crafty', using an old word for 'nightmare' or 'illusion' to say that wizards are 'skinturners' like Beorn, which as far as we know they are not." (117)

"Close in both place and time was the Brut, an Arthurian Chronicle-epic by one Lajamon. Tolkien certainly valued this as a repository of past tradition, borrowing from it, for instance, Éowyn's word 'dwimmerlaik'." (300)

To speculate wildly, as I will, on the origin and relations of 'laik' may be idle, but interesting nevertheless: as a simple meaning, it might come from "Late Latin laicus, from Late Greek laïkos, from Greek, of the people, from laos people" (www.m-w.com, laical. More interesting may be a connection with the German word Leiche, corpse; that connection seems indeed plausible even with the relation of English-German sounds in mind. (edit) That assumption of mine is proven correct by Mirrorball Man's kind providing of the OE/AS word [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ January 18, 2002: Message edited by: Sharku ]

01-18-2002, 11:08 AM	#11
*Sharkû* Hungry Ghoul Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 1,719	Settling down from my victory dance that I was able to reply six minutes before the hobbit, let me dwell on the word dwimmerlaik a bit. Shippey's invaluable "Road to Middle-Earth" provides some information: "Éomer says Saruman is 'dwimmer-crafty', using an old word for 'nightmare' or 'illusion' to say that wizards are 'skinturners' like Beorn, which as far as we know they are not." (117) "Close in both place and time was the Brut, an Arthurian Chronicle-epic by one Lajamon. Tolkien certainly valued this as a repository of past tradition, borrowing from it, for instance, Éowyn's word 'dwimmerlaik'." (300) To speculate wildly, as I will, on the origin and relations of 'laik' may be idle, but interesting nevertheless: as a simple meaning, it might come from "Late Latin laicus, from Late Greek laïkos, from Greek, of the people, from laos people" (www.m-w.com, laical. More interesting may be a connection with the German word Leiche, corpse; that connection seems indeed plausible even with the relation of English-German sounds in mind. (edit) That assumption of mine is proven correct by Mirrorball Man's kind providing of the OE/AS word [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [ January 18, 2002: Message edited by: Sharku ]