curseing middle earth! - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Kalimac · 11-19-2003, 11:01 PM

Cazoz, I was fired by curiosity (especially since I've been reading a lot of Lewis lately as well) so went onto Google. According to this article by A.N. Wilson (here's the URL) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main...24/bfanw24.xml
it was actually Hugo Dyson who said it. Regardless, I have to admit it's a funny story.

About the Orc-speech; Tolkien was a little inconsistent about that sentence; in various letters he gave it at least two interpretations (and if I had a copy of the letters with me, I'd cite them - grrrr...) so I'm not sure that even a Black Speech site could make much of it except that it's not meant to be complimentary.

As for swearing in general, Tolkien does not seem to have approved it at all. He refers in his letters as well to "the Orc-minded, to whom only the squalid sounds strong," and much of today's cursing would fall into that category - spoken in the heat of the moment, but still ugly and unimaginative, as are the Orcs.

(About that article, I don't agree with many of its assertions, though it might have been worth discussing in another thread were it not so out-of-date. Just citing my sources on the Lewis/****ing Elf story.

[ November 20, 2003: Message edited by: Kalimac ]

11-19-2003, 11:01 PM	#11
Kalimac Candle of the Marshes Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Flyover Country Posts: 780	Cazoz, I was fired by curiosity (especially since I've been reading a lot of Lewis lately as well) so went onto Google. According to this article by A.N. Wilson (here's the URL) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main...24/bfanw24.xml it was actually Hugo Dyson who said it. Regardless, I have to admit it's a funny story. About the Orc-speech; Tolkien was a little inconsistent about that sentence; in various letters he gave it at least two interpretations (and if I had a copy of the letters with me, I'd cite them - grrrr...) so I'm not sure that even a Black Speech site could make much of it except that it's not meant to be complimentary. As for swearing in general, Tolkien does not seem to have approved it at all. He refers in his letters as well to "the Orc-minded, to whom only the squalid sounds strong," and much of today's cursing would fall into that category - spoken in the heat of the moment, but still ugly and unimaginative, as are the Orcs. (About that article, I don't agree with many of its assertions, though it might have been worth discussing in another thread were it not so out-of-date. Just citing my sources on the Lewis/****ing Elf story. [ November 20, 2003: Message edited by: Kalimac ] __________________ Father, dear Father, if you see fit, We'll send my love to college for one year yet Tie blue ribbons all about his head, To let the ladies know that he's married.