LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 06 - The Battle of Pelennor Fields

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Encaitare

Maybe Sauron fed the beast with Rohirrim.

Ah, Encaitare, what a splendid entrance to the Chapter by Chapter discussions! Where logic splitteth hairs, humour gels.

Dictionary.com says...

. . . .

I think that definition 2 was what Tolkien has in mind; it shows what exactly the Rohirrim are capable of in what they think is their last hour. He could have described them as valiant or brave or noble, but we already know that. If we go by definition 2, we can see that they've been acting 'fell' all along even if they haven't been defined as such, charging at the foe crying 'Death!' and hacking off the heads of evil beasts.

Now I'll admit I'm as given to tossing out quotations from dictionaries as any one here (although I don't share completely Fordim's total admiration for the OED) but sometimes I wonder how people managed to understand books and new vocabulary before our great Dr. Johnson wrote our first illustrious dictionary and Noah Webster enlightened Americans about new ways to spell old words. How did they do it?

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

A) I think you are grasping at straws in taking a rather narrow instance and making a bit much of it.

B) What do you expect? Look at it as a part of Tolkien's empathy to show that fighting against the Free Peoples was an unpleasant experience for those involved and he appreciated that as an author.

You know, you could be right, Kuru--straws making good strawmen--but I just sort of thought that Tolkien fans might be somewhat as curious about the ways of language as Tolkien was himself and when a rather unique word is used uniquely to describe two 'sides' in the major battle chapter of the book, well, gosh, it was just too tempting to make hay.