Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc. - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Angry Hill Troll · 02-26-2003, 03:29 PM

Here's a linguistic pun regarding Eowyn that Tolkien didn't intend (but ended up with anyway. This has to do with the more recent (some 50 years after LOTR was written) feminist spelling of 'women' as 'wymyn'. It's kind of amusing that Eowyn has a 'y' substituting for an 'i' and is the only character who could plausibly be interpreted as feminist icon.

A different linguistic pun Tolkien may have intended. One of the Dwarf-lords of Moria who was killed after the balrog reappeared was named Nain. '-ain' seems a common ending of dwarven names, Thain, Dain, ... But nain means 'dwarf' in French. I wonder how the translators handled this...otherwise he might end up sounding pretty generic. "We couldn't think up a good name for him, so we just call him 'dwarf'!" [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

02-26-2003, 03:29 PM	#8
Angry Hill Troll Wight Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Ephel Duath Posts: 115	Here's a linguistic pun regarding Eowyn that Tolkien didn't intend (but ended up with anyway. This has to do with the more recent (some 50 years after LOTR was written) feminist spelling of 'women' as 'wymyn'. It's kind of amusing that Eowyn has a 'y' substituting for an 'i' and is the only character who could plausibly be interpreted as feminist icon. A different linguistic pun Tolkien may have intended. One of the Dwarf-lords of Moria who was killed after the balrog reappeared was named Nain. '-ain' seems a common ending of dwarven names, Thain, Dain, ... But nain means 'dwarf' in French. I wonder how the translators handled this...otherwise he might end up sounding pretty generic. "We couldn't think up a good name for him, so we just call him 'dwarf'!" [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]