Words and Names in Tolkien's Work

[Gwen_Holbytla]

Originally Posted by the guy who be short

The purpose of Tolkien's invented language was to be beautiful, not to reflect English.

I would attempt to gently disagree. I think along with Tolkien's goal to create the missing English myth by assembling the unknown hints of sufficiently old works, he wanted to draw deliberate connections between our language and the language in his canon. I believe he knowingly uses Old English to reflect on both his source material and the general historic groundwork he was attempting to lay. (Both senses of lay down a piece and 'to write a lay' - tehe, puns.)

The *holbytla is probably the most well known example, his coining of the word from hol, hole, and bytlian, to dwell in, and the implication that it later degenerated into hobbit.

You can also see this in Gandalf's name. Gandálfr is a name from the Völuspá, which Tolkien stole (along with the majority of the dwarf names from TH). In all his linguistical wisdom, he decided it to mean stalf-elf, as a kenning for wizard. So we see here a deliberate attempt to draw back on older words (of various languages, but including O.E.) and give (or discover) their appropriate meaning in a manner that the modern reader can decipher.

This recreation and connection in language is a reflection (or perhaps the other is a reflection upon his linguistic choice) of his attempt to recreate the English myth - in a manner similar to the Kalevala, actually.

But of course I'm not a linguist like you are, so please feel quite free to utterly destroy any points above.




*first post dance - hello, all! Greetings!*