'Bottom, thou art translated.'

[Lalaith]

Tolkien did give us a hint about the Hobbits' usage - he once said/wrote (sorry, I don't have the exact quote or location at the moment) that the Hobbits only use the familiar pronoun. For that reason Pippin was considered royalty by the people of Gondor, because he addressed Denethor with the familiar pronoun! Only an equal would be allowed that privilege.

Yes, I remember that too...presumably Merry would have been the same with Theoden.
Can you remind me of the difference between Ihr and Sie?

I was wrong actually that there was no use of du/sie in the English original. I remember that there is a point in LotR where Eowyn addresses Aragorn as "thee". This is a more intimate form of address and it shifts the mood dramatically.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

Yes, I remember that too...presumably Merry would have been the same with Theoden.
Can you remind me of the difference between Ihr and Sie?

I was wrong actually that there was no use of du/sie in the English original. I remember that there is a point in LotR where Eowyn addresses Aragorn as "thee". This is a more intimate form of address and it shifts the mood dramatically.

Eowyn uses thou also with Theoden, where her usage has a very ritualistic tone.

Originally Posted by The King of the Golden Hall

The king now rose, and at once Eowyn came forward bearing wine. Ferthu Theoden hal! she said. 'Receive now this cup and drink in happy hour. Health be with thee at they going and coming!'

If I recall correctly, it was the Quakers who took up 'thee' and 'thou' as a public insistence upon the equality of all people. Yet their usage came to be seen as archaic and religious. Interesting.

(Of course, now we know where the modern phrase "happy hour" comes from. All praise to Tolkien!)

[William Cloud Hicklin]

[quote}The medieval feeling of LotR means that there is a form that was once used and is now considered old-fashioned, if not obsolete - "Ihr"[/quote]

And therefore perfectly useful in attemting to get Tolkien's English across. It's certainly not beyond moderately literate Germans, since both Goethe and Wagner used it- not to mention of course Luther's Bible.