Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Tolkien's jokes in Rohan and Gondor are few and far between. It seems that he restricted his humorous asides to the Shire. I shan't belabour the well-known meanings of many Rohirric names in Old English, but it might be worth mentioning them again: Theoden, Goldwine, Thengel and Walda are all more or less poetic words for 'king', 'lord' or 'ruler' (gold-wine = 'gold-friend'). Eorl is much the same as Norse Jarl (the English word only gained its current meaning during Norse rule in England) and means 'lord' (modern English earl); Fengel means 'prince'. Aldor can mean 'age', but also 'chief', so is doubly applicable, and Gamling contains the element gamol (old age), so probably means 'old man'. The Mark itself has a name that is just a modernisation of OE mærc (mod. Eng. march, 'border land'), and which is probably better known in its Latinate form Mercia.

Other Rohirric names contain horse elements, hence Éowyn, 'horse-joy' (OE eoh, 'war-horse, charger', wyn, 'joy, glory'; Éomer, 'horse-famous' (OE mære, 'great, excellent, distinguished, famous, sublime, etc.') There aren't really any jokes there except for the fact that for most of the Lords of the Mark, the style "[name] King" is a tautology. As for Gondor, since its names are either Sindarin or Adûnaic I'll defer to others who know more about Tolkien's own languages.

So what does this mean? Personally I think that in the Shire and there alone Tolkien felt free to make jokes at the expense of the English. Like the hobbits, we are sitting on thousands of years of history that is still present in the language and more so in names; and like the hobbits, most of us are completely unaware of it. How many people called Alfred really know that their names mean 'Elven-counsel'? How many people called Septimus are seventh sons? Our place-names often reveal layers of ignorance covering a thousand years, so that we have names like Bredon on the Hill ('hill-hill on the hill'), the Bree-land Chetwood ('wood-wood'), and the several rivers in England called River Avon (Welsh afon, 'river'). The Hobbits are out of touch with their past, but their past is still there for those with eyes to see and with a power to affect the present. In Gondor and the Mark, still more so in the realms of the Elves, the inhabitants are more aware of their history, which makes this sort of humour a little more difficult to apply.

[EDIT] cross-posted with Underhill.

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Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

Gamling contains the element gamol (old age), so probably means 'old man'.

In modern Swedish and Norwegian gammal means 'old' and the Danes also use a very similar word. Furthermore, gamling is in Swedish a widely used word for 'old person', more often than not used on men, so for us Swedes Gamling is basically an old man whose name is 'old man'.

[Alfirin]

"gamling" also always reminded me of "gamy" in the British colloquial sense of injured or lame (when referring to a limb) which also fits with the "old and doddering man" image

You referece to Septimus was interesting as I reminded of a musing I once had. Given the general tendecy (at least in European and or western cultures) toward smaller familes I wonder how many people are walking around with the given names Septimus, Octavian (or Octavia) and Decimus (I'm sure there is some name for "nine" but I've just never heard of someone named with it (it would be someting like Nonian or Nonius, right) for whom it is actually accurate. For that matter (in a magic/power sense) how many seventh sons of seventh sons are their still?

[Guinevere]

I always wondered why the Mirkwood spiders were so enraged by Bilbo calling them "Attercop", since I know that "edderkopp" in Norwegian means simply spider.

Here's what I found in the internet:

At´ter`cop
n. 1. A spider.
2. A peevish, ill-natured person.

source: Thefreedictionary.com


attercop
"spider," O.E. attorcoppa, lit. "poison-head," from ator
"poison,"
from P.Gmc. *aitra- "poisonous ulcer" (cf. O.N. eitr, Ger. eiter) +
cop "top, summit, round head," probably also "spider". (cf cobweb)

source: Online Etymology Dictionary

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I always wondered why the Mirkwood spiders were so enraged by Bilbo calling them "Attercop", since I know that "edderkopp" in Norwegian means simply spider.

Here's what I found in the internet:

Hmmm...perhaps it's like calling a woman a 'broad'. Both are synonymous in the strictest sense, but I know of no woman who prefers to be called one.

I am at work, but I know there is a discussion regarding the term Attercop in The Annotated Hobbit. If no one has access to it, I'll look it up when I get home.