“Thee” and “thou” in “The Lord of the Rings”

[Faramir Jones]

Pitchwife, I wanted to comment on what you had to say here:

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Some remarks to usage in the German (Carroux) translation: the hobbits in the Shire mostly use du towards each other, but Frodo and Farmer Maggot address each other with Ihr (which may reflect uneasy feelings from the past on Frodo's side, whereas on Maggot's it may indicate that he now treats Frodo with the respect due to the Baggins of Bag-End), and the Fellowship hobbits use Ihr to the lords and ladies they meet on their journey, like Elrond, Galadriel, King Théoden and Denethor, but also to 'normal' people like Beregond - which goes quite against the grain of Tolkien's remark in Appendix F. Apparently Ms Carroux felt she had to deviate from Tolkien in this, because it would sound childish in German to say du to an unfamiliar adult.

To be fair about Pippin's use of Ihr to Beregond, he initially thought that the latter was of higher rank, and was only later told by him that he was just a 'plain man of arms'.

How does Beregond refer to Pippin in the translation? Is it in formal or intimate terms? I'm interested because though both are equal in rank, Pippin is higher in social position, being the son and heir of the Thain.