Neckless and proofless?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally Posted by Mister U

And we named a pub-slash-brewery after you, my friend!

Had I been given a choice, that's what I'd have chosen to be named after me, and the honour is overwhelming. That is the best Downs-related out-of-context reproduction of someone's business advertising that I have ever seen.

Returning by herculean effort to something like the topic: the reason I ended up starting a thread about what would otherwise be a mere collector's footnote was that it's often hard to tell with Tolkien what's a mistake and what's JRRT arguing with the dictionary. Thrawn, for example, isn't standard English; it's a Scots dialect spelling of 'thrown' in what my dictionary calls an "obsolete sense" (not in 1954 it wasn't, apparently). It appears to be common across the north of England, deriving ultimately from OE thrawan, and I suspect that JRRT liked it because phonologically it's changed less since Old English than the standard English alternative, a bit like the situation that would exist if *dwarrows had survived in a dialect form instead of being reintroduced by JRRT himself: the Oxford Dictionary of English now lists dwarves as a legitimate plural of dwarf.

All of the above means that when I find an unusual spelling in Tolkien, I have to check to make sure that it isn't deliberate. This makes a typesetting error far more annoying than it would normally be, although any kind of copyist's error is a gross irritation. I'm reminded of something Michael Drout said on his blog about (inter alia) Herman Melville.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Anyway, I put "neckless" down to a Freudian slip on some editor's part, looking at a colleague across the room whose head appeared to sit directly on his shoulders.

"It's as though he has no neck at all. How can someone wear so big a collar with so little space to put it in? What was I doing again? Oh yes: '...and he brought out...'"

Something like that?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

"It's as though he has no neck at all. How can someone wear so big a collar with so little space to put it in? What was I doing again? Oh yes: '...and he brought out...'"

Something like that?

Exactly. I've known a fellow or two like that in my time.

[HerenIstarion]

Well, my paperback copy (not the original one, that got lost having been borrowed and re-borrowed and never returned to me) in another room with kids sleeping in for me to check now, but Kindle edition does say necklace at least.

As a side note, I had to get closer to the screen to reassure myself this were a recent topic indeed - the names of the posters, they looked like something back from 2003 you know )

[Inziladun]

H I! Good to see you, sir!

I can't find my oldest copy of TH, which is no doubt buried in one of the plastic containers in my basement. I'm curious about this.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally Posted by Heren Istarion

As a side note, I had to get closer to the screen to reassure myself this were a recent topic indeed - the names of the posters, they looked like something back from 2003 you know

And now even more so. Any minute now, Mithadan will come along and tell us to get back on topic.

[Galadriel55]

...but I just checked my edition, and it says "necklace".

[Galadriel55]

"My dear Bard!" squeaked Bilbo. ". . . Now I will make you an offer! !"

(yes, the exclamation marks are that far apart) [Edit: the site doesn't let me put them as far as I want to; it shrinks the spaces]

Surely you don't disbelieve the prophesies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole bene-fit?

(Sole bene-fit... sounds like a shoe business )

And from a peek into A Long Expected Party that was put as an appendix,

"Well, so they say," said the Gaffer. "Yousee: Mr. Drogo, he married poor Miss Primula Brandybuck."

I have a feeling there was another gaffe that I can't locate at the moment... Will add it if I find it.