New interview with Christopher Tolkien - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

jallanite · 10-16-2013, 05:45 PM

Looking through some other Tolkien websites I found a post by Áhann Áhim posting under the name Mandos at http://www.lotrplaza.com/showthread....%28as-Bifur%29 , post #6, which comments on Tolkien’s pronunciation of Thengel. Áhann posts in part:

I just listened to Tolkien's reading of part of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' (J.R.R. Tolkien Audio Collection, CD 2), where he does in fact pronounce Théoden's father as /þengel/. I'm unclear if this is a learned choice about Mercian Old English (if so, it goes against what his pupil, Alistair Campbell, wrote in his grammar, and against the standard view of most scholars before and since), or if Tolkien just aesthetically preferred that pronunciation, and so used it - since, after all, the Rohirrim aren't literally Anglo-Saxons, and he was therefore free to alter such details to his liking.

So seemingly Christopher Tolkien’s pronunciation is indeed the standard one and J. R. R. Tolkien’s is non-standard.

10-16-2013, 05:45 PM	#25
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	Looking through some other Tolkien websites I found a post by Áhann Áhim posting under the name Mandos at http://www.lotrplaza.com/showthread....%28as-Bifur%29 , post #6, which comments on Tolkien’s pronunciation of Thengel. Áhann posts in part: I just listened to Tolkien's reading of part of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' (J.R.R. Tolkien Audio Collection, CD 2), where he does in fact pronounce Théoden's father as /þengel/. I'm unclear if this is a learned choice about Mercian Old English (if so, it goes against what his pupil, Alistair Campbell, wrote in his grammar, and against the standard view of most scholars before and since), or if Tolkien just aesthetically preferred that pronunciation, and so used it - since, after all, the Rohirrim aren't literally Anglo-Saxons, and he was therefore free to alter such details to his liking. So seemingly Christopher Tolkien’s pronunciation is indeed the standard one and J. R. R. Tolkien’s is non-standard.