Tolkien's "Special" Words

Server Room Gremlin said:

I took it to mean that they were brothers despite being created and not born (the usual definition of brothers - born with a parent in common). All the Ainur were created by Ilúvatar, yet some are considered close kin while others are not. The distinction of whether they are 'siblings' or not is only in how Ilúvatar thought/created them to be, as they all came into being in the same manner.

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Never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect theological sense.
Yours is an excellent example of "thinking outside the box." 🙂

Another word added:

capital Minas Tirith: “Pippin looked into a great hall…rows of tall pillars that upheld the roof…Monoliths of black marble, they rose to great capitals carved in many strange figures of beasts and leaves…”, [Definition: In architecture, the capital (from Latin caput 'head') forms the topmost member of a column. It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface.]

Corinthian capitals atop columns of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington DC


So, we have capital the city, Capitol the building, and now capital is a piece of a building in the capital. I wonder if the Capitol has any capitals. (Probably does, I'd guess.)

Yes, the columns at the US Capitol feature Corinthian capitals.

Another term for the list...

well-knit The Muster of Rohan: "Thus it came to pass that when the king set out, before Dernhelm sat Meriadoc the hobbit, and the great grey steed Windfola made little of the burden; for Dernhelm was less in weight than many men, though lithe and well-knit in frame.", [Definition: firmly and strongly constructed, compacted, or framed.]

“Well-knit” Dernhelm compares nicely to our earlier introduction to “strong and stern as steel” Eowyn:

“Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Eowyn, Lady of Rohan…”

Eljorahir said:

well-knit

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I didn't think of it before, but the word knit comes back around during Dernhelm/Eowyn's epic scene (and one of my favorite sentences in the story):

"No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will."

So, Tolkien applies the word knit to both Dernhelm/Eowyn and The Witch-King. It seems almost too unlikely to be a coincidence.

Delightful! (IMO)

Eljorahir said:

I don't think it warrants an entry in the list, just some thoughts on the ings and the lings...

We've all heard of ducklings and goslings. Star Wars includes Younglings. I'm sure there are many more.

Tolkien gives us Bardings, Entings, Beornings, and my personal favorite: a Thengling. (Theoden, son of Thengel, is of course a Thengling. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to find it a little funny but I do. From now on I'm referring to Sam's children all as Samlings.)

"...War was kindled. There Theoden fell, Thengling mighty, to his golden halls and green pastures in the Northern fields never returning, high lord of the host..."

These ings and lings were brought to us by a member of The Inklings. (Should the term be thought of as though it were: Children of the Ink?)

Are there any other ings and lings in the story?

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@Eljorahir
“Underling is a double diminutive. El we find in pickerel, model, etc… Ing was in Old English = son of. The two together now mark a contemptuous diminutive, as in lordling, witling, weakling ; but not always since we have darling (= dearling), yearling, foundling, etc…”
I hope this was of some value. It came across it in a note for Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar and thought of your comment.

Erurávennë said:

“Underling is a double diminutive. El we find in pickerel, model, etc… Ing was in Old English = son of. The two together now mark a contemptuous diminutive, as in lordling, witling, weakling ; but not always since we have darling (= dearling), yearling, foundling, etc…”
I hope this was of some value. It came across it in a note for Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar and thought of your comment.

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Interesting. Thanks.

I see yearling gets used in Appendix A.

Elrond to Aragorn:
"But as for Arwen...you are but as a yearling shoot beside a young birch of many summers..."

I added one word to the list today. If I have it right, Tolkien is reaching back to a meaning not practically used for 500 years...

Cirion asks Eorl to "be kind". Although, in his use of the word, he doesn’t mean: “be nice”.

kind Unfinished Tales, Cirion and Eorl: "To Eorl I will give in free gift all the great land of Calenardhon from Anduin to Isen. There, if he will, he shall be kind, and his heirs after him, and his people shall dwell in freedom while the authority of the Stewards endures, until the Great King returns.", [Obsolete Definition: a person having a claim or right by birth or inheritance; legitimately entitled to a property, position, or status; lawful, rightful.]

Eljorahir said:

I added one word to the list today. If I have it right, Tolkien is reaching back to a meaning not practically used for 500 years...

Cirion asks Eorl to "be kind". Although, in his use of the word, he doesn’t mean: “be nice”.

kind Unfinished Tales, Cirion and Eorl: "To Eorl I will give in free gift all the great land of Calenardhon from Anduin to Isen. There, if he will, he shall be kind, and his heirs after him, and his people shall dwell in freedom while the authority of the Stewards endures, until the Great King returns.", [Obsolete Definition: a person having a claim or right by birth or inheritance; legitimately entitled to a property, position, or status; lawful, rightful.]

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Notice too the relationship of "kind" (in the obsolete/archaic meaning) ... and "kindred"

Three more words have been added. Thanks @Starbrow !

frore The Lay of Leithian: “Esgalduin’s dark and shrouded stream he followed, till its water frore were joined to Sirion…”, [Archaic meaning: frozen, frosty.]

guerdon The Lay of Leithian: “Thus guerdon shall ye have that bore these tidings sweet, O traitor dear!”, [Archaic meaning: reward, recompense.]

haply The Lay of Leithian: “…or haply battle, ruin, and woe, in Doriath where great Thingol reigned, if Feanor’s fatal jewel he gained.”, [Archaic definition: by chance or accident; perhaps.]


Does this work?:

Alas, her way was crossed,
thus her guerdon was lost.

Forsooth! I added two terms to the list today.

forsooth The Voice of Saruman (Eomer, not fooled by The Voice): "Lord, hear me!...Have we ridden forth to victory, only to stand at last amazed by an old liar with honey on his forked tongue?...What aid can he give to you, forsooth? All he desires is to escape from his plight…", [Archaic Meaning: in truth, indeed. Often used to imply contempt or doubt.]

murder will out The Window on the West (Faramir speaking to Frodo about Boromir’s death): "The horn came, but it was cloven in two…found spinning on the flood…Strange chances, but murder will out, ‘tis said.", [Meaning: a murder will always become public knowledge.]


“Murder will out” seemed like an interesting combination of words and a good candidate for my collection of Tolkien’s literary Easter Eggs. However, try as I might, I couldn’t find anything within the outside uses of the phrase connecting back into Tolkien’s story. Oh well, it wasn’t a total waste; along the way I learned about the meaning of the term “penny dreadful” and the strange mytho-historic tale (not tail) of The Dog of Montarges.

Murder Will Out is the original title of an English adaptation of the 1814 French play The Dog of Montarges.
According to the legend:
"A French courtier of King Charles V (1338–80), Aubry de Montdidier, was murdered c. 1371 in the forest of Bondy, north of Paris. The only witness to De Montdidier’s murder was his dog, which pursued the perpetrator until he was captured; the murderer was Robert Macaire. The king ordered that Macaire, armed with a stick, and the dog should fight a duel, which took place on the Isle de Notre Dame. The dog won: Macaire confessed and was hanged.

A statue of the fight is a landmark in the French community of Montargis, France.


From Wikipedia, Murder Will Out may refer to:
Murder Will Out (1899 film), a lost 1899 French silent film by Georges Méliès
Murder Will Out (1930 film), a 1930 American drama film starring Jack Mulhall
Murder Will Out (1939 film), a 1939 British crime film starring Jack Hawkins
The Voice of Merrill, 1952 British film released under this title in the U.S.
"Murder Will Out", a sequence in the 1930 film revue Paramount on Parade
Murder Will Out, original title of an English adaptation of the 1814 French play The Dog of Montarges
Murder Will Out, an 1860 novel by Elizabeth Caroline Grey
Murder Will Out, a 1932 mystery novel by Murray Leinster (as Will F. Jenkins)
"Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction, a 1990 book by T. J. Binyon

Today, I added weapontake to the list. However, I’ve found it difficult to determine Tolkien’s precise intended meaning for it in the story.

Let me know if you can shed any light on this one.
Best I can do for now…

weapontake The Muster of Rohan (Theoden speaking to Hirgon after delivery of the Red Arrow): "But we will speak no longer counsels of prudence. We will come. The weapontake was set for the morrow. When all is ordered we will set out. Ten thousand spears I might have sent…”, [Meaning: Weapontake is not in the dictionary and seems to be a word Tolkien constructed. Perhaps it is a synonym for muster: an assembly of soldiers. Or, maybe Tolkien intended it to mean the process of soldiers reporting to the armoury and taking up arms before mustering for battle.]

I saw some discussion about the similarity between Tolkien’s weapontake and a Norse-derived term wapentake. I don’t know if the resemblance is meaningful.

One aspect of wapentake:
Middle English, from Old English wǣpentæc, from Old Norse vāpnatak act of grasping weapons, from vāpn weapon + tak act of grasping, from taka to take; probably from the brandishing of weapons as an expression of approval when the chief of the wapentake entered upon his office.

I would agree that it means something like 'taking up arms', the final stage before setting off to do battle.
But Tolkien probably worded it this way because it had a resemblance to an Old English or Norse term, and as such would fit better with the way he portrayed the language and culture of the Rohirrim.

A noteworthy variant of a familiar word:

affianced Aldarion and Erendis, The Mariner’s Wife: "…you are betrothed. And by the laws of Numenor and the right ways of the Eldar and Edain a man shall not have two wives. You cannot wed the Sea, for you are affianced to Erendis.”, [Meaning: engaged to be married.]

"Quick and dirty" info on weapontake (courtesy of AI) until I can look it up in the OED....

A weapontake (or wapentake) is an archaic term meaning a military muster, an assembly of armed men, or a historical administrative district in northern England.

Etymology and Origin

• • Old Norse Roots: Derived from vápnatak, combining vápn (weapon) and taka (to take). [1]
  • The Weapon Clash: Historically referred to a gathering where people brandished or touched weapons to show agreement, vote, or swear allegiance to a leader.

Literary Usage

• • J.R.R. Tolkien: Used weapontake in The Lord of the Rings in its literal sense—a military assembly or gathering of armed men ready for war, rather than a regional land division.

Deimos said:

I can look it up in the OED....

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The free-access online OED had no entry for weapontake, only wapentake. I'll be interested to see if you find anything different.

If interested, here's the collection of quotes/words I thought were associated with weapontake. I was trying to discern from the context if there was some distinction between weapontake, muster, and marshal but couldn't quite reach a conclusion. My best guess is they are close to synonyms.

Edit: Or, maybe not synonyms: First, report to the armoury for the weapontake (distribution of arms). Second comes the muster (troops assemble and prepare for departure). Lastly, the troops are marshalled (formed into ordered ranks).

In Edoras…
522-4 “…I will offer such things as may be found in my armoury.”
522-5 “Now men came bearing raiment of war from the king’s hoard…”

The Passing of the Grey Company:
777-6 “There are no great weapon-hoards here [Helm’s Deep], lord,” answered Eomer.
778-5 “…all who could be spared were riding to the weapontake at Edoras. A thousand spears had indeed already ridden away…”

The Muster of Rohan:
800-1 “But we will speak no longer counsels of prudence. We will come. The weapontake was set for the morrow. When all is ordered we will set out. Ten thousand spears I might have sent…”
801-4 “The muster shall begin at once…”
801-6 “Then call the heralds, Eomer,” said Theoden. “Let the Riders be marshalled!”
803-3 “It was indeed in deepening gloom that the king came to Edoras…There he halted only a short while and strengthened his host by some three score of Riders that came late to the weapontake.”

Eljorahir said:

The free-access online OED had no entry for weapontake, only wapentake. I'll be interested to see if you find anything different.

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"Free-access online OED" ... *sniff* ...(as @Lobelia B. S-B might respond).
"You get what you pay for." I will look it up in my real one 🤨

Aumbry The Children of Hurin, Chapter 7 “But most of the chambers were now empty: in the armouries hung axes and other gear rusted and dusty, shelves and aumbries rise were bare;” Meaning: In older or historical British usage, the word simply meant a pantry, storage closet, or household cabinet.

Starbrow said:

Aumbry The Children of Hurin, Chapter 7 “But most of the chambers were now empty: in the armouries hung axes and other gear rusted and dusty, shelves and aumbries rise were bare;” Meaning: In older or historical British usage, the word simply meant a pantry, storage closet, or household cabinet.

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I added it. Thanks.


Though not applicable to Mim's house (I think), sometimes the term has a more specific meaning: a
recessed cabinet in the wall of a Christian church for storing sacred vessels and vestments.

Mid-13th century aumbry at St Matthew's Church, Langford, Oxfordshire, England