Rune
Once A Fool
It was pretty strange. I was talking to Elijah Wood about the Lord of the Rings and I started to rant about Elrond's usage of the phrase, "from whence," in the movie and how whence means "from where" and "from whence" is therefore redundant and incorrect. It really irked me that the screenwriters made the decision to use that phrase when Tolkien never would have, being a linguist, and all. As a matter of fact, I explained to Wood, Tolkien uses whence fairly frequently in The Lord of the Rings, but he never once uses the incorrect phrase, "from whence." This wouldn't bother me so much if Tolkien wasn't who he was, but language was his life-long profession!
At this point, Wood had not, for some reason, wandered off in disgust yet, so I started to discuss language-theory with him.
I brought up the fact that Tolkien was once confronted by a fan with the fact that "dwarven" isn't really a word (nor elven, for that matter). The fan offered proof that the word should be "dwarfin" in the form of the Oxford English Dictionary-- the edition that Tolkien had edited.
Tolkien, I believe, told the fellow, pretty much, that he says it's a word, so it is.
Elijah's eyes hadn't glazed over yet, so I started to ponder what justification Tolkien would have for creating this word and why the fan was not correct.
It came to me (as I rambled on to Elijah Wood) that, like Shakespeare, before him (and unlike George W, after), Tolkien was justified in creating his own word because he understood the language. "Dwarfin" means "like a dwarf," but this is not the word that Tolkien needed. Rather, he needed a word that meant "of the dwarves" and created one using the rules of the language within which he was working. (Of course, this isn't strictly true, as "dwarfin" does actually also mean "of the dwarves," but, hey, it was a dream-- and, really, it shouldn't have that second meaning bundled in.)
Then I woke up.
Oh, yeah. In the dream, Elijah Wood played D&D3e and lurked on these boards.
And I was a popular poster.
And I could fly.
Pretty strange, I know. Too many English and Philosphy courses working against me, I suspect.
At this point, Wood had not, for some reason, wandered off in disgust yet, so I started to discuss language-theory with him.
I brought up the fact that Tolkien was once confronted by a fan with the fact that "dwarven" isn't really a word (nor elven, for that matter). The fan offered proof that the word should be "dwarfin" in the form of the Oxford English Dictionary-- the edition that Tolkien had edited.
Tolkien, I believe, told the fellow, pretty much, that he says it's a word, so it is.
Elijah's eyes hadn't glazed over yet, so I started to ponder what justification Tolkien would have for creating this word and why the fan was not correct.
It came to me (as I rambled on to Elijah Wood) that, like Shakespeare, before him (and unlike George W, after), Tolkien was justified in creating his own word because he understood the language. "Dwarfin" means "like a dwarf," but this is not the word that Tolkien needed. Rather, he needed a word that meant "of the dwarves" and created one using the rules of the language within which he was working. (Of course, this isn't strictly true, as "dwarfin" does actually also mean "of the dwarves," but, hey, it was a dream-- and, really, it shouldn't have that second meaning bundled in.)
Then I woke up.
Oh, yeah. In the dream, Elijah Wood played D&D3e and lurked on these boards.
And I was a popular poster.
And I could fly.
Pretty strange, I know. Too many English and Philosphy courses working against me, I suspect.
)!
