I recently read Shippeys essay on C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy, in the Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis. As interesting as, it was I would have loved from him to have elaborated more on Lewis linguistic theories about the death of words. Such can be found in Lewis linguistic work 'Studies in Words'. Lewis introduction is eerily prescient given how the world is today. But Shippey is great. I loved this video (if video is the right word :) Thank you immensely for your translating the quotes I asked by Tolkien and Lewis on Patreon. My sons (and I) were beyond delighted. What a skill! We homeschool and are currently trying to learn the anglo-saxon younger Futhark. I personally believe english would be better if it was written using those runes as opposed to the roman we use now. Thanks for sharing your work. Its of great value to me as I battle being a home-education dad. Fun fact! Lewis main character in his Space Trilogy is moulded after Tolkien. Its a great read.
Which is also one of the most interesting things about the work. Power as a corrosive element rather than one that simply shows someone’s true colors (which is what you get in most of the older literature).
It's not like you can't use chemical addiction imagery as a way to convey addiction to power. I wonder if Tolkien ever wrote about addictions in his letters or journals. They used morphine in World War One, right?
I don’t know of any writings where Tolkien explicitly refers to substance addiction, but this goes back to his distinction between allegory and application. The theme of addiction can be applied towards power, money, substances or any other potential ill to which one can be addicted. The reader is free to draw upon his own experiences to connect with the story.
Hearing you investigate LOTR with your worldly wisdom and intellectual background can only end well. Please continue these LOTR analysis/reaction videos.
the thumbnail showed me that after 4+ decades of life, I finally have integrated thorn into my alphabet. thanks for that, and speedy recovery to your ol' lady.
Highest wishes for Lauren's speedy recovery! There's been a noticeable difference in your demeanor recently when she's been around, and I hope for a long life together for the 2 of you!
I know that The Silmarillion can be a tough read to get through, especially the first part of the book with the children of Eru Iluvatar during the making of the music of Middle Earth. I think it has a lot more in common with the Sagas than the LotR does. The Silmarillion is the story of the world before the Third Age, of which LotR tells the ending.
Usually yes, but for a guy who has made career out of sagas he might feel more at home with Silmarillion. There are much more mythological imaginery in that book, I hope mr Crawford covers that eventually.
Best wishes from Sweden, hoping for Lauren's quick recovery. I am very much looking forward to the rest of this series; as a big fan of Tolkien's works I really appreciate hearing the thoughts of someone who is specialized i languages, but not (yet) specialized in Tolkien.
Speaking to my grandparents, who grew up in the 1940s and '50s (so after Tolkien), in rural England, they often talk about how much more communal the village was -- a place where everyone knew everyone and what they were all up to. So I think Tolkien is just trying to emulate that - I don't think it's necessarily his invention or an idealised community, it's just the kind of place he grew up in.
The Shire is not an idealised place. Tolkien is very clear in his letters that no place or people in his work is some kind of "ideal", not even the Elves.
I would claim that is normal for small villages in most parts of the world for most of the time. Maybe recently it did change a little in some areas, but i am from central europe, and this was still true in the 80's and 90's. (That everybody knew everyone else and what they did or were up to.) I am in my 40's and our village has gown exponentially, and still there are older people i don't even remember having ever seen who know who i am, who i am related to, where i work now and where i worked while i was basically away for 10 years, what car i drive, what education i had... It's not the same with the people that moved here in the last 10 years but with everyone before that.
Regarding the. Lor' Bless Me, I think the justification is that it's a 'translation' from a phrase with the same sentiment and force in the original Holbytla language The Lord in question is Illuvator, the creator, who sang into being the Ainur and all the other races except the dwarves, who were created by one of the Ainur.
I was thinking it's more likely a reference to the old kings of Arnor, who are still remembered prominently by the hobbits as a distant legend. I'm not sure that they would really have any conception of Illúvatar (granted Sam, as a student of Bilbo the Elf-friend is likely an exception to that, but the phrase seems more like a traditional one, picked up from the Gaffer's speech).
I hate (yet love) to be that guy, but Eru Iluvatar *thought* the Ainur into being (they were isolated parts of his mind), and they sang the song that would be actualized in Eä (elaborating on themes provided by Eru). And the Dwarves were originally mindless automata when Aulë crafted them in secret. When he was found out he offered to destroy them, but Eru showed mercy and kindled their souls with the Flame Imperishable (like he had done with the Ainur, Elves and Men). Nobody but Eru can create sentient creatures.
16:50 The Roots of the Mountains is also the name of a book by Wiliam Morris, who was a big influence on Tolkien. Granted Tolkien was still familiar with norse mythology and Morris might have gotten the term from there in the first place.
Please continue making videos like this, they're incredibly interesting. It's pleasant to hear the opinion and perspective of a seasoned linguist about LOTR and Tolkien.
Sam’s speech was largely due to the influence of his children. He was modelled after a real life person, and his speech pattern is maintained here despite its oddity. Tolkien’s children loved this persons style of speech so much that Tolkien maintained it, even if it didn’t fit.
I should say Sam's talk is a "stage" version of working-class or rustic speech, what used to be called "Mummerset". Merry uses "lawks" (short for lawks-a-mercy, Lord have mercy) in this same out-of-universe way.
Bear in mind that at the outset Tolkien was trying to write a sequel to the Hobbit which is why it feels more like a children's book and a bit of a jolly jape with the hobbits. But as he went on, the story was inextricably drawn into his legendarium and a sort of magical fusion took place. Magical because the hobbits essentially become our way in to exploring the world as we journey with them. I believe Tolkien went back and made some revisions to Chapter 2 The Shadow of the Past which introduces the darker tone. And you are quite right I think to point out the fact that he leaves many things about the world unexplained or only hinted at which is what gives it its richness and sense of being a real place we almost remember.
Tolkien, "empty night" "only nasty, furtive eating and resentful remembering" Jackson, "Gollum [...] a ring addict. [...] Ring isn't a solution [...] but can't let go." Odin, "No man is so good that he has no flaw, nor so bad that he avails for nothing." Jackson, this was a treat: Some of Tolkien's influences plus your honest, heartfelt connections. Your love for Lauren is obvious. All the best to you and your fiance.
The hats are all hanging there, just waiting to be worn. (A famous chess master, after unexpectedly losing a game, said, 'The mistakes are all there on the board, just waiting to be made'.)
I hope your fiancee recovers quickly! It's easy to see how much you love her and how much her not being 100% affects you. Thank you for making such a great video for us even in these circumstances. LOTR is very dear to me.
Thank you for being open about your struggles. I want you to know that your videos have recently become an inspiration to me to pursue a Master’s degree in Norse studies. I currently teach high school Medieval History and Literature. Thank you again.
The "Lor" Sam was referring to was, by any reasonable interpretation, Illuvatar; also called Eru, the creator of the world, and certainly a stand-in for or representation of God. He's mentioned a _lot_ in the first bit of the Silmarillion. Speaking of: I think you'd really dig the Story of Beren and Luthien from that work. Short, moving, absolutely legendary. There's werewolves and talking dogs. Best wishes to Lauren!
It could also be Manwe or any of the other masculine Valar. The only time I can recall a Hobbit praying it was to Elbereth, a.k.a. Varda, the consort of Manwe. The only temple of Numenor (before Sauron corrupted it) was to Eru Illuvatar, but elsewhere it always seemed like religious devotion was always addressed to one of the Valar, even if intercession to the Valar was more like intercession to the Saints in Catholicism than prayer to a pagan god.
I’m glad you and your fiancée have found joy together and mutual support to hold each other up especially in her time of need right now. I am enjoying these summaries as I enjoy all your videos. Would love to take Old Norse with you sometime; I took two such classes with John Weinstock at the University of Texas in the mid-80s.
I started transliterating my journal entries into Anglo-Saxon Futhark runes and I’m glad to have done so as I naturally understood the “thorn” in the thumbnail without pause or hesitation. Cool!
Upon reading the video title I immediately thought about posting Tolkien's quote on allegory (as it is absolutely key to understanding his work). I'm glad to see you beat me to it..
Wishing her well and also looking forward to this. I think I expect your rendition to be the third most enjoyable for me ... after Tolkiens own and Christopher Lees, both of which are larger than life, so I hope you are not offended by that ranking :D
I think the transition from slightly childlike tone to more adult tones makes sense given the context that the book before this one was The Hobbit, which is very much a fairy tale in its tone. Tolkien provides a transition from that book to the more serious tone of The Lord of the Rings in the first chapter, which I think is particularly important for readers that are already familiar with The Hobbit.
Jackson! This is great. Though I wonder if a more direct comparison for the story of the corrupting Ring lost in water from Norse Sagas is the example from Hrolf Kraki?
Hi Dr Crawford. May your fiancée recover swiftly. She will be up and about in no time. Then you can resume your fun little dates in the mountains. I’m very glad you found each other. It is very endearing to see - and it seems we are getting a lot more content recently from you as a consequence. I understand the circumstances that led you to do this video is not ideal, but I am happy you have some time to read through the LOTR for us. Since you have quite a lot in common with Tolkien regarding your profession it is very interesting and enlightening to hear your perspective. Thank you for doing this series. I look forward to more. I wish you and Lauren all the best.
That's fascinating about Andvari's ring. As for "dint", Tolkien probably means to set it apart from "dent". "Dint" is from OE dynt, cognate with ON dyntr. "Dent" is confused with "dint" but is actually from Latin dens, "tooth" and means a tooth-mark (all from Chambers). "Dint" is the more poetic word. E.g. the opening of The Faerie Queene: A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shield Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, The cruell markes of many' a bloudy fielde;
I loved reading Lord of the Rings in Middle School but didn't really dig into Tolkien again until college when "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" came up as a supplement to reading Beowulf in my Early English Lit course at Community College. It clicked for me then that I should pay more attention to this stuff, led me to study Old English at University, and eventually to your translation of Havamal! The meandering you mention is something I definitely understand as part of the Norse sagas (and Arthurian myth, and Orlando Furioso, etc)...We tend to be used to very economical storytelling these days. But I think that survives in the sidequests popping up in modern day roleplaying games at least.
Very excited about this series. I'm happy you mentioned your pen/pin merger, I'm glad things have taken a better turn, because I was worried you had said bitter 😅 All the best back
Wishing you and your fiancé all the best. I'm sorry that I have not been able to keep up with your videos as of late, but UNM has been keeping me busy with medieval Spain.
Really looking forward to the second and third book in particular, around the Rohirrim and the way Tolkien adapted old english poetry and the feel of old norse sagas. "Where now the Horse and the Rider" I think will be fun for you as well as us.
This is absolutely fantastic, awesome take. I hope you do more. Best wishes to lauren. Edit: "Are the hobbits aware of the New Testament?" 😂 Good point!!!
What a fun concept to go on this as a literature journey as a group, picknup some william morris for insights into his inspiration (ie he wrote about Mirkwood in the house of the wolfings mid 1850s) sending good energy for Lauren’s quick recovery!
I don't think there is, but Tolkien did occasionally translate his texts to OE, like some of the early Silmarillion annals or his fairytale retelling of Béowulf.
So funny you brought up Ringdrotten, that's the version I read in middle school. That's before I developed an interested in linguistics and most of the media I consumed outside of school were in Bokmål - so it felt incredibly archaic - but in retrospect it's definitively the better of the two, and subjectively it's my favourite.
I grew up familiar with 'dint' from the last verse of the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas (sung several times every year during my childhood in the UK, don't know if this one is known in the US). "In his masters step he trod Where the snow lay dinted Heat was in the very sod Which the Saint had printed Therefore, Christian men, be sure Wealth or rank possessing Ye, who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing."
Like many others, wishing a speedy recovery to your fiancee. I look forward to your reaction and thoughts as you read through LOTR. I've watched many of your videos on Norse mythology, and often enough I'll go "Ah, so that's where Tolkien got the story/idea/influence from"
Chapter 1 is undoubtedly the torch being passed from Bilbo's children's book "The Hobbit" to Frodo and his more adult adventure LOTR. So, no wonder there is a change in tone between the chapters. You mention Tolkien and addiction, and I am unsure about that myself but I got to thinking about Tolkien and PTSD from his war experiences, or shell shock as he would have known it as. Might it not have been his experiences in war that resonate through Gollum? I also got to thinking of something Clint Eastwood's character Walt in the movie Gran Torino says. He says something to effect that it isn't what a soldier is ordered to do but what he isn't ordered to do that sticks with him. So say Tolkien was not addicted to something or did not have people close to him addicted to something, maybe he did something during WW1 that he either was or was not ordered to do and this is what we see through Gollum? I may be off but this is what came to me as you were speaking about this.
British soldiers in WWI would've been given morphine, right? I know that was the case in WWII, not sure about in WWI as much. But if so I wouldn't be surprised if Tolkien saw someone or heard about someone addicted to it.
I do also think the childishness of the start of Fellowship is acting as a bridge across from the Hobbit, to which at the time this was marketed as a sequel Also, having grown up in the Cotswolds in England, the stereotype of small English villages (which is more than half true) is that everyone knows everyone, is constantly talking about one another's business and the communities are generally relatively tight knit, for better and for worse. I think a lot of this is going into his portrayal of Hobbiton, and would have no doubt been even more common then than it is now. I think his readers are supposed to recognise what they're seeing as being such.
"The opening chapter is written like a kids' book": there's a good reason for that - it is the opening to a kids' book. It began as a sequel to the Hobbit. He didn't go back and change the tone of it when the book became far more "grown up" and that is a part of its charm.
With regard to Sam’s “Lor, bless you,” my understanding is that is likely to communicate a sentiment. Tolkien wrote the lord of the rings as a translation/adaption of his fictional red book of westmarch. So Sam likely spoke something in the fictional “Westron” that would at least match closely with the previously mentioned quote.
Speedy recovery to your fiancé. Regarding the sense of community you feel Tolkien is establishing for the Shire, my own childhood in southern England was full of visiting and inviting various family members even if they were disliked. It was simply expected and I'm sure it wouldn't have crossed my family's mind that they could simply stop this practice. And often it was the disliked ones who were talked about most (not by me, I hasten to add; I wasn't interested!)
Right, I'm off to reread this piece of FOTR before I watch the video. While I'm happy you are doing this series, my thoughts are with your poorly fiancé and with you as you support her in recovery.
I believe Lord is “Eru Iluvatar,” the creator of Middle-Earth. The Hobbits had no churches (and no true understanding of cosmology beyond what they picked up from the Elves and Numenoreans). But I would not be surprised if invocations of “Eru,” translated by Tolkien as “Lord,” made their way into Hobbit speech.
"Lord" could also be a reference to the old Kings of the Northern Kingdom who used to rule over the Shire, which would've stayed in the language after the fall of the kingdom.
For me there is important stuff in the Prolog about Immortality and Mortality, Magic and Industry, a blacksmith can melt iron and tin and get steel, an elf or Sauron could melt gold and Mithril and combine a part of their spirit into its making to get a ring of power. The Ring when worn by a mortal shifts them to the spirit world and they can’t be seen. Tom Bombadil doesn’t disappear. Frodo,can see Glorfindal’s spirit after he is stabbed on Weathertop. Gandalf speculates that Frodo would eventually go clear like a wraith after being stabbed by a Morgul Blade. So the magical properties of weapons permeates all the books. Sting, Glamdring, even Pippin and Merry’s blades from Barrow Downs. And above all the fall from Grace.
The Tom Shippey interview, for anyone looking for it: th-cam.com/video/gwTe0Lm5kXI/w-d-xo.html
Skipping the middle of a story is worse than not finishing it 😅
I recently read Shippeys essay on C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy, in the Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis. As interesting as, it was I would have loved from him to have elaborated more on Lewis linguistic theories about the death of words. Such can be found in Lewis linguistic work 'Studies in Words'. Lewis introduction is eerily prescient given how the world is today. But Shippey is great.
I loved this video (if video is the right word :)
Thank you immensely for your translating the quotes I asked by Tolkien and Lewis on Patreon. My sons (and I) were beyond delighted. What a skill! We homeschool and are currently trying to learn the anglo-saxon younger Futhark. I personally believe english would be better if it was written using those runes as opposed to the roman we use now.
Thanks for sharing your work. Its of great value to me as I battle being a home-education dad.
Fun fact! Lewis main character in his Space Trilogy is moulded after Tolkien. Its a great read.
Please do another talk with Shippey yat some point! Absolutely loved it!
Wishing Lauren a speedy recovery!
Thank you!! ☺️ 🙏 The Professor is taking great care of me 😊
My best to your fiance and I'm glad you have a project to keep you busy.
Thank you! ☺️
As far as I know, Tolkien's perception of addiction is not related to any chemical, but *power*.
Which is also one of the most interesting things about the work. Power as a corrosive element rather than one that simply shows someone’s true colors (which is what you get in most of the older literature).
Well, both are enabled by dopamine.
It's not like you can't use chemical addiction imagery as a way to convey addiction to power. I wonder if Tolkien ever wrote about addictions in his letters or journals. They used morphine in World War One, right?
That does make sense, and speaks to the milieu and time in which he wrote it.
I don’t know of any writings where Tolkien explicitly refers to substance addiction, but this goes back to his distinction between allegory and application. The theme of addiction can be applied towards power, money, substances or any other potential ill to which one can be addicted. The reader is free to draw upon his own experiences to connect with the story.
Dr. Crawford reading my favourite books?! Hell yeah!
My thoughts exactly, I'm going to watch these religiously!
Ditto! I'm in!
Hearing you investigate LOTR with your worldly wisdom and intellectual background can only end well. Please continue these LOTR analysis/reaction videos.
the thumbnail showed me that after 4+ decades of life, I finally have integrated thorn into my alphabet.
thanks for that, and speedy recovery to your ol' lady.
Highest wishes for Lauren's speedy recovery! There's been a noticeable difference in your demeanor recently when she's been around, and I hope for a long life together for the 2 of you!
I know that The Silmarillion can be a tough read to get through, especially the first part of the book with the children of Eru Iluvatar during the making of the music of Middle Earth. I think it has a lot more in common with the Sagas than the LotR does. The Silmarillion is the story of the world before the Third Age, of which LotR tells the ending.
Usually yes, but for a guy who has made career out of sagas he might feel more at home with Silmarillion. There are much more mythological imaginery in that book, I hope mr Crawford covers that eventually.
@@mikaranta5840 My thought too. Having read the Simarillion helped me with the sagas.
Best wishes from Sweden, hoping for Lauren's quick recovery. I am very much looking forward to the rest of this series; as a big fan of Tolkien's works I really appreciate hearing the thoughts of someone who is specialized i languages, but not (yet) specialized in Tolkien.
Speaking to my grandparents, who grew up in the 1940s and '50s (so after Tolkien), in rural England, they often talk about how much more communal the village was -- a place where everyone knew everyone and what they were all up to. So I think Tolkien is just trying to emulate that - I don't think it's necessarily his invention or an idealised community, it's just the kind of place he grew up in.
Thats my understanding too, that the Shire simply is rural england. Not an idealised form or anything.
The Shire is not an idealised place. Tolkien is very clear in his letters that no place or people in his work is some kind of "ideal", not even the Elves.
I would claim that is normal for small villages in most parts of the world for most of the time. Maybe recently it did change a little in some areas, but i am from central europe, and this was still true in the 80's and 90's. (That everybody knew everyone else and what they did or were up to.)
I am in my 40's and our village has gown exponentially, and still there are older people i don't even remember having ever seen who know who i am, who i am related to, where i work now and where i worked while i was basically away for 10 years, what car i drive, what education i had...
It's not the same with the people that moved here in the last 10 years but with everyone before that.
If it was an ideal paradise, the Scouring of the Shire chapter would make no sense. The Shire gets corrupted partly through the Hobbit's own greed.
Tolkien grew up in South Africa, not England. It might have been an idealized impression of an English village or town from his parents’ memories.
Regarding the. Lor' Bless Me, I think the justification is that it's a 'translation' from a phrase with the same sentiment and force in the original Holbytla language The Lord in question is Illuvator, the creator, who sang into being the Ainur and all the other races except the dwarves, who were created by one of the Ainur.
I was thinking it's more likely a reference to the old kings of Arnor, who are still remembered prominently by the hobbits as a distant legend. I'm not sure that they would really have any conception of Illúvatar (granted Sam, as a student of Bilbo the Elf-friend is likely an exception to that, but the phrase seems more like a traditional one, picked up from the Gaffer's speech).
I hate (yet love) to be that guy, but Eru Iluvatar *thought* the Ainur into being (they were isolated parts of his mind), and they sang the song that would be actualized in Eä (elaborating on themes provided by Eru).
And the Dwarves were originally mindless automata when Aulë crafted them in secret. When he was found out he offered to destroy them, but Eru showed mercy and kindled their souls with the Flame Imperishable (like he had done with the Ainur, Elves and Men). Nobody but Eru can create sentient creatures.
Since it's a "translation" of a phrase with similar sentiment, like you mentioned, it could also be a phrase that referred to one of the Valar.
@@Jon1on I never mind being out-nerded on Tolkien stuff, it gives me hope for the world. Also pistols at dawn sir.
@@sillyquiet 😂
16:50 The Roots of the Mountains is also the name of a book by Wiliam Morris, who was a big influence on Tolkien. Granted Tolkien was still familiar with norse mythology and Morris might have gotten the term from there in the first place.
Best to Lauren, but I’m glad to see you returning to examining literature. Your videos with Simon Roper reading Beowulf were some of my favorites
Please continue making videos like this, they're incredibly interesting. It's pleasant to hear the opinion and perspective of a seasoned linguist about LOTR and Tolkien.
Is your pfp from the band Convulsing by any chance?
@romainvicta9793 yes
Sam’s speech was largely due to the influence of his children. He was modelled after a real life person, and his speech pattern is maintained here despite its oddity. Tolkien’s children loved this persons style of speech so much that Tolkien maintained it, even if it didn’t fit.
I should say Sam's talk is a "stage" version of working-class or rustic speech, what used to be called "Mummerset". Merry uses "lawks" (short for lawks-a-mercy, Lord have mercy) in this same out-of-universe way.
Bear in mind that at the outset Tolkien was trying to write a sequel to the Hobbit which is why it feels more like a children's book and a bit of a jolly jape with the hobbits. But as he went on, the story was inextricably drawn into his legendarium and a sort of magical fusion took place. Magical because the hobbits essentially become our way in to exploring the world as we journey with them. I believe Tolkien went back and made some revisions to Chapter 2 The Shadow of the Past which introduces the darker tone. And you are quite right I think to point out the fact that he leaves many things about the world unexplained or only hinted at which is what gives it its richness and sense of being a real place we almost remember.
Hoping for a speedy recovery for the future Mrs.
Great video! I'm glad you're in a better place than previously in your life. Thank you for all your hard work.
That interview with Tom Shippey was ace!
Tom is always great.
Tolkien, "empty night" "only nasty, furtive eating and resentful remembering"
Jackson, "Gollum [...] a ring addict. [...] Ring isn't a solution [...] but can't let go."
Odin, "No man is so good that he has no flaw, nor so bad that he avails for nothing."
Jackson, this was a treat: Some of Tolkien's influences plus your honest, heartfelt connections. Your love for Lauren is obvious. All the best to you and your fiance.
I've been following your channel for years now, and I've always wanted you to talk about Tolkien. I look forward to more of these!
This is the coolest thing I could have possibly found getting on youtube today.
The hats are all hanging there, just waiting to be worn. (A famous chess master, after unexpectedly losing a game, said, 'The mistakes are all there on the board, just waiting to be made'.)
May she be back up and running swiftly, and I love how you used þ instead of t there!
I hope your fiancee recovers quickly! It's easy to see how much you love her and how much her not being 100% affects you. Thank you for making such a great video for us even in these circumstances. LOTR is very dear to me.
Thank you Sir for reading/ explaining my favorite book.
Lauren I wish you quick recovery from the surgery. 💖🕊️
Excited for this series. I'm going to make sure I like and comment on them. Thank you.
Thank you for being open about your struggles. I want you to know that your videos have recently become an inspiration to me to pursue a Master’s degree in Norse studies. I currently teach high school Medieval History and Literature. Thank you again.
The "Lor" Sam was referring to was, by any reasonable interpretation, Illuvatar; also called Eru, the creator of the world, and certainly a stand-in for or representation of God. He's mentioned a _lot_ in the first bit of the Silmarillion. Speaking of: I think you'd really dig the Story of Beren and Luthien from that work. Short, moving, absolutely legendary. There's werewolves and talking dogs.
Best wishes to Lauren!
It could also be Manwe or any of the other masculine Valar. The only time I can recall a Hobbit praying it was to Elbereth, a.k.a. Varda, the consort of Manwe.
The only temple of Numenor (before Sauron corrupted it) was to Eru Illuvatar, but elsewhere it always seemed like religious devotion was always addressed to one of the Valar, even if intercession to the Valar was more like intercession to the Saints in Catholicism than prayer to a pagan god.
This seems like a really cool idea! I am looking forward to this series.
You'd probably have some great commentary for The Silmarillion.
Wishing you and Lauren the best. God Bless.
That was awesome! I hope you do more of these!
Oh, this is a pleasant surprise. I also hope for a swift recovery for your fiancee. 💚
I really like this personal reading of the book, bringing in your own story and connections. Hope you keep making them.
I’m glad you and your fiancée have found joy together and mutual support to hold each other up especially in her time of need right now. I am enjoying these summaries as I enjoy all your videos. Would love to take Old Norse with you sometime; I took two such classes with John Weinstock at the University of Texas in the mid-80s.
This was interesting to listen to. I look forward to the next part.
Best wishes and prayers for your fiancé. I hope she has a swift recovery!
I started transliterating my journal entries into Anglo-Saxon Futhark runes and I’m glad to have done so as I naturally understood the “thorn” in the thumbnail without pause or hesitation. Cool!
Upon reading the video title I immediately thought about posting Tolkien's quote on allegory (as it is absolutely key to understanding his work). I'm glad to see you beat me to it..
My hopes that your fiance heals well and quickly, and I have that same copy! I re-read it every two years or so.
Wishing her well and also looking forward to this.
I think I expect your rendition to be the third most enjoyable for me ... after Tolkiens own and Christopher Lees, both of which are larger than life, so I hope you are not offended by that ranking :D
great topic. i find myself we eager for more videos like this. Thank you Dr Crawford 🙂
I enjoyed that, please continue!
Best wishes. Hope she feels better soon.
Cool video! In addition to the primary content, I appreciated the little bit of personal perspective.
Health and healing to the lovely lady!
Is that a varusteleka shirt?
All the best to you and yours!
It’s Pendleton (I just got it for him!) 😊
@@LaurenSóldís wishes for a speedy recovery
@@LaurenSóldíswhat a lucky man Jackson is!
I think the transition from slightly childlike tone to more adult tones makes sense given the context that the book before this one was The Hobbit, which is very much a fairy tale in its tone. Tolkien provides a transition from that book to the more serious tone of The Lord of the Rings in the first chapter, which I think is particularly important for readers that are already familiar with The Hobbit.
Hopefully you can make a playlist for these! Your voice is fantastic, so perfect for LoTR ❤
Jackson! This is great. Though I wonder if a more direct comparison for the story of the corrupting Ring lost in water from Norse Sagas is the example from Hrolf Kraki?
OMG! Get well soon Lauren xxx
❤
It’s fascinating to have the insights of someone who understands old Norse
Thanks for doing it, even if fantasy isn't your favorite, this definitely piqued my interested.
Hi Dr Crawford. May your fiancée recover swiftly. She will be up and about in no time. Then you can resume your fun little dates in the mountains. I’m very glad you found each other. It is very endearing to see - and it seems we are getting a lot more content recently from you as a consequence.
I understand the circumstances that led you to do this video is not ideal, but I am happy you have some time to read through the LOTR for us. Since you have quite a lot in common with Tolkien regarding your profession it is very interesting and enlightening to hear your perspective. Thank you for doing this series. I look forward to more.
I wish you and Lauren all the best.
14:25 Déagol finds the ring. Sméagol is Gollum’s Stoorish name.
Blessings to Lauren, and hopes for her quick recovery.
That's fascinating about Andvari's ring. As for "dint", Tolkien probably means to set it apart from "dent". "Dint" is from OE dynt, cognate with ON dyntr. "Dent" is confused with "dint" but is actually from Latin dens, "tooth" and means a tooth-mark (all from Chambers).
"Dint" is the more poetic word. E.g. the opening of The Faerie Queene:
A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shield
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruell markes of many' a bloudy fielde;
I loved reading Lord of the Rings in Middle School but didn't really dig into Tolkien again until college when "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" came up as a supplement to reading Beowulf in my Early English Lit course at Community College. It clicked for me then that I should pay more attention to this stuff, led me to study Old English at University, and eventually to your translation of Havamal!
The meandering you mention is something I definitely understand as part of the Norse sagas (and Arthurian myth, and Orlando Furioso, etc)...We tend to be used to very economical storytelling these days. But I think that survives in the sidequests popping up in modern day roleplaying games at least.
Been waiting for this
Not sure how I found this channel but I did and I subbed. Great stuff here!
Where would I get the lord of the rings in Nynorsk?
Try googling.
The translator is Eilev Groven Myhren. I am not sure where it can be ordered, it looks like it might be pretty hard to get a hold of now.
Very excited about this series. I'm happy you mentioned your pen/pin merger, I'm glad things have taken a better turn, because I was worried you had said bitter 😅 All the best back
Hope for a speedy recovery
Wishing you and your fiancé all the best. I'm sorry that I have not been able to keep up with your videos as of late, but UNM has been keeping me busy with medieval Spain.
Really looking forward to the second and third book in particular, around the Rohirrim and the way Tolkien adapted old english poetry and the feel of old norse sagas.
"Where now the Horse and the Rider" I think will be fun for you as well as us.
This is absolutely fantastic, awesome take. I hope you do more. Best wishes to lauren.
Edit: "Are the hobbits aware of the New Testament?" 😂 Good point!!!
Was just thinking about rereading these, and I've just left what was his second favourite pub. Well timed! Get well soon to your fiance.
This was lovely Dr. Crawford. I hope to see more of these in the future.
That was very interesting commentary!
What a fun concept to go on this as a literature journey as a group, picknup some william morris for insights into his inspiration (ie he wrote about Mirkwood in the house of the wolfings mid 1850s) sending good energy for Lauren’s quick recovery!
Now I’m wondering if there’s an Old English or Old Norse translation of LOTR. If there’s not that’s tragic
I don't know, but I do own a Latin translation of the Hobbit.
I don't think there's an Old Norse one, but you can find one in modern Icelandic. It's not exactly the same, but it's close.
I don't think there is, but Tolkien did occasionally translate his texts to OE, like some of the early Silmarillion annals or his fairytale retelling of Béowulf.
Best wishes for her recovery!
❤
My friend you going to love it
Bright blessings on Laurens recovery ❤
So funny you brought up Ringdrotten, that's the version I read in middle school. That's before I developed an interested in linguistics and most of the media I consumed outside of school were in Bokmål - so it felt incredibly archaic - but in retrospect it's definitively the better of the two, and subjectively it's my favourite.
Can't wait for the next video, brother. >:D
That's one of my biggest fears, I hope she recovers quickly 🥺 best of luck to you and yours 🌼
Best wishes to your fiance in healing. I'm REALLY interested into this idea as a video series.
I grew up familiar with 'dint' from the last verse of the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas (sung several times every year during my childhood in the UK, don't know if this one is known in the US).
"In his masters step he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye, who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing."
Like many others, wishing a speedy recovery to your fiancee. I look forward to your reaction and thoughts as you read through LOTR. I've watched many of your videos on Norse mythology, and often enough I'll go "Ah, so that's where Tolkien got the story/idea/influence from"
I’d be interested to see your take on the Children of Húrin.
Chapter 1 is undoubtedly the torch being passed from Bilbo's children's book "The Hobbit" to Frodo and his more adult adventure LOTR. So, no wonder there is a change in tone between the chapters.
You mention Tolkien and addiction, and I am unsure about that myself but I got to thinking about Tolkien and PTSD from his war experiences, or shell shock as he would have known it as. Might it not have been his experiences in war that resonate through Gollum? I also got to thinking of something Clint Eastwood's character Walt in the movie Gran Torino says. He says something to effect that it isn't what a soldier is ordered to do but what he isn't ordered to do that sticks with him. So say Tolkien was not addicted to something or did not have people close to him addicted to something, maybe he did something during WW1 that he either was or was not ordered to do and this is what we see through Gollum? I may be off but this is what came to me as you were speaking about this.
British soldiers in WWI would've been given morphine, right? I know that was the case in WWII, not sure about in WWI as much. But if so I wouldn't be surprised if Tolkien saw someone or heard about someone addicted to it.
🙏❤️💪 for your fiancé.
Thank you!
I hope the best for Lauren. Get Well Soon.
All the best for her recovery! And hope you enjoy Lord of the Rings...
I have that same edition. Super worn and beat up from being my go to travel book.
I do also think the childishness of the start of Fellowship is acting as a bridge across from the Hobbit, to which at the time this was marketed as a sequel
Also, having grown up in the Cotswolds in England, the stereotype of small English villages (which is more than half true) is that everyone knows everyone, is constantly talking about one another's business and the communities are generally relatively tight knit, for better and for worse. I think a lot of this is going into his portrayal of Hobbiton, and would have no doubt been even more common then than it is now. I think his readers are supposed to recognise what they're seeing as being such.
So cool that at the end there you can hear the famous Fort Collins train in the background :)
"The opening chapter is written like a kids' book": there's a good reason for that - it is the opening to a kids' book. It began as a sequel to the Hobbit. He didn't go back and change the tone of it when the book became far more "grown up" and that is a part of its charm.
With regard to Sam’s “Lor, bless you,” my understanding is that is likely to communicate a sentiment. Tolkien wrote the lord of the rings as a translation/adaption of his fictional red book of westmarch. So Sam likely spoke something in the fictional “Westron” that would at least match closely with the previously mentioned quote.
Best wishes for Lauren’s recovery!
❤
Hope she’s well, best of luck.
Speedy recovery to your fiancé.
Regarding the sense of community you feel Tolkien is establishing for the Shire, my own childhood in southern England was full of visiting and inviting various family members even if they were disliked. It was simply expected and I'm sure it wouldn't have crossed my family's mind that they could simply stop this practice. And often it was the disliked ones who were talked about most (not by me, I hasten to add; I wasn't interested!)
Right, I'm off to reread this piece of FOTR before I watch the video. While I'm happy you are doing this series, my thoughts are with your poorly fiancé and with you as you support her in recovery.
Hope she recovers smoothly, Jackson.
are you planning 3 chapters at a time? would enjoy reading along with my first reading of the book as well.
I think so, after the 2nd video (posted today). So the next one will be ch. 7-9.
I believe Lord is “Eru Iluvatar,” the creator of Middle-Earth. The Hobbits had no churches (and no true understanding of cosmology beyond what they picked up from the Elves and Numenoreans). But I would not be surprised if invocations of “Eru,” translated by Tolkien as “Lord,” made their way into Hobbit speech.
"Lord" could also be a reference to the old Kings of the Northern Kingdom who used to rule over the Shire, which would've stayed in the language after the fall of the kingdom.
I tend to think Manwe is more likely, as we do have a Hobbit invoking his wife Varda under the name Elbereth.
For me there is important stuff in the Prolog about Immortality and Mortality, Magic and Industry, a blacksmith can melt iron and tin and get steel, an elf or Sauron could melt gold and Mithril and combine a part of their spirit into its making to get a ring of power. The Ring when worn by a mortal shifts them to the spirit world and they can’t be seen. Tom Bombadil doesn’t disappear. Frodo,can see Glorfindal’s spirit after he is stabbed on Weathertop. Gandalf speculates that Frodo would eventually go clear like a wraith after being stabbed by a Morgul Blade. So the magical properties of weapons permeates all the books. Sting, Glamdring, even Pippin and Merry’s blades from Barrow Downs. And above all the fall from Grace.
Best wishes to Lauren for a strong and swift recovery!