The Peoples of Middle-earth (9 page)

[> Telerian] tongue. Such were the people of the elf-kingdom in Northern Mirkwood, whence came Legolas. Lemberin

[> Telerian] was the native tongue also of Celeborn and the Elves of the hidden land of Lorien. There the Common Speech was known only to a few, for that people strayed seldom from their borders.*

$19. The Elvish names that appear in this book are mainly of Noldorin form; but some are Lemberin [> Telerian], of which the chief are [added: Thranduil,] Legolas, Lorien, Caras Galadon, Nimrodel, Amroth; and also the names of the House of Dol Amroth: Finduilas, [added: Adrahil,] and Imrahil. The exiled Eldar still preserved in memory, as has been said, the High-elven Quenya; and it was from Noldorin visitants to the Shire that Bilbo (and from him Frodo) learned a little of that ancient speech. In Quenya is the polite greeting that Frodo addressed to Gildor (in Chapter III). The farewell song of Galadriel in Lorien (in Chapter ) [sic] is also in Quenya. Tree-

(* But the lady of that land, Galadriel, was of Noldorin race, and in her household that language was also spoken.)

beard knew this tongue as the noblest of the 'hasty' languages, and frequently used it. His address to Galadriel and Celeborn is in Quenya; so are most of the words and names that he uses which are not in the Common Speech.(9)

$20. To speak last of Hobbits. According to accounts compiled in the Shire, the Hobbits, though in origin one race, became divided in remote antiquity into three somewhat different breeds: Stoors, Harfoots, and Fallohides, which have already been described. [Struck out:] No tradition, however, remains of any difference of speech between these three kinds.(10) $21. Since Hobbits were a people more nearly akin to Men than any other of the speaking-folk of the ancient world, it might be supposed that they would possess a language of their own, different from the languages of Men but not unlike them.

Yet of this there is no evidence in any record or tradition.

Admittedly none of the legends of the Hobbits refer to times earlier than some centuries after the beginning of the Third Age, while their actual records did not begin until after the western Hobbits had settled down, somewhere about Third Age 1300; but it remains remarkable that all such traditions assume that the only language spoken by Hobbits of any kind was the Westron or Common Speech. They had, of course, many words and usages peculiar to themselves, but the same could be said of any other folk that used the Common Speech as a native tongue.

[The latter part of this paragraph, following any record or tradition, was rewritten thus: They had, of course, many words and usages peculiar to themselves, but the same could be said of any other folk that used the Westron as a native tongue. It is true that none of the legends of Hobbits refer to times earlier than some centuries after the beginning of the Third Age, while their actual records did not begin until after the western Hobbits had settled down, somewhere about Third Age 1300, and had then long adopted the Common Speech. Yet it remains remarkable that in all such traditions, if any tongue other than the Common Speech is mentioned, it is assumed that Hobbits spoke the language of Men among whom, or near whom, they dwelt.]

$22. Among Hobbits [added: now] there are two opinions.

Some hold that originally they had a language peculiar to themselves. Others assert that from the beginning they spoke a Mannish tongue [> Mannish tongues], being in fact a branch of the race of Men. But in any case it is agreed that after migration to Eriador they soon adopted the Westron under the influence of the Dunedain of the North-kingdom. The first opinion is now favoured by Hobbits [> is favoured by many Hobbits], because of their growing distaste for Men," but there is in fact no trace to be discovered of any special Hobbit-language in antiquity.

The second opinion is clearly the right one, and is held by those of most linguistic learning. Investigation not only of surviving Hobbit-lore but of the far more considerable records of Gondor supports it. All such enquiries show that before their crossing of the Mountains the Hobbits spoke the same language as Men in the higher vales of the Anduin, roughly between the Carrock and the Gladden Fields.+ (11)

$23. Now that language was nearly the same as the language of the ancestors of the Rohirrim; and it was also allied, as has been said above, both to the languages of Men further north and east (as in Dale and Esgaroth), and to those further south from which the Westron itself was derived. It is thus possible to understand the rapidity with which evidently the Hobbits adopted the Common Speech as soon as they crossed into Eriador, where it had long been current. In this way, too, is explained the occurrence among the western and settled Hobbits of many peculiar words not found in the Common Speech but found in the tongues of Rohan and of Dale.++(12) (* Supported, as it appears to them to be, by the fact that among themselves they speak now a private language, though this is probably only a descendant, the last to survive, of the old Common Speech.) (+ [The following footnote was added: Though the Stoors, especially the southern branch that long dwelt in the valley of the Loudwater, by Tharbad and on the borders of Dunland, appear to have acquired a language akin to Dunlandish, before they came north and adopted in their turn the Common Speech.])

(++ In Gandalf's view the people of 'Gollum' or Smeagol were of hobbit-kind. If so, their habits and dwelling-places mark them as Stoors. Yet it is plain that they spoke [> as Stoors; though they appear to have used] the Common Speech. Most probably they were a family or small clan that, owing to some quarrel or some sudden 'homesick-ness', turned back east and came down into Wilderland again beside the River Gladden. There are many references in Hobbit legend to families or small groups going off on their own 'into the wild', or returning 'home'. For eastern Eriador was less friendly and fertile than Wilderland and many of the tales speak of the hard times endured by the early emigrants. It may be noted, however, that the names Deagol and Smeagol [ > Deagol and Smeagol] are both words belonging to the Mannish languages of the upper Anduin.)

$24. An example of this is provided by the name Stoor itself.

It seems originally to have meant 'big', and though no such word is found in the Common Speech, it is usual in the language of Dale. The curious Hobbit-word mathom, which has been mentioned, is clearly the same as the word mathum used in Rohan for a 'treasure' or a 'rich gift'. The horn given at parting to Meriadoc by the Lady Eowyn was precisely a mathum.

Again, smile or smial, in Hobbit-language the word for an inhabited hole, especially one deep-dug and with a long, narrow, and often hidden entrance, seems related to the word smygel in Rohan meaning 'a burrow', and more remotely to the name Smeagol [> Smeagol] (cited [in the footnote to $23]), and to Smaug the name in [> among men of] the North for the Dragon of the Lonely Mountain.(13) But most remarkable of all are the Hobbit month-names, concerning which see the note on Calendar and Dates.(14)

$25. The Hobbits in the west-lands of Eriador became much mingled together, and eventually they began to settle down.

Some of their lesser and earlier settlements had long disappeared and been forgotten in Bilbo's time; but one of the earliest to become important still endured, if much reduced in size. This was at Bree, and in the country round about. Long before the settlement at Bree Hobbits had adopted the Common Speech, and all the names of places that they gave were in that language; while the older names, of Elvish or forgotten Mannish origin,* they often translated (as Fornost to Norbury), or twisted into a familiar shape (as Elvish Baranduin 'brown river'

to Brandywine).

[The end of this paragraph was rewritten thus: ... (as Fornost to Norbury). The Elvish names of hills and rivers often endured changed only to fit better into Hobbit speech. But the Brandywine is an exception. Its older name was the Malvern, derived from its Noldorin name Malevarn, but the new name appears in the earliest records. Both names refer to the river's colour, often in flood a golden brown, which is indeed the meaning of the (* The Men of Bree, who claimed, no doubt justly, to have dwelt in those regions from time out of mind, long before the coming of Elendil, had of course also adopted the Common Speech, but there were names in those parts that pointed to an older Mannish tongue, I only remotely connected if at all [> unconnected] with the language of the Fathers of Men, or Westron. Bree is said in that tongue to have signified 'hill', and Chet (as in Chetwood, Archet) 'forest'.) Elvish name. This was further changed to read: ... Of this the Brandywine is an example. Its Elvish name was the Baranduin

'brown river'. Both names refer to the river's colour, often in flood a golden brown, but the Hobbit name is historically only a picturesque alteration of the Noldorin name.]

$26. As soon as they had settled down the Hobbits took to letters. These they learned, with many other matters, from the Dunedain; for the North-kingdom had not yet come to an end in Eriador at that time. The letters used by the Dunedain, and learned and adopted by the Hobbits, were those of the Noldorin or Feanorian alphabet (see below).(15) It was soon after their learning of letters, about Third Age 1300, that Hobbits began to set down and collect the considerable store of tales and legends and oral annals and genealogies that they already possessed. The lore-loving Fallohides played a chief part in this.

The original documents had, of course, in Bilbo's time long been worn out or lost, but many of them had been much copied.

When the Shire was colonized, about Third Age 1600, it is said that the leading families among the migrants took with them most of the writings then in existence.

$27. In the Shire, which proved a rich and comfortable country, the old lore was largely neglected; but there were always some Hobbits who studied it and kept it in memory; and copying and compilation, and even fictitious elaboration, still went on. In Bilbo's time there were in the book-hoards many manuscripts of lore more than 500 years old. The oldest known book, The Great Writ of Tuckborough, popularly called Yellowskin, was supposed to be nearly a thousand years old. It dealt in annalistic form with the deeds of Took notables from the foundation of the Shire, though its earliest hand belonged to a period at least four centuries later.

$28. In this way it came about that the Hobbits of the Shire, especially in the great families, such as Took, Oldbuck (later Brandybuck), and Bolger, developed the habit, strange and yet not unparallelled in our times, of giving names to their children derived not from their daily language nor from fresh invention, but from books and legends. These to the Hobbits high-sounding names were often in somewhat comic contrast with the more homely family names. Hobbits were, of course, fully aware of this contrast and amused by it.

[The following passage was an addition: The sections that follow are written mainly for those of linguistic curiosity.

Others may neglect them. For these histories are intelligible, if it is assumed that the Common Speech of the time was English, and that if any language of Men appears which is related to the Common Speech, though not the same, it will be represented by languages of our world that are related to English: as for example the archaic language of Rohan is represented by ancient English, or the related tongues of the far North (as in Dale) by names of a Norse character.

But this was not, of course, historically the case. None of the languages of the period were related discernibly to any now known or spoken. The substitution of English (or forms of speech related to modern English) for the Common Speech (and kindred tongues) of the day has involved a process of translation, not only of narrative and dialogue but also of nomenclature, which is described below, for the benefit of those interested in such matters.]

On Translation.(16)

$29. The linguistic situation sketched above, simple'

though it is compared with that observable in many European countries in our times, presents several problems to a translator who wishes to present a picture of Hobbit life and lore in those distant days; especially if he is more concerned to represent, as closely as he can, in terms now intelligible the actual feeling and associations of words and names than to preserve a mere phonetic accuracy.

$30. The Elven-tongues I have left untouched. I have in my selection and arrangement of matter from the once famous and much copied Red Book reduced the citations of these languages, apart from the unavoidable names of places and persons, to a minimum, keeping only enough to give some indication of their sound and style. That has not been altogether easy, since I have been obliged to transliterate the words and names from the rich and elegant Feanorian alphabet, specially devised for them, into our own less adequate letters, and yet present forms that while reasonably close to the phonetic intentions of the originals are (* We are in fact in this book only primarily concerned with the Elvish Noldorin and the Mannish 'Common Speech' (with some local variations), while the Quenya or 'Elf-latin' and the archaic tongue of the Rohirrim and the Elvish Lemberin make an occasional appearance.)