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And his dialogue is not stilted at all. I don't know where people get that from. It's noble and elevated, which is appropriate for noble elevated characters to speak. The hobbits talk "plain talk" to each other, and at appropriate times. They try for "fitting words" on more formal occasions. The elves grew up in aeons past. Is it any wonder their speech sometimes sounds archaic? All the characters speak exactly as they should given who they are. It drives me crazy when people claim Tolkien's dialogue is stilted.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I mostly agree with you, Anne Kate, but there was certainly a lot more "Lo"-ing going on in LotR than you'd expect, even of nobility.
"Lo, it is Gimble, son of Gimlet, son of Groin!" "Lo! I have returned even unto the land from whence I once departed!" "Verily, lo." "Lo."
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My main beef with LotR is just how many aliases nearly every darn character gets.
"I am Willfor, son of Ekemor. Also known as the Wanderer. Also known as Gemmefar Gemstone. Also known as Withrandiandrianos. Or "Jellybean" to my friends."
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Every character? Try everything. Every river has four names, high Elven, Sindarin, Westernesses and common. Every mountain, every city (Imladris/Rivendell/Last Homely House). Then you have Aragorn/Strider/Elessar/Elfstone. It's 100 times worse in the Silmarillion, where characters change their names all the time, most especially this is rampant with the story of Turin. Seriously, that man needs to stick with a name and not change them every time his mood changes.
I mean, after reading it a dozen times, it all seems fairly natural to me, but I won't lie, I still get Finrod, Fingon, Fingolfin, and Finarfin mixed up from time to time. Some of the names in the Sil are just too similar, and there are too many.
I understand why many of them have so many names, but I think if Tolkien hadn't been a linguist, even with the languages he wouldn't have felt the need to give every character a name in every language. Plus the nicknames. And the honorifics. And...etc etc.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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"I am Fandarlin, Keeper of the Last Hat of Erias." "Weren't you also the man they called the Lonesome Wanderer?" "Yes, but then I got a hat." "But before that, weren't you Finalderon, which means in ancient tongues 'He of the Many Sorrows?'" "The hat made me happy."
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I almost never post a reply unless I feel I have something useful to add (hence why I rarely post), but Tom, that post made me laugh way, way too hard. So, I had to say:
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In the ancient days gone by names were like Social Security numbers. You just didn't bandy about your real one for everyone to hear, because of the threat of ID Theft.
Though then they wouldn't steal your ID.
They'd steal your soul.
Which, considering the amount of paperwork involved, is a lot easier to get back than a stolen ID.
The problem is that once you had a good fake ID (name), you couldn't bandy that one around or someone would steal it and you'd have lost that good fake.
Hence the popular kids had all the fake ID's, while the poor kids, like Troll 5, barely got a name at all. Who'd want to steal his name?
Even that old stick in the mud Fanghorn, had a couple of names. His main was was lonnnnnnnnnng. Kind of like a 232 digit Social Security number. So he shortened it.
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