Bookish Things: The Ring of Words

In keeping with posts related to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, I decided to have a look at some interesting books relating to etymology, philology and language. To start with –

The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary byP. Gilliver, J. Marshall and E. Weiner

The book opens with a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Bright is the ring of words

When the right man rings them,

Fair the fall of songs

When the singer sings them.

Courtesy of OUP

Anyone who has read Tolkien’s works will know of the superb way in which language is used throughout his works. For those (like me) who suddenly found a new world of etymology opened to them, the giddy joy of finding words Tolkien used in other texts is a simple pleasure. As a Tolkien fan, for example, reading the Anglo-Saxon poem “Crist” is a sure way of becoming addicted to the Old English corpus. 

Overview

The book’s first two chapters cover “Tolkien as Lexicographer” and “Tolkien as Wordwright” and examines the craft and care with which Tolkien approached his work. It also gives an insight to the world of lexicography and what it is that lexicographers do*. The bulk of the book, however, is spent on Word Studies. These are given in alphabetical order, and each given ample space for references to Tolkien’ work and other literary sources.

But, whether or not you are an admirer of Tolkien’s work; The Ring of Words, is a delight to anyone who is interested in etymology. The words covered in the book range from elf and dwarf to dwimmerlaik and ruel-bone. The work does not only cover words found in the books regarding Middle-Earth, but also from his other fiction. Blunderbuss, for example, is also included in the word studies. The book’s language is easily accessible, though it may be more interesting to those who are somewhat familiar with Tolkien’s legendarium. Gilliver, et al. have compiled a book for lay readers as well those already familiar with the history of English and other Germanic languages. It is hardly a “stuffy academic” book.

Want to know more?

If you would like to know more about this book, head on over to Oxford University Press or iTunes and download the podcast.

Further reading:

For more about Tolkien’s creation of Middle-Earth, I highly recommend Tom Shippey’s The Road toMiddle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology, and John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold ofMiddle-Earth.

* Lexicographers do not spend their time trying to keep new words from entering dictionaries, for example.

Books:Gilliver, J., J. Marshall and E. Weiner. (2006). The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the OxfordEnglish Dictionary. Oxford University Press.

Shippey, T. (2003).The Road toMiddle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology. Houghton Mifflin.

Garth, J. (2003).Tolkien andthe Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth. HarperCollins.

Ageless Words Friday: The Battle of Maldon – with Lego!

I’ll admit I love stop-motion Lego films – especially those made by Brotherhood Workshop – so I was thrilled when I came across a short film about the Battle of Maldon made by DTGProductions, using the Anglo-Saxon poem and with Old English subtitles. If you haven’t visited Unlocked Wordhoard (theblog of Dr. Richard Scott Nokes) do so immediately after watching the film.

Without further ado, please enjoy The Battle of Maldon. For my other post relating to this battle; click on the links below the video.

Ageless Words Friday: The Battle of Maldon in Anglo-Saxon poetry

And for more Vikings and Saxons – The Battleof Stamford Bridge 

“Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað.” 

Master of the Word Hoard – Seamus Heaney

“Internationally recognized as the greatest Irish poet since WB Yeats…*”, and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first poetry of Heaney’s which I read was his masterful translation of Beowulf. Though at that time I’d only heard of the poem, I had been searching for it in the local bookshops for some months before finding the slim volume hidden among other volumes on the “Poetry and Literature” shelf. When at last I got my hands on it, I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life.

Opening lines of Beowulf

As someone mostly ignorant of Anglo-Saxon poetry (and the richness of the language and culture) at that time, the poem opened up a whole new world. It was a world veiled by time, culture and many of the prejudices held about the Dark and Middle Ages. But it is a world steeped in legends and myths; the heroes great but fallible, the warriors and lords capable of great destruction, and yet lament at the death of friends. One of my favourite passages in the poem – and one which still move me to tears, is  when Hrothgar laments his counselor Aeschere’s death:

Then Hrothgar, the Shieldings’ helmet, spoke:

‘Rest? What is rest? Sorrow has returned.

Alas for the Danes! Aeschere is dead.

He was Yrmenlaf’s elder brother

and a soul-mate to me, a true mentor,

my right-hand man when the ranks clashed

and our boar-crests had to take a battering

in the line of action. Aeschere was everything

the world admires in a wise man and a friend.

(Heaney 2000:44) 

There are also videos of Heaney reading from his own translation:

Seamus Heaney - Beowulf (1/7) by poetictouch

Yes, Heaney left a body of work worthy of remembrance and celebration. His name will be remembered and his works will endure. Yet, my sorrow at the news of his passing was the sorrow of someone who was deeply touched by a work over a thousand years old; a body literature suddenly made accessible. It was the sorrow of someone who could never say “Thank you, you have touched my life and led me on a path I could never have foreseen”.

In his foreword to TheWord Exchange, Heaney noted “… Anglo-Saxon poetry isn’t all stoicism and melancholy, isn’t all about battle and exile and a gray dawn breaking: it can be unexpectedly rapturous as in The Vision of the Cross and happily didactic as in the allegory of Whale. It can be intimate and domestic, and take us to places far behind the shield wall…” (Delanty & Matto 2011:XII).

Yet, in the end, there is perhaps not much more than I can say, but to quote from the Maxims found in The Word Exchange (Delanty& Matto 2011:13):

A tree must shed its leaves,        its branches be barren;

the traveler must embark            on the start of travels;

all the mortals must       meet their fate

But, Mr. Heaney, may your words live forever, bringing new inspiration to those who already know your work and those who pick up one of your volumes for the first time. Thank you for touching my life.

Photo by Ian's Shutter Habit

Sources:

Delanty, G.and M. Matto (eds.). 2011. The WordExchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation. London, W.W. Norton &Company.

Heaney, S.2000. Beowulf. London, Faber andFaber Limited.

*Quotation from Seamus Heaney’s Obituary: BBC News, 30 August 2013.