About the importance of language and Tolkien's intentions ...

[periantari]

From Letter 163 to W.H Auden.

“Linguistic taste changes like everything else, as time goes on; or oscillates between poles. … All this only as background to the stories, though languages and names are for me inextricable from the stories. The are and were so to speak an attempt to give a background or a world in which my expressions of

Comments

[shirebound]

My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say ‘a green great dragon’, but had to say ‘ a great green dragon.’

Sounds exactly like my mom's beta style! She's always correcting my sentences like "He picked the glass up" to "He picked up the glass". :)

[periantari]

Your mom and Tolkien's mom shares a similarity in correcting word choice and word order, eh? =) It's cool that Tolkien's mom is who influenced him in his interest in words at a young age. :)

[pokecharm]

LOL I still believe! and that is what being a fan is all about :p I still need to read Children of Hurin...

hope you're doing better :)

[periantari]

YES you need to read CoH! TORN discussion about it starts soon. :)i'm ok... i postponed my OAT so i have more time to study... thinking of Beijing actually which i'm going to soon...

[mochness]

Thank you sooo much for the quote!

This has been my treat of the day :D

[periantari]

i'm glad it has been amidst the studying fro you~!
(((((you)))))

[mochness]

*big hugs* :D

[lily_the_hobbit]

‘a green great dragon’, but had to say ‘ a great green dragon.’ I wondered why, and still do.

I wonder that as well. We were thaught that at uni with the words "well, it IS like that, you know."

Ah.... I really need to read the letter especially if he talks about linguistics more often :)

[periantari]

Tolkien indeed talks much about the linguistical basis fro LotR in his Letters. After all, he's a philologist and inclined to talk about his specialty. :) It's a wonder what philological background can do to really enhance your fictional world. :)