Re: Dwarves and all.
| From: | Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, November 30, 1999, 20:07 |
|---|
At 3:00 pm -0500 30/11/99, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown wrote:
>
>> Did he also use 'dwarven' on the analogy of 'elven'?
>
>He did not. He used "dwarvish" and also nominal compounds in "dwarf", as
>in "dwarf-king" (cf. "Elven-king"). AFAIK the adjective "dwarven"
>first appeared in print in the original _Dungeons and Dragons_ manuals.
Phew - glad my memory wasn't playing tricks :)
It seems to me Tolkien used 'dwarv- ' only where, if he'd been bold enough
(bit like me with 'uze', I guess ;), he'd have used 'dwarrow- '.
'Dwarrowish' looks possible to me - but 'dwarrowen' looks more Welsh than
English!
>> The -v- is not etymologically correct and could only have arisen either
>> through analogy with words like elf~elves, wolf~wolves etc., or through
>> deliberate coinage.
>
>Evidently analogy in this case, rather than deliberate coining.
A bit of both, methinks. Tolkien was a very competent English scholar &
I'm certain he knew just what he was doing :)
Ray.
=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
[J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================