Re: Sensible passives (was: confession: roots)

> Date:         Fri, 11 May 2001 10:19:34 -0400
> From: John Cowan <jcowan@...>
>
> In _Letters_.  My JRRT material is out of reach at present, but
> it goes something like this (quotes NOT corrected):
>
> Original:  "'Nay, Gandalf!', said the king. 'You do not know
> your own skill in healing. It shall not be so. I myself will go
> to war, to fall in the front of the battle, if it must be.
> Thus shall I sleep better."
With the further point (in a footnote) that for the archaizing style
to be consistent --- or perhaps it was to reach the level that JRRT
used in his private version --- the king would have said, "Nay,
Gandalf, thou nost not thine own skill in healing." But that would
have thrown even well-read modern readers.

(Nost = contraction of 'ne wost', old sentence-negating particle and
pres.sg.2 of 'to wit'. Here with double negation, which was also
standard in that style).

[This also comes to you from unchecked memories of _Letters_].

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)