The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 8, pp. 734-737. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710818090

J.R.R.Tolkien has been called one of the most popular writers of modern times. The Peter Jackson film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings has helped to make him so. Tolkien's popularity extends across adult and children's reading and attracts general readers (likely to have seen the film and read at least parts of the book and probably also The Hobbit) and enthusiasts (who will probably have read not only The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings but also The Silmarillion and The History of Middle‐Earth in its 12 volumes). Steady interest, too, has been shown in Tolkien's letters (edited by Humphrey Carpenter and published in 1981), in the influence on Tolkien's work of his time as a soldier in the first World War, and in connections between his scholarly work in Old and Middle English and his fiction.

It is understandable, therefore, that these connections should be more fully investigated and better understood. Even for readers unfamiliar with the expert byways of the Norse sagas and Eddas, translations of them by William Morris and others (all known well by Tolkien), and unpractised in the language of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the second of which Tolkien edited with E.V. Gordon in 1925), the wide interest in myth and legend and the heroic age has been enough to sustain widespread interest since Tolkien's two main works were originally published (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, in 1937) and The Lord of the Rings (in 1954‐1955). Many do not know that both went through revisions (the first reached its third edition in 1966, and the second were revised in both 1965 and 1987 ). Tolkien himself died in 1973.

What is known less well about Tolkien is that, before becoming a lecturer in these early languages and texts (then referred to as philology, a term supplanted now by linguistics) and embarking on a parallel lifetime of imaginative fiction, is that, after returning from the war, he joined the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. He had studied classics and philology at Oxford before the war, with Kenneth Sisam and William Craigie among his tutors. Both were involved with the OED, particularly Craigie. The project had started under Henry Bradley at the start of the century, led to the first edition (1884‐1928), the Supplement (1972‐1986), the second edition (1989), and exists today as the OED Online project 2000 and still continues. The authors of The Ring of Words are all editors on the current project and its associated enterprises. Elisabeth Murray and Simon Winchester have both written about the OED and Peter Gilliver is at work on a new one.

Tolkien got to work on the Ws and became something of an expert on terms like walrus, warm, and waistcoat. He knew the relevant languages, knew his way around etymologies, and loved the history of words and meanings. The languages in The Lord of the Rings, from runes to elven and orcish toungues, prove that this interest was not only transported into the fiction but played a central part in it. Looking through relevant parts of The History of Middle‐Earth, such as the etymologies in the fifth (of the 12) volumes The Lost Road and Other Writings (published by Allen & Unwin in 1987), we find sections on etymology itself.

The word “hobbit” itself appears in the OED (in volume two of the Supplement), and the then editor got Tolkien to comment on the meaning there. The term has roots in Old English (hol for hole and bytla for builder) and, as we know, hobbits live in holes in the ground. The etymology is both likely and plausible. Tolkien's famous statement “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” is the first sentence of The Hobbit and he mentions this in the 163rd letter in Carpenter's collection.

The Ring of Words does three things: one of them is to supply a lexicon of words like bane and dwarf, ent and fairy, gnome and goblin, hafling and Middle‐earth, Mirkwood and mithril, orc and Smeagol, thain and troll, warg and wraith. Most of the book is given over to this. Entries are informed, perceptive, knowledgeable about Tolkien's writing, unpedantic over etymologies, cross‐referenced to relevant letters, and opening up links between Tolkien and other writers and editors and translators in the field (like Dasent and Morris and Eddison). Its approach reflects that of the OED itself which is cited frequently. For anyone interested in Tolkien's language, this is a delight, even though it needs complementing with other interpretive works by writers like Shippey and Flieger. Terms like eucatastrophe and sub‐creation and Tolkienesque are also included.

The Ring of Words does two other things as well. The first of the three sections discusses Tolkien “as lexicographer” and tells of his work at the OED. His work on the letter W can be seen in photographic entry slips, many much corrected. Reference is made to the ways in which his own interests were both captured in this work and shaped his other writing. For anyone interested in lexicography AND in Tolkien, this is a fascinating snapshot. The second of the three sections looks at Tolkien “as wordwright”, a term reminiscent of William Barnes's attempt to replace imported terms (say from classical languages) with indigenous ones. Philology rightly extended beyond mere linguistics into literature itself, and even cultural history, and for Tolkien this approach was important.

The authors claim that Tolkien was not merely using words in a very special way: he achieved what he did imaginatively because he succeeded in using old words with being pedantically archaic (a problem with William Morris, as they show), incorporating them into characterization and storying in ways that added heroic resonance and credibility for readers unfamiliar with the old literature. They quote what Tolkien said in papers and talks like “The Monsters and the Critics” and “Leaf by Niggle”, setting what Tolkien did in the context of etymology and dialect and translation. He often invented and adapted words: some of them compounds like war‐beacon and spell‐enslaved may be his. Other writers with this interest in language, like Scott and Jóyce, are discussed briefly. Some terms, and even ideas, came from the myths and legends Tolkien read, while others may have come from talking with contemporaries like C.S. Lewis (of the Narnia and Perelandra books).

Two comments on the book might be made, probably by readers who, although delighted with The Ring of Words, come away, as from a meal, wanting more. One is that in any lexicon words success will vary with personal choice – some entries, like hobbit and ent and mithril are excellent, others, like Tolkienian and precious and daymeal are less so and even dispensible. Of particular merit, semantically and for its literary point, are entries like dwarf and elf and fairy which discuss how difficult it was for Tolkien to detach the sentimentalism and stereotypes surrounding such words from what he was trying to do in The Lord of the Rings. This highlights, perhaps, the wider challenge of such writing which, for some readers, is merely about improbable creatures doing unbelievable things, while, for others, it is a modern realization of the best of mythic story‐telling.

The other comment must hinge around how well the second section – on Tolkien as a word‐wright – has been argued. While it is a section that convinces, by evidence and argument, that Tolkien's interest in and knowledge of words was integral to his achievement as a writer, what convinces less – and is almost left as an assumption – is that it is, through Tolkien's use of such words and concepts, in the context of fine scene‐setting and imaginative recreation and the consistent sub‐creation (to use his own word for a coherent secondary world), he can be regarded as such an imaginative writer. That part of the case is not made, and will probably best be made by other literary studies less focused on lexicography.

All this said, The Ring of Words will delight and entertain, go straight into any serious personal and institutional collection on and about Tolkien and writers like him, appeal to any reader with an interest in dictionaries and unusual old words, and for anyone wanting a superbly produced book at a very reasonable price. Highly recommended.

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