Hol of course means hole. A "bottle" even now in some English place-names means a dwelling, and Old English bytlian means to dwell, to live in. Holbytla, then, = 'hole-dweller, hole-liver'.What this means is that there are at least five peoples in The Hobbit who can be described, without distortion, as Hobbits: Bilbo's people; the Dwarves; the Goblins -- and Gollum (both of whom live in the caves under the Misty Mountains) and Smaug himself. The titular 'The Hobbit' starts to look like ironic understatement.
Tuesday 27 December 2011
How many species of Hobbits?
Tolkien, having coined the name, then (as was his wont) invented a mock-etymology for it. But this is widely misunderstood -- as for instance does Wikipedia: 'He set out a fictional etymology for the name in an appendix to Lord of the Rings, to the effect that it was derived from holbytla (plural holbytlan), a speculative reconstruction of Old English, meaning “hole-builder”'. This isn't right, though. Tom Shippey knows better:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
In Tolkien's first draft, Theoden's guess at the etymology of hobbit was different. From Christopher Tolkien's The Treason of Isengard:
"'... This day is fated to be filled with marvels: for here I see alive yet others of the folk of story: the half-high.'
'Hobbits, if you please, lord,' said Pippin.
'Hobbits,' said Theoden. 'Hoppettan? I will try to remember. No tale that I have heard does them justice.'"
In Old English hoppettan means "to hop, leap, jump for joy".
Post a Comment