The Tolkien Dictionary — Part 4

Our journey through the expansive vocabulary of the first volume of The Lord of the Rings is quickly coming to a close. This entry is the fourth and final part of the Tolkien Dictionary.

In this post, I will examine uncommon words used in Chapters 9 and 10 of Book Two of The Fellowship of the Ring.

  

***** 

Mead: (archaic) meadow 

 

Tolkien used the word mead as an archaic synonym for meadow. 

After leaving Lothlorien, the Fellowship sailed boats down a river. 

 

Here and there through opening Frodo could catch sudden glimpses of rolling meads, and far beyond them hills in the sunset, and away on the edge of sight a dark line, where marched the southernmost ranks of the Misty Mountains. (Book Two, Chapter 9) 

 

Frodo observed rolling meadows, hills, and the Misty Mountains as he sailed down the river with his fellow travelers. 

 

*****

Wold: (British English) an elevated area of open land

Downs: (British English) Grass-covered hills, typically composed of chalk

Fen: a low and marshy or frequently flooded area of land

Tussock: A small area of grass that is thicker or longer than the surrounding grass

 

The adventurers sailed past an uneventful landscape, deep in thought. 

 

The Brown Lands rose into bleak wolds, over which flowed a chill air from the East. On the other side the meads had become rolling downs of withered grass amidst a land of fen and tussock. 

Frodo shivered, thinking of the lawns and fountains, the clear sun and gentle rains of Lothlorien. There was little speech and no laughter in any of the boats. Each member of the Company was busy with his own thoughts. (Book Two, Chapter 9)

 

Open lands bordered one side of the river. On the other side, meadows gave way to rolling hills of shriveled grass, surrounded by marshy land and thick grass.

 

*****

Dusk: The darker stage of twilight

Listless: Lacking energy or enthusiasm 

 

One night, something caught Sam’s attention.

 

As dusk drew down on the fourth day, he was looking back over the bowed heads of Frodo and Aragorn and the following boats; he was drowsy and longed for camp and the feel of earth under his toes. 

Suddenly something caught his sight: at first he stared at it listlessly, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes; but when he looked again he could not see it any more. (Book Two, Chapter 9) 

 

After sunset, Sam saw something in the night. He stared at it drowsily, and it quickly disappeared. 

 

***** 

Eyot: (British English) A small island, especially in a river or lake

 

The adventurers stopped to sleep for the night. 

 

That night they camped on a small eyot close to the western bank. Sam lay rolled in blankets beside Frodo. ‘I had a funny dream an hour or two before we stopped, Mr. Frodo,’ he said. ‘Or maybe it wasn’t a dream. Funny it was anyway.’ (Book Two, Chapter 9)

 

The Fellowship spent the night on a small island close to the western bank of the river. 

Sam and Frodo discussed Sam’s glimpse in the dark, and they agreed Gollum was likely following them.

 

*****

Plash: Splash 

 

Sam woke Frodo to tell him that he had heard suspicious noises in the night.

 

In the dead hours Frodo came out of a deep dark sleep to find Sam shaking him. ‘It’s a shame to wake you,’ whispered Sam, ‘but that’s what you said. There’s nothing to tell, or not much. I thought I heard some soft plashing and a sniffing noise, a while back; but you hear a lot of such queer sounds by a river at night.’ (Book Two, Chapter 9) 

 

Sam heard splashing and sniffing, which meant Gollum might be nearby.

 

*****

Sloe: The small, round, sour, bluish-purple berries that grow on blackthorn shrubs and trees

Bramble: A prickly vine or shrub

Creepers: Small, viny plants that grow close to the ground 

 

After a night’s sleep, the adventurers set off again on their river voyage.

 

The next day the country on either side began to change rapidly. The banks began to rise and grow stony. 

Soon they were passing through a hilly rocky land, and on both shores there were steep slopes buried in deep brakes of thorn and sloe, tangled with brambles and creepers.

Behind them stood low crumbling cliffs, and chimneys of grey weathered stone dark with ivy; and beyond these again there rose high ridges crowned with wind-writhen firs. They were drawing near to the grey hill-country of Emyn Muil, the southern march of Wilderland. (Book Two, Chapter 9) 

 

Both sides of the river featured land covered by thorns and prickly plants. Vines and small, round, blue berries covered the landscape.

 

*****

Rowan: A plant, which can be a tree or a shrub, with red berries and white flowers that is also known as a ‘mountain ash.’ 

 

Frodo left his companions to consider, on his own, which direction he wished to travel with the Ruling Ring.

After a while, the other members of the Fellowship began to worry. They scattered and searched for Frodo, who hadn’t yet returned. 

 

Aragorn sprang swiftly away and went in pursuit of Sam. Just as he reached the little lawn among the rowans he overtook him, toiling uphill, panting and calling: Frodo!

'Come with me, Sam!' he said. 'None of us should be alone. There is mischief about. I feel it. I am going to the top, to the Seat of Amon Hen, to see what may be seen. And look! It is as my heart guessed, Frodo went this way. Follow me, and keep your eyes open!' He sped up the path. (Book Two, Chapter 10) 

 

Aragorn ran after Sam. Aragorn caught up with him in an open area among the trees.

 

*****

Spoilt: Spoiled 

 

Frodo made up his mind to leave for Mordor on his own. He wanted to spare his friends the dangerous road that lie ahead.

But Sam caught up with Frodo before Frodo could leave. Sam convinced Frodo to let Sam go with him. 

 

‘So all my plan is spoilt!’ said Frodo. ‘It is no good trying to escape you. But I’m glad, Sam. I cannot tell you how glad. Come along! It is plain that we were meant to go together. We will go, and may the others find a safe road! Strider will look after them. I don’t suppose we shall see them again.’

‘Yet we may, Mr. Frodo. We may,’ said Sam. (Book Two, Chapter 10) 

 

Frodo proclaimed that Sam had ruined Frodo’s plan to leave on his own. Frodo told Sam how glad he was that Sam was going to travel with him.

Frodo, aware of the perilous path before them, said he didn’t believe he or Sam would see the other members of the Fellowship again. 

Sam was more hopeful than Frodo. Sam replied they might live to see their friends again.

Lady Galadriel

After their arrival in Lothlorien, the Fellowship met Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn, who together ruled the forest kingdom. 

Galadriel was a powerful, wise, and respected ruler.

During their first meeting with Galadriel, she used her psychic powers to test if each adventurer was to truly committed to their dangerous mission.

  

All of them, it seemed, had fared alike: each had felt that he was offered a choice between a shadow full of fear that lay ahead, and something that he greatly desired: clear before his mind it lay, and to get it he had only to turn aside from the road and leave the Quest and the war against Sauron to others. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

This immediately sets Galadriel apart from almost all other characters in Middle Earth. Few had the ability to communicate telepathically. 

Moreover, Galadriel seemed to understand the adventurers' deepest desires, which many of the Fellowship chose not to share aloud when they talked among themselves about the odd experience afterward.

Later, Galadriel revealed to Frodo that she wore an Elven Ring.

Galadriel said that if Frodo failed to destroy the Ring of Power, the Elves would be conquered by Sauron. If Frodo succeeded in destroying the ring, however, she said the Elven Rings would lose their magic, and Lothlorien would fade away.

Frodo asked Galadriel which outcome she preferred, and she replied she would rather see the Ruling Ring destroyed.

Then, in one of my favorite passages, Frodo offered to give the Ruling Ring to Galadriel, who considered what she could do with the powerful ring.

Galadriel spoke her thoughts aloud as she considered Frodo’s offer. Her remarks reveal a great deal about her character.  

 

'You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel,' said Frodo. 'I will give you the One Ring, if you ask for it. It is too great a matter for me.'

Galadriel laughed with a sudden clear laugh. 'Wise the Lady Galadriel may be,' she said, 'yet here she has met her match in courtesy. Gently are you revenged for my testing of your heart at our first meeting. You begin to see with a keen eye. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer.

For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp. The evil that was devised long ago works on in many ways, whether Sauron himself stands or falls. 

Would not that have been a noble deed to set to the credit of his Ring, if I had taken it by force or fear from my guest? [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7] 

 

In an amusing turn of events, Galadriel had to reckon with a difficult choice and face temptation, as she had required the members of the Fellowship to do when she met them.

Gandalf and Elrond, who were knowledgeable about the Ring of Power, spoke of the ring as if it has its own will that it exerts over those it encounters.

Here Galadriel examines the consequences of that belief — namely, that someone could choose to do something immoral in pursuit of the ring, and blame their misdeed on the ring itself.

Then Galadriel considered the potential benefits and risks of accepting the Ring of Power.

 

'And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!'

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.' [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

Galadriel believed that if she wore the Ring of Power, she wouldn’t be as dreadful a ruler as Sauron. She also considers how powerful she would be if she wielded the One Ring.

While she might not become evil, the image she evoked for herself was nonetheless frighening.

I love the line, “All shall love me and despair!”

In a wonderful example of character-building, Galadriel even changed in appearance as she considered what she could do if she used the ring. She appeared as a powerful figure, “tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful” and then shrunk to once again become “a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.”

After considering her options, Galadriel told Frodo that she decided not to accept the Ruing Ring.

Frodo then asked Galadriel a question about the Ruling Ring and its powers.

 

They stood for a long while in silence. At length the Lady spoke again. 'Let us return!' she said. 'In the morning you must depart for now we have chosen, and the tides of fate are flowing.'

'I would ask one thing before we go,' said Frodo, 'a thing which I often meant to ask Gandalf in Rivendell. I am permitted to wear the One Ring: why cannot I see all the others and know the thoughts of those that wear them?'

'You have not tried,' she said. 'Only thrice have you set the Ring upon your finger since you knew what you possessed. Do not try! It would destroy you. Did not Gandalf tell you that the rings give power according to the measure of each possessor? Before you could use that power you would need to become far stronger, and to train your will to the domination of others.

Yet even so, as Ring-bearer and as one that has borne it on finger and seen that which is hidden, your sight is grown keener. You have perceived my thought more clearly than many that are accounted wise. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

Frodo asked Galadriel why he can’t know the thoughts of those who wear the lesser rings, even though he has worn the Ring of Power. Galadriel explained that he would have to train himself to “the domination of others” to be able to do so. But she also observed that Frodo already understood her thoughts, as a bearer of one the Elven Rings, better than many others.

Galadriel also warned Frodo not to use the ring too often, because he might fall under its power and control.

As The Fellowship prepared to leave Lothlorien, Galadriel and Celeborn provided them with a parting feast. During the feast, Frodo observed Galadriel and remembered their discussion about the Ruling Ring.

 

There in the last end of Egladil upon the green grass the parting feast was held; but Frodo ate and drank little, heeding only the beauty of the Lady and her voice. She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor filled with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of Time. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 8]

 

Galadriel did not return to the intimidating presence that she had earlier displayed. Tolkien once again referred to the waning prominence of the elves, whose time on Middle Earth was coming to a close.

Galadriel wasn’t the only ally against Sauron to be tempted by the ring. Boromir, one of the members of The Fellowship, would be tempted as well.

In my next analysis, I will examine Boromir’s plan to use the ring to defend his people against Sauron and Tolkien’s portrayal of the corruptibility of men.

Lothlorien

Gimli proudly shared the beautiful reflecting pool known as Mirrormere with Frodo and Sam. 

Following the brief excursion, the Fellowship continued along their journey through the Elvish forest kingdom of Lothlorien, which is sometimes referred to as Lorien.

In his portrayal of Lothlorien, Tolkien describes the year-round visual beauty of its trees.

But Tolkien also explains the social setting of Lothlorien by examining the deep connection between its elvish residents to the forest where they live and their fear of the dangers that threaten them from the lands beyond their home. These passages give Lothlorien a distinct and vivid sense of place and time.

Legolas, a elf from a woodland kingdom in Mirkwood, spoke fondly of Lothlorien as the Fellowship neared the forest kingdom.

 

'There lie the woods of Lothlorien!' said Legolas. 'That is the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!'

'My heart will be glad, even in the winter,' said Aragorn. 'But it lies many miles away. Let us hasten!' [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 6]

 

Upon his arrival in Lothlorien, Frodo sensed the forest preserved the wonders of a time that had long since passed.

 

As soon as he set foot upon the far bank of Silverlode a strange feeling had come upon him, and it deepened as he walked on into the Naith: it seemed to him that he had stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the Elder Days, and was now walking in a world that was no more.

In Rivendell there was memory of ancient things; in Lorien the ancient things still lived on in the waking world.

Evil had been seen and heard there, sorrow had been known; the Elves feared and distrusted the world outside; wolves were howling on the wood's borders; but on the land of Lorien no shadow lay. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 6]

 

Lady Galadriel wore an Elven Ring, which allowed her to ward off the decays of time and maintain the beauty of Lothlorien. Frodo and Sam, who had never seen the forest kingdom, were impressed by its beauty.

 

The others cast themselves down upon the fragrant grass, but Frodo stood awhile still lost in wonder. It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name.

All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured forever. He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful.

In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lorien there was no stain.

He turned and saw that Sam was now standing beside him, looking round with a puzzled expression, and rubbing his eyes as if he was not sure that he was awake. 'It's sunlight and bright day, right enough,' he said. 'I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but this is more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning.' [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 6]

 

Frodo came to love the forest, which was prized by the elves who lived there.

 

As Frodo prepared to follow him, he laid his hand upon the tree beside the ladder: never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin and of the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 6]

 

Sam observed the elves of Lothlorien loved their forest home. The elves were part of the forest, and the forest was part of them.

 

‘I reckon there's Elves and Elves. They're all elvish enough, but they're not all the same. Now these folk aren't wanderers or homeless, and seem a bit nearer to the likes of us: they seem to belong here, more even than Hobbits do in the Shire. Whether they've made the land, or the land's made them, it's hard to say, if you take my meaning. It's wonderfully quiet here. Nothing seems to be going on, and nobody seems to want it to. If there's any magic about, it's right down deep, where I can't lay my hands on it, in a manner of speaking.' [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

The Fellowship would soon meet Lady Galadriel, who jointly ruled the Kingdom of Lothlorien with her husband, Lord Celeborn. I will discuss Lady Galadriel in my next analysis.