Crawford Comments on The Lord of the Rings (TT book 1, chapters 4-6)

[@ThePinkus]

Gandalf: "Indeed I am Saruman" I think he means that he is now what Saruman should have become.

[@steveblunden2295]

Just a note to say that Tolkien's description of the Golden Hall at Edoras is parallel to the description of Hrothgarr's Hall in Beowulf. And Eowyn offers the cup in the same way as Hrothgarr's Queen did - Eowyn now being the Senior Woman of King Theoden's Household.

[@sueadams1499]

The Dingles, just across the road from Sarehole Mill, in Birmingham, England was part of Tolkien's childhood environs. Still a green corridor along the river today.

[@Crash103179]

15:16 Gandalf means he has become what Saruman should have been. He is taking over the lead of the White Council in the fight against Sauron.

[@CharlieRicketts-gr1sf]

Thank you for these LOTR videos, I am really enjoying them!

[@kaikalter]

Happy New Year everyone

[@gamuret-6442]

I love the relaxing vibe of these Videos.

[@pearcebishop1162]

I think in this case sacred means “set apart” in the context that Aragorn, Gimili, and Legolas were ready to fight Saruman but when they learned he was Gandalf he became “set apart” and Gimli had to go pick a fight with someone else

[@pearcebishop1162]

Not necessarily anything special about Gandalf other than that they recognized him as their ally

[@joannemoore3976]

Yes basically Gandalf's head is now off limits 🙂

[@pearcebishop1162]

exactly

[@peteg475]

Tolkien said the word "Orthanc" had a double meaning. In Rohirric (Represented by Old English) it means "Cunning Mind", as you say. But in Elvish, the same word means "Mount Fang", which is descriptive of the Tower. A tall, pointed tower, like a sharp tooth. I think that is made explicit in the text shortly, if I remember right.

[@tarlonniel]

I don't know Old English, but I still enjoy listening to readings of poems like "The Wanderer", just for the sound and the rhythm. What a shame that Tolkien never gave us the 'original' Rohirric version of "Where now the horse and the rider?" - I would've loved to hear it!

[@BetterMonsters]

i feel like this was the best of these videos yet. Thanks for giving us a window to deeper engagement with these books!

[@EffequalsMA]

I binge watched the whole series today!

[@thundercliff93]

Eorlingas was rendered as Jörlungar in the Icelandic translation.

[@joannemoore3976]

I feel I know the word dingle from childhood - there was a local place called the dingle. Maybe not so widely used any more.

[@rahilario]

TO be fair to Odin "harvesting" men for the final fight, new Gandalf' *does* parallel this still: his main task in the Third Age was to set things up and inspire people to fight the final fight against Sauron. The Grey Wanderer was known to go place-to-place "warmongering" as accused by Grima. So that Odinnic parallel is certainly still there in Gandalf The White who was sent back till his task is done, which is to continue to gather people against Sauron.

[@julianwilson9919]

For 2025, wishing you all the best! And really enjoying this series of videos.

[@JacksonCrawford]

Thanks so much! Same to you!

[@candyturner1412]

It would be cool to "auction off" your annotated copy of this book when you're done--I bet there'd be quite a few folks who'd bid on it!

[@NetTopsey]

Tolkien was never clear on the origins of Uruk-hai (Saruman's orcs) beyond the fact that they were normal orcs that had been enhanced by cross breeding with men or by some magic. Regarding the "normal" orcs Tolkien seemed fairly settled that they were originally elves that had been corrupted/twisted out of their true nature by Sauron's master, Morgoth. At any rate, if you are puzzled by the Uruk-hai and how they came to be, you're in good company. Edit: And a very happy New Year to you and Lauren!

[@joannemoore3976]

Btw, the vocal group Clamavi de Profundis have an amazing musical rendition of 'Where now the horse and the rider'.

[@lotoreo]

In my native language, Dutch, the word for grafting, as in, grafting one plant onto the root and trunk of another, we call that "enten", "graft a tree" - "ent een boom"

[@stevelknievel4183]

That sense of abroad also turns up in Romeo and Juliet when Mercutio says 'The Capels (Capulets) are abroad.'

[@peteg475]

Gildor's Elves say that to Frodo in "Fellowship." ... "Hail, Frodo! You are abroad late!" Meaning, of course, on the road in the middle of the night - unusual for hobbits.

[@rahilario]

This man just reminded us all how to correctly say EORLlingas 👍🙌 One of the things that bothered me most about the movies is in one of Theoden's most important dramatic moments when he stressed the wrong syllable: eorl-ING-as ... which would make us all do a double-take if we heard any modern equivalent stressed wrong while shouted in movie's climactic and dramatic moment: washINGton, earthLINGs, inkLINGs.

[@waelisc]

25:30 Bosworth-Toller has gāl as meaning "lust, folly, wantonness". In the OE Fall of Angels, gāl is paired with oferhygd, "pride", as the cause of the angels'/Satan's fall: hīe hyra gāl beswāc, engles oferhygd

[@jonathonfrazier6622]

Awesome.

[@scottmillerssu]

Could you gloss the roots of the word "orc," please? THx

[@stevenklinden]

"Orthanc", incidentally, is an example of a place where the Translator Conceit kind of breaks down. Tolkien writes that "whether by chance or design" the name has a double meaning: in Sindarin it means "fang mountain" (an appropriate name for a tower made from a single pillar of rock), while in Rohirric it means "cunning mind" (an appropriate name for Saruman, its master). Which is all well and good until you remember that Rohirric is not ACTUALLY Old English; it's only being represented as Old English. But Sindarin is just Sindarin; it's not "translated". Which means that the Sindarin name "Orthanc" is the real, untranslated name - so if it has a double meaning in Rohirric, then the REAL Rohirric name must also be "Orthanc". Which leads us to the unlikely conclusion that it just so happens that "Orthanc" has exactly the same meaning in Rohirric and in Old English. Of course, the real explanation is that Tolkien hadn't really though this through when he came up with the idea of the double meaning. On the subject of the acute accents, that definitely seems to have been the usual convention in older Old English editions. In fact, the grammar & reader I started with is from 1970 and uses acute accents, rather than macrons. Sorry to hear about your fiance losing her job. Terrible for that to happen before the holidays; I wish her the best in her search for something new and better.

[@lotoreo]

yes. personally, I don't consider the translator conceit canon.

[@David.Bowman.]

Famous horses go all the way back to the beginning of time with Orome’s horse Nahar. Later, Theoden would be compared to Orome “borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Orome the great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young”.

[@HighKingTurgon]

Does Old Norse use an ablative case for duration of time? Latin uses its accusative! I've never learned enough Old English to know those temporal adverbial case-uses.

[@waelisc]

Old English only has nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases regularly, with some surviving instrumental forms. Adverbial time's usually expressed with the dative e.g. nominative hwīl "time, a while", dative pl hwīlum "at whiles, sometimes" as in: hwīlum mid since gegyrwed "sometimes with treasure adorned"

[@HighKingTurgon]

@waelisc that accords with how German does it-I usually think in Latinate terms, so I usually conceive of the German Dative case as "the stuff that Latin does with Dative AND Ablative".

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

The macron is just about never seen except in scholarly texts. Its use might confuse readers. The acute accent is well known.

[@willek1335]

@everyone Generic question about orcs as evil, or the nature of evil versus the more modern way of making everything morally grey. What's the literary purpose of evil as such? Why is it used in such a polar way? What's tolkien trying to do with it? What does the story gain from portraying evil as nearly irredeemable?

[@elijahsells6305]

I think he’s drawing from how older forms of storytelling (myth, fairy tales, etc.) often depict evil in much the same way. Think of the evil stepmother/stepsisters in Cinderella. They’re not morally gray, just plain evil. Another example would be Grendel and Grendel’s mother in Beowulf. The story doesn’t ask us to wonder about their “side of the story.” We just know that they’re evil.

[@willek1335]

@elijahsells6305 No offense, but I don't think that answered what I asked.

[@iivin4233]

Now that was some good linguistics. Though, "Derndell" would sound better. Or Derndle. Would "dle" be anachronistic?