Episode 86 Summary

[Tony Meade]

SESSION 86

Comment on the bright, sunless day:

• Often in northern latitudes, the sky is bright for about an hour the sun actually rises.
• In a mountain pass, the sun could be up for many hours while hidden behind a mountaintop.
• The hobbits could be longing for the sun to warm their limbs because they are in the shadow.

Comment on the use of “lasting lame”:

• We know that Tom is permanently injured by his kick, but he may not be permanently barefoot.
• In shoemaking, a “last” is the model around which the upper and lower parts of a shoe are assembled, and these re standardized for different kinds of shoes in the pre-industrial world.
• This may mean that Tom’s foot will no longer fit a standard fitting boot, and that he may not be wealthy enough to afford a bespoke boot, despite his classist insults towards the troll.
• Tolkien may also be playing with the double-meaning of “last”, as both the endurance of Tom’s injury and the fact that his foot no longer fits his shoe last. Tom’s foot is a model of lameness.
• It’s hard to be sure that Tolkien actually had this in mind when he wrote the poem, but his familiarity with obscure words and usages, especially archaic ones, makes it possible.
• Tolkien was fun of philological puns and jokes in his writings, including in his created languages.

Comment on the use of “larn”:

• In the north of England, as well as other places, the verb “learn” is often used instead of “teach”.
• This is a linguistic preservation of the Old English word “laern”, which means to teach.
• Is Tolkien using the dialectical version “larn” in this older sense, or to demonstrate Tom’s ignorance or social class? What does this say about Sam, who writes these lines?
• Tolkien made a professional study of the dialects of English in the various regions of England, so he would have been aware of this preservation in the Geordie dialect, for instance.
• It’s important to remember that there is a tradition of regional accents being associated with one’s social class and level of respectability, as well as the rural/urban divide.
• Rural accents are associated with a lack of education and sophistication, especially in the north.
• Is Sam delivering this poem in his own dialect, or is he adopting a dialect for the poem? Sam seems to be doing a form of “code-switching”, intensifying his own dialect for the effect.
• Sam already speaks in a noticeably different dialect from the other three hobbits, but he uses dialectical words like “ax” and “larn” in the poem, though he doesn’t in normal speech.
• It doesn’t seem like an accident that Sam’s dialect is northern, especially in the poem. His family comes from the Northfarthing in the Shire originally and haven’t been in Hobbiton for long.
• It’s possible that Sam is mimicking his northern relatives for the sake of humor, and even Gaffer Gamgee’s accent, while broader than Sam’s, isn’t as intense as the one in the poem.
• It seems to be a brand of self-deprecating humor, poking fun at his rural heritage and family.
• All of the family history of the Gamgees is an effort at retcon by Tolkien, having attributed Sam’s northern heritage much later, but the poem comes from many years before.
• This poem was originally given to Frodo in The Prancing Pony, and it was the pantomime of Tom’s kick that led to his slipping and vanishing when he accidentally put on the Ring.
• This was due to the style of the song being appropriate for a pub, but later decided to replace it with the Man in the Moon song, because the actual content was more appropriate.
• Many rustic American dialects use “learn” for teach, but this was outside of Tolkien’s interests.
• Note: In the passage of The Wind in the Willows where Badger uses the term “learn”, and is corrected, he goes on to explain that while he knows the proper usage, this is more appropriate.
• Gaffer Gamgee also used this version of “learned” about Bilbo teaching Sam his letters.

Pero and Podex:

• This early version of the troll song is full of Christian references, including swears, like “Oddsteeth!”, which is a type of medieval swear word referring to God’s body.
• As Tolkien decided to include this poem in The Lord of the Rings, he has to remove the Christian references and replace them so that it fits in the Middle-earth setting.
• The troll attempts to flatter Tom by implying that his uncle John is in heaven with a halo, which implies that John wouldn’t be so selfish as not to share his body with the troll.
• The use of “Young man” makes the register higher and more formal than the later version.
• The troll seems more cowed, and there’s no turnabout in this version where he tries to eat Tom.
• There is a subtle religious debate in the poem about the need of the bones for later resurrection. Tom is taking the more medieval religious view, while the troll is more secular.
• This poem was intended for small audience of academics, i.e. medievalists and theologians.
• Note: The turn by Tom in accusing his uncle of being a thief and therefore in hell is a funny moment, which Christopher Tolkien admitted that he really liked when he was younger.
• Note: There is a technical blasphemy in the use of the historical expletives, but most people don’t know the origins and meanings and are used without thought of blasphemy. Medieval swear words tend to be blasphemies, while modern ones tend to about bodily functions.
• In this version, the third and fourth lines are always repeated as the sixth and seventh lines.
• Also, there is no double B rhyme on line three. In this version, it repeats the A rhyme once more.
• The persistence of alliteration in the verse is a very northern dialect phenomenon, as alliterative verse held on in the north of England longer than anywhere else in the country.

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[Tony Meade]

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Out of Sam’s own head:

• Merry and Pippin have taken Strider’s joke at their expense with good humor, but Merry tries to include Strider join in the laughing at the poem by putting him in the Tom role.
• Merry is doing hobbitry with Strider, which shows that they see him more as one of their party.
• Merry and Pippin had been trying to contribute, but this bridges the gap even better.
• The progression from conspirator to jester to wizard to warrior is unusual. The use of “jester” implies a fool or comic, but it can also mean an entertainer or storyteller, depending on context.
• Note: Gandalf references jesters later during his confrontation with Saruman at Isengard.
• The progression from conspirator to jester is a step up in status, as jesters are associated with wit. This is what Frodo means when he talks about the poem coming from his own head.
• Note: There is an echo of Gandalf’s conversation in Bag End about him, a wizard, trying to find a warrior or hero for the dwarves’ quest in this progression.
• Note: There would not be much mobility in hobbit careers, as trades are passed down in families, and social mobility is rare. Sam isn’t even recognized while wearing armor during the Scouring. Merry and Pippin are taller, but they are now seen as lordly, as they always were. Sam doesn’t desire to change or be anyone other than who he is, which is why he rejects the idea of him becoming something else. Even on the journey, he still thinks of himself as a gardener and Frodo’s servant. It’s partly humility, but also contentment.
• Note: The hobbits are forced to become like warriors during the Scouring, but this is different from identifying as a warrior. Éowyn wants to change her identity to that of a warrior, and Faramir makes the distinction of seeing feats of arms as ends unto themselves. Being a warrior is a profession, whereas fighting for their land, as the hobbits do, is done out of necessity only.

Concerning the trolls’ gold:

• Many active verbs are used regarding the Road and how it acts with regard to the hills and rivers. Making the landscape features active is consistent in Tolkien’s writing.
• The runes that the dwarves placed upon the stone were intended as a curse for anyone who finds the treasure, though presumably Bilbo and Gandalf are exempt, as of the party.
• Bilbo certainly had more treasure in the chests from Erebor than was in the troll-hoard.
• It may seem useless to save this small amount of treasure considering what they were promised in Erebor, but they didn’t know what would happen there, and this is just what dwarves do.
• In light of Frodo’s situation and quest, this treasure hunt looks frivolous and petty in contrast.
• Frodo had made the connection, in contrast between the Ring and gold of Erebor, and the goal of losing a treasure versus finding one, and he is reminded of that contrast again here.
• The dragon gold itself and the Ring are now being contrasted directly here, as the dragon gold is easier to obtain and give it away than the Ring, even given the dragon-sickness.
• Frodo emphasizes that the trolls’ gold had a dirty nature that even the dragon gold, which was a gift to him from its rightful owners. In that way, the dragon-spell has been broken.
• However, the trolls’ gold was taken as plunder, then plundered by the dwarves, so it has a taint of the chain of theft. Bilbo couldn’t have given the gold back to its owners, as they are dead.
• The two swords are different in that Elrond, as a descendant of the elf-lords of old, gives his blessing to Orcrist and Glamdring passing on to Thorin and Gandalf, respectively.
• The Ring is, in a sense, plunder from other plunderers. Bilbo didn’t knowingly steal it, but it comes from a long line of having been taken by force from its previous owners.
• Bilbo tries to clean the stain on the trolls’ gold by giving it as a gift to others. Otherwise, he feels that it will soil him in an ethical sense. In this way, Bilbo tries to do the right thing with it.
• Yet, he claimed the Ring. This is unflattering to Bilbo in a sense, though he did it in ignorance, and much later managed to give it away, which helps put that right. But it was bad for Frodo.
• Bilbo surrenders the Ring to Frodo because Gandalf tells him that it should be done, but not because he sees any harm in having it. However, his keeping it kept it safe from the Enemy.
• Frodo is having a selfish fantasy about what might have happened if Bilbo had given up the Ring or never claimed it, which would’ve spared Frodo his current plight, though it’s understandable.

END OF SESSION