Gesundheit!

Kate Neville

Well-Known Member
The first thing that popped into my mind during the discussion of blessings was this moment at the Doors of Moria:
“He laid his hand on the pony’s head, and spoke in a low voice. ‘Go with words of guard and guiding on you,’ he said. ‘You are a wise beast, and have learned much in Rivendell. Make your ways to places where you can find grass, and so come in time to Elrond’s house, or wherever you wish to go. ‘There, Sam! He will have quite as much chance of escaping wolves and getting home as we have.’”

And while it might be obvious that Bill would return to his first home in Bree, it also may be that he was drawn to a place also blessed by Gandalf. (I always wondered why he didn't go back to Rivendell!)

And though it might have been mentioned, there are also these moments from Galadriel:
“‘We have come to bid our last farewell,’ she said, ‘and to speed you with blessings from our land.’”
“In this box there is earth from my orchard, and such blessing as Galadriel has still to bestow is upon it.”

And from Faramir, who reminded Sam of Gandalf, we have
“‘Well, so we meet and part, Frodo son of Drogo. You have no need of soft words: I do not hope to see you again on any other day under this Sun. But you shall go now with my blessing upon you, and upon all your people. Rest a little while food is prepared for you.”
(His food and his staves were, indeed, a blessing to Frodo and Sam.)

Goldberry speaks "a blessing on your footsteps" when the Hobbits leave, and Elrond says “may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you" as the Fellowship departs.

These all come at moments of separation, and are mostly bestowed by the master of the residence upon departing guests. Gandalf's blessings are in a different but related mode: he is the one leaving Bree, and both he and Bill the pony are leaving each other.

There are other places where prayer or invocation seems to carry the weight of blessing (Gildor's “May Elbereth protect you!’”), but that requires a paper-length discussion.
 
Ha ha! Your thread title drew me right in. Just yesterday I asked my wife "how prevalent is "gesundheit" in the US?" and of course it was a rhetorical question, since she grew up in Germany and could only tell me it was common where she used to live in Pennsylvania, which doesn't count because so many Germans settled there that it's called "Pennsylvania Dutch Country". It was common in my own family, via Yiddish, I suppose. But apparently it's more or less everywhere?

Merriam-Webster online had no good information except that it's first cited in 1914. That's surprisingly recent!
Wikipedia says it is "less common" (without citation) than "bless you".
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/gesundheit.948773/ includes claims that it represents 1% or less of the responses to sneezing in the US.

Looks like it'll take someone with more google-fu than I to find an answer!
 
Ha ha! Your thread title drew me right in. Just yesterday I asked my wife "how prevalent is "gesundheit" in the US?" and of course it was a rhetorical question, since she grew up in Germany and could only tell me it was common where she used to live in Pennsylvania, which doesn't count because so many Germans settled there that it's called "Pennsylvania Dutch Country". It was common in my own family, via Yiddish, I suppose. But apparently it's more or less everywhere?

Merriam-Webster online had no good information except that it's first cited in 1914. That's surprisingly recent!
Wikipedia says it is "less common" (without citation) than "bless you".
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/gesundheit.948773/ includes claims that it represents 1% or less of the responses to sneezing in the US.

Looks like it'll take someone with more google-fu than I to find an answer!
It was used frequently in my childhood home, though there's nary a single German in my family tree, nor did either of my parents study German. (They were both physicians and so knew a lot of Latin roots.) My maternal side does reach back to the Mayflower, so perhaps it was something that snuck in while the Pilgrims tarried in the Netherlands.
 
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