Friday, February 22, 2008

Some Questions

I have some questions for the people in the class that are more experienced with the trilogy and Tolkien. In chapter 9 Frodo recites a poem that has "the Man in the Moon" and a dish that ran off with a spoon. Did Tolkien use the theme of a common nursery rhyme or did the nursery rhyme come after Tolkien? Which came first? I know that the class is past this part in the book but I honestly forgot about the blog.

Also, it seems to me that after Frodo meets and leaves Goldberry his character is more mature. It was mentioned during class once that there are no romantic interests in the books, but to me Frodo acted like he had a crush on Goldberry. Was this so or was Frodo acting like a knight who showed courtly love for Goldberry?

Another thing that I wondered about is the constant use of the word queer to describe something odd. Why doesn't Tolkien use synonyms instead of using a single word over and over?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I'm not a more experienced trilogy or Tolkien person but I agree with you about the word queer. It would seem to me that such a "great" writer could come up with another word to describe something weird or odd. I also wondered the same thing about "the Man in the Moon" but I mostly really liked when I read that part because it was something simple in the story that I could understand!!!!

David Le said...

i don't think its the fact that he could use a different word instead of queer or strange, but it was put in a different context back in the early 1900's compared to its definition now. The "man in the moon" is a pretty straighforward approach is probably a breather for most of the audience when trying to read such a text.

erin smith said...

My favorite part about the "man in the moon" song by Bilbo is Tolkien's preface to it: "Here it is in full. Only a few words of it are now, as a rule, remembered." I think Tolkien enjoyed this bit of a "wink" he had at his audience. Isn't another way to talk about a rhyme, such as a nursery rhyme, as a "rule"? That part always makes me grin when I read it, how it could be a double play on words whichever way you read it.