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Tolkien was not quite as original as I believed in my worshipful devotions.
Sitting here listening to Beowulf again, I notice even more keenly the preponderance of words like "Theoden," meaning "king," "Earendel," meaning "morning or evening star," and "eorlingas," meaning "rider."
Having just listened to a series of Swedish songs, I notice the preponderance of words like "varg", meaning "wolf," and a few others which I cannot remember right now.
However, his antederivation from existing IndoEuropean (and otherwise) languages is even more worthy of worshipful devotions, because he's reconstructed a protolanguage that, while less plausible than many possibilities, is gorgeous and as sensible as any functional language can ever expect to be.
Sitting here listening to Beowulf again, I notice even more keenly the preponderance of words like "Theoden," meaning "king," "Earendel," meaning "morning or evening star," and "eorlingas," meaning "rider."
Having just listened to a series of Swedish songs, I notice the preponderance of words like "varg", meaning "wolf," and a few others which I cannot remember right now.
However, his antederivation from existing IndoEuropean (and otherwise) languages is even more worthy of worshipful devotions, because he's reconstructed a protolanguage that, while less plausible than many possibilities, is gorgeous and as sensible as any functional language can ever expect to be.
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