Tolkien

Tokien is an amazing author. Perhaps one of the best in our century. I have been studying him lately; trying to learn more about how he wrote, in order to improve my own skills at the craft. I believe I have profited from this. I have learned much about plotting and dialogue and characterization, and more about description and suspense and the use of horror in fiction; for in all of these arts Tolkien was a master.

I have also been awed and humbled by his philology, for his love and mastery of language is evident in all that he wrote. And in studying this, I have been defeated. I have no idea, earthly or unearthly, where to begin any studies of language which would lead to skills such as his.

It is, of course, obvious from the outset that he was a master of english grammar and syntax. I have resolved to set myself again to studying the english lessons of my youth; the parts of speech, punctuation, tense, and such. For though I think myself to write with some skill, relative to this age, my writing is a pale and feeble thing next to his. I have some hope that this study will be fruitful, if I apply myself to it diligently. There is much in such lessons that I have let slip past me over the years. It should still be there for me to take up, now that I find myself readied to the task.

It is in the study of the relation of words to other words, and of languages to each other, and of the connections between language and history that Tolkien moves past my ability to fathom. Where is this taught, or studied? Do you simply pick up an etymological dictionary and begin reading? Perhaps future readings will clarify this, as I intend to seek out the nonfiction that Tolkien has published after I finish my latest perusal of the Lord of the Rings. Perhaps in his letters or essays I will find some of the answers I seek. Afterwards, back to my understanding of his skills in the crafting of fiction, and on to The Hobbit and some of his other works.

My one concern in studying him so fiercely is that I note it affecting my writing style, not merely my understandings and skills. I do not seek to copy him in that regard. It is quite obvious to me that doing so would only make me a pale imitation of him; rather than someone who has learned from him, and applied the lessons to something uniquely his own. I hope this is a temporary effect from trying to fathom him so deeply, and that it will pass in time as I begin to find my own voice again and apply the lessons I am learning.

Tolkien Part 2

The first time I ever read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was many years ago, when I was a child. I was given them as a Christmas present by my Aunt, sometime in early January, when she came down to visit us just after the new year. Such timing for gifts was not unusual in my family, as she lived in Connecticut and we in New Jersey, and she could rarely get away for the holiday itself. The book was split into three volumes, hardcover all.

I have no memory of what happened to those volumes, though I deem it likely they were lost over the years to pests or water damage or ill-behaved pets. But I still remember one scene in the book best of all, though I have not read it in years, where a crow is shot from the sky because it is a spy of Sauron, and orcs are sighted guarding a pass. I read that scene as a child sitting in my grandfather's house, just to the left of the television, in one of his easy chairs and it is burned in my memory still.

Lately, I have been reading the book again. And I am amazed at its richness, and the amount of things I had forgotten in it. And, more than anything, I am amazed at how it compares to the movies. I had thought the movies were excellent when I first saw them, not having read the book in years. Now though, the amount that was left out, or outright changed, stands out starkly to my mind. In many places the entire meaning of Tolkien's text has been altered, or lost entirely. So much have the movies been twisted from the original that you may as well call an orc an elf, as call those movies and this book the same story.

Languages

Just archiving some thoughts as I begin to broach the field of linguistics (been reading a bit on the subject this evening.)

I am fluent in English at an above average level.
I am somewhat familiar with German, having studied it for three years, but am by no means fluent in it.
I know a small smattering of other languages, but am not even familiar with them in truth, much less fluent.

I would like to deepen my understanding of English.

I would like to become fluent in German.

I would like to become at least more familiar with, and preferably fluent in, Latin and Gaelic (I have not yet decided which branch) and Spanish and Hawaiian. For starters. I know certain words and phrases in each of these, to varying degrees, Latin being the one I am best with. I can generally intuit the meaning of latin texts based on my knowledge of roots and Latin's influences on English. I'm also familiar with a few latin phrases. Non scholae sed vitae discimus. Actually, I think learning such sayings is easier on the memory than other methods of increasing one's vocabulary in a foreign language. Much of my knowledge of german, learned by rote, has fled despite my adeptness when first learning it. I have little to anchor it to, unlike these phrases stolen from Latin.

I am curious about native american languages, australian aboriginee language(s?), asian languages, and arabic; but I think learning any of these languages would come after the others, and perhaps not at all. Though I'm sure my family will try to convince me to learn at least two languages from this set, Japanese and Arabic. ;)

These, then, are likely to be the languages through which I approach the study of linguistics, and in turn which I may draw nearer to understanding through that study.