Nah, it’s literally an old english word for elephant.
Like how lob is an old name for spider. Shelob is just ‘she-spider’ or spider lady
There is a new version for the Hobbit in spanish, ilustrated and annotated that explains it this way
What should we call this being so powerful and mysterious as to be completely unaffected by the one ring?
Tom
How about this really old talking tree guy?
Treebeard!
And the huge volcano mountain that is the source of the evil artifact?
Mount Doom, naturally
Weird common human slang names for Fangorn and Orodruin/Amon Amarth
Human: “‘Treebeard’? What a plain-sounding name. Ooh, ‘Fangorn’ sounds exotic!”
Elf: “‘Fangorn’? What a plain-sounding name. Ooh, ‘Treebeard’ sounds exotic!”
That explains why “Cry of the Black Birds” was on the official soundtrack.
?
About to name my next child Humanbeard
To be fair, he has other, more exotic-sounding names. Tom Bombadil is the name the hobbits gave him.
He also called them mûmakil in elvish. In my mind, when the Hobbits call them oliphaunts it is because a long time ago someone talked about elephants, and over the years the correct pronunciation was lost.
Other way around. Oliphants before elephants. When we call them elephants it’s because a long time ago someone talked about oliphants etc.
Come check out my Olifans.
Hot single pachyderms in your area.
*Oliphans
Olifant is what they are called in Dutch, so it is likely is something like that in south African, where Tolkien was born.
Maybe because elephants are based on oliphaunts
The only one that really bothers me is them using the Gregorian calander.
The idea is that it’s a translation, so some words are just modern ones used in place of what the ‘real’ ones are.
Tolkien’s books are essentially english/European mythology, so it kind of sort of makes sense
I believe there’s a whole section of one of the books devoted to the in world-calendars and their relation to the Gregorian one.
I didn’t know that, but that’s good.
Agreed. It already bothers me that we use it
It sent me on a trip and in the end to Hittite 𒆷𒄴𒉺𒀸 (laḫpaš, “ivory”) 3700 years ago
I love etymology honestly and how it is all connected. I am really curious about onomatopoeias.
For example is ‘hmmm’ used in many unrelated languages just because it has a soothing vibration? Why do we have same onomatopoeias in cultures that never met?
Is there a language that is closest to interpreting the brain signals if we consider onomatopoeias to be a part of the language?
Perhaps some primitive pre language consisting of grunts without words. Then the evolution comes into play and animal communication.
malwithhandup.jpg
richardcastlewithhandup.jpg
I stand corrected.
