Bright Yellow Daffodils, in Black & White

a lovely touch from the beloved

Crocuses in the Lawn

The past few days, I noticed crocuses springing up: yellow ones in the lawn around the library, then purple ones in the local park as I crossed to read on a sun-drenched bench.

And this morning, I tried to find the word that Jonathan Strange uses to address Drawlight in Venice, only a little handicapped by never having seen it in print; in the audiobook, it had sounded like "Croquitur" (and thus sprang to mind with the word "crocus").  It turns out the word is "Leucrocuta," which the Tor.com re-read helpfully glosses with a link to a medieval bestiary:

The leucrota is a swift beast that lives in India. It is a composite animal, the result of a mating between a hyena and a lioness, the same size as an ass, but with a horse's head, chest and legs like a lion, hind quarters like a stag, and cloven hoofs. It has an extremely wide mouth, that stretches from one ear to the other. It does not have individual teeth, but only a single bone where teeth should be. Like the hyena, the leucrota can make sounds that resemble human speech.

No wonder poor, vain Drawlight is so worried about Strange's threat to change him to this form.  

... and stammering

It turns out that "stammer" also comes up 12 times in the kindle edition of LotR, but the distribution is a bit more egalitarian:

• Bilbo 1x
• On being reminded by Gandalf that he'd agreed to give up the Ring (p. 33)
• Frodo 4x
• After hearing the Ring-verse (p. 51)
• As he's struggling against Old Man Willow's spell but getting overpowered by it (p. 117)
• After he spontaneously breaks into song praising Goldberry (p. 124) 
• On realizing how old Elrond is (p. 243)
• Sam 1x
• After reciting the Gil-galad poem (p. 186)
• Gimli 1x 
• On being invited to request a gift from Galadriel (p. 376)
• Pippin 3x
• Initial response to Gandalf about what he saw in the palantir (he's trying to deceive Gandalf with a partial truth) (p. 593)
• Responding to Beregond's question about Aragorn's identity (he realizes he slipped up by mentioning him) (p. 761)
• Attempting to comfort a crying Denethor (p. 823)
• Merry 2x
• On learning he will ride with Theoden (he was worried about his uselessness) (p. 777)
• On learning he will be left behind and is being released from service (uselessness confirmed!) (p. 801)

Blushing in The Lord of the Rings

A quick word search on "blush" in my kindle edition of LotR reveals 12 matches.  Here's who blushes and how often:

• Sam 7x 
• After reciting the Gil-galad poem (p. 186)
• In Rivendell, after taking Frodo's hand and stroking it gently (p. 225)
• After getting himself invited/conscripted into Frodo's quest (p. 271)
• After enduring Galadriel's glance (p. 357)
• Amidst the "praise them with great praise!" accolades to him and Frodo (p. 953) 
• After Bilbo gives him money "if you think of getting married" (p. 987)
• When Frodo praises him in front of Rose (p. 1014)
• Pippin 1x
• In conversation with Beregond, after temporarily forgetting to make sure Shadowfax was taken care of (p. 761)
• Frodo 1x 
• Amidst the "praise them with great praise!" accolades to him and Sam (p. 953)
• willow-trees 1x (p. 507)
• walls of Gondor 1x (p. 751)
• white peaks of the mountains 1x (p. 884)

(The 12th word match is after Sam's blush in Lothlorien, when Pippin asks him "What did you blush for, Sam?")

And There Was Great Rejoicing

Some years ago, I started seeing "Woot!" as the predominant approbatory exclamation on Facebook.  I was never particularly keen on it myself (my contemporaries had been partial to "Yay!"), but in the past year or two, my own practices have evolved.  I've somehow developed the habit of typing "Huzzah!" to greet good news.

Now, "huzzah" struck me as very traditional - even perhaps a little retro - but when I used it in a work email recently, a retired colleague asked me to explain it.  Here's what I came up with on the spur of a not-particularly-awkward moment:

A cry of rejoicing and delight, similar to "Hooray!" or "Yippee!" or "Hallelujah!"
Frequently accompanied by the wholesale tossing of hats into the air, if the jubilant crowd happens to be wearing hats. 

I'm actually rather pleased with that.

But all this rejoicing also reminds me of the First Sally in Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad (translated by Michael Kandel):

This high-minded monarch also had a theory, which he put into action, and this was the Theory of Universal Happiness. It is well known, certainly, that one does not laugh because one is amused, but rather, one is amused because one laughs. If then everyone maintains that things just couldn't be better, attitudes immediately improve. The subjects of Ferocitus were thus required, for their own good, to go about shouting how wonderful every-thing was, and the old, indefinite greeting of "Hello" was changed by the King to the more emphatic "Hallelujah!" —though children up to the age of fourteen were permitted to say, "Wow!" or "Whee!", and the old-timers, "Swell!" Ferocitus rejoiced to see his people in such good spirits. Whenever he drove by in his destroyer-shaped carriage, crowds in the street would cheer, and whenever he graciously waved his royal hand, those up front would cry: "Wow!"—"Hallelujah!"—"Terrific!" 

~ ~ ~

So, what should we make of my three real-world contenders?  Their relative ages are just what we would expect.

Merriam-Webster online thinks "woot" or "w00t" has been around since 2002, and speculates for its etymology: "perhaps extension of WHOO entry 1, with t representing glottal closure."

"Yay, int." is much older, as it is apparently attested all the way back to 1963.  The OED online speculates: "Perhaps < yay adv., used as an exclamation, or < yeah adv. used similarly with alteration of ending (compare 'ray aphetic form of hooray int.)."

But in its entry for "huzza, int. and n." the OED has quotations as far back as 1573.  For etymology, it offers: "apparently a mere exclamation, the first syllable being a preparation for, and a means of securing simultaneous utterance of the final /ɑː/."  They go on to say:

It is mentioned by many 17–18th cent. writers as being originally a sailor's cheer or salute: ‘It was derived from the marine and the shouts the seamen make when friends come aboard or go off’ (North Exam. (1740) 617). It may therefore be the same as heisau! hissa! originally hauling or hoisting cries: see heeze v. quot. c1550 and hissa int. (German has also ˈhussa as a cry of hunting and pursuit, and, subsequently, of exultation.)

Two Quick Notes on "The Extended Moment"

I think it was my third visit to the Morgan Library this year (this time for Patricia's birthday) when I finally got around to looking at their exhibit "The Extended Moment: Photographs from the National Gallery of Canada."

The photograph labeled "Moon, 4 March 1865" (by Louis M. Rutherford, American, 1815-1892) has the most wonderful opening line about the photographer: "Rutherford, a practicing New York lawyer, left the bar to devote his career to astronomy."

And I loved this one (Alison Rossiter's Goya), which looks more like traditional East Asian ink wash paintings than a photograph:

The Green Knight vs the Mouth of Sauron

The Mouth of Sauron's encounter with the Captains of the West in The Lord of the Rings has been reminding me of the Green Knight's visit to King Arthur's court in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  So I wanted to look at the scenes a bit more carefully together.

The initial set-up is quite different, naturally.  The Green Knight comes in uninvited without any introduction or explanation -- the reader is thus in the same boat as members of Arthur's court -- whereas Tolkien gives us some backstory on the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr when he comes out in response to the heralds' challenge.  The Green Knight arrives alone on a color-coordinated steed that seems an ordinary animal except for its hue, but the poet hints the knight himself might possibly be supernatural ("Half etayn in erde I hope þat he were").  Intriguingly, the similarly color-coordinated fellow who approaches Aragorn & Co. is almost exactly the inverse, i.e., a living man on a possibly supernatural mount:

[O]ut of [the Black Gate] there came an embassy from the Dark Tower.  At its head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was [...] more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame.  The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man.
(LotR 888, paragraph break omitted)

The core similarity, of course, is the disrespectful address.  In each version, the stranger boldly rides right up to the company and makes a big show of looking them up and down and asking who is in charge.  He is very specifically pretending not to be able to discern the leader -- a matter which would be self-evident both from the man's own physical location, bearing, and adornment and from his followers' reactions, since they would doubtless be turning to him or looking his way.  Here's Tolkien in LotR:

Now halting a few paces before the Captains of the West he looked them up and down and laughed.  

'Is there anyone in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked. 'Or indeed with wit to understand me? Not thou at least!' he mocked, turning to Aragorn with scorn. 'It needs more to make a king than a piece of Elvish glass, or a rabble such as this. Why, any brigand of the hills can show as good a following!'
(LotR 889).

Clearly, the Mouth of Sauron knows who Aragorn is, since he specifically picks him and his Elvish glass out for the first round of mockery.  Here's the Middle English poet's verse (ll. 221-231):

Þis haþel [knight] heldez [proceeds, goes, comes] hym in and þe halle entres,
Driuande [lit: driving] to þe heȝe dece, dut [feared] he no woþe [danger],
Haylsed [greeted] he neuer one, bot heȝe he ouer loked.
Þe fyrst word þat he warp [uttered], 'Wher is', he sayd,
'Þe gouernour of þis gyng [company]? Gladly I wolde
Se þat segg [man, knight] in syȝt, and with hymself speke
raysoun.' 

     To knyȝtez he kest his yȝe,
     And reled [rolled] hym vp and doun;
     He stemmed [stopped, halted], and con [did] studie [look carefully, lit: study]
     Quo walt [possessed] þer most renoun.

The Green Knight's words are less overtly disrespectful here; he does not call into question Arthur's intellectual capabilities, compare him to a "brigand," or refer to his followers as "this rout" or "a rabble." Or does he?  The word "gyng" (l. 225) stands out initially due to its visual resemblance to "gang."  Tolkien's notes and glossary translate it as "company" (1st ed. p. 160) and his own translation uses "gathering" (p. 23).  Likewise, Borroff goes with "crowd" in her verse translation, both in the 1967 original and a revised version for the Norton Critical Edition (2010).

Still, Borroff's commentary on these lines in "The Challenge Episode: A Stylistic Interpretation" cites the OED to suggest the word conveys an ambiguously deprecatory sense.

Indeed, the first several definitions or subdefinitions in OED's entry for "ging, n." (1, 2a, 2b, 3a) are consistent with this neutral usage; it can mean (for example) a company of armed men, a great personage's retinue, household, followers, or retainers, or even more generally a gathering of people.  1, 2a, and 2b are attested at various times from 1043 (in Old English) through 1632, while 3a is attested ?c1200–1877. But then we reach definition 3b:

 b. depreciative. A crew, a rabble.
       c1250—1659

As we have seen, the Mouth of Sauron refers to the host as "this rabble."

Curiously, the Green Knight seems to have come indoors ("heldez hym in and þe halle entres") on horseback.  He does not dismount on entering the feast-area, but instead drives or presses forward to the high dais ("Driuande to þe heȝe dece," rendered by Tolkien as "pressing forward to the dais").    In this regard, the Green Knight seems more overtly disrespectful than the Mouth of Sauron; an emissary summoned forth to answer a challenge might well ride up to the enemy awaiting him, but an unexpected visitor dropping in at Christmas revels "in halle" (l. 101) should surely, at the very least, approach the dais on foot.

The Green Knight's insolence devolves into increasingly open mockery (ll. 280-86, 309-15) and then to loud laughter (l. 316).  Arthur initially identifies himself and graciously invites him to join in the feast and let them know his business after, but the Green Knight declines.  He's not there for a fight, of course, because "Hit arn aboute on þis bench bot berdlez chylder" (l. 280).  Instead, he challenges them to a beheading game.  When his startling offer is met with stunned silence, the Green Knight throws off all restraint (ll. 309-22):

'What, is þis Arthures hous,' quoþ þe haþel þenne,
'Þat al þe rous [fame, talk] rennes of þurȝ ryalmes so mony?
Where is now your sourquydrye [pride] and your conquestes,
Your gryndellayk [fierceness] and your greme [wrath], and your grete wordes?
Now is þe reuel and þe renoun of þe Rounde Table
Ouerwalt wyth a worde of on wyȝes speche,
For al dares for drede withoute dynt schewed!'
Wyth þis he laȝes so loude þat þe lorde greued;
Þe blod schot for scham into his schyre face
and lere;

     He wex as wroth as wynde,
     So did alle þat þer were.
     Þe kyng as kene bi kynde
     Þen stod þat stif mon nere,

So Aragorn, unlike Arthur, passes the test insofar as keeping his cool under open mockery and laughter: "Aragorn said naught in answer, but he took the other's eye and held it, and for a moment they strove thus," until the challenger quails (LotR 889).

The similarities in set-up perhaps reflect that, in each case, the emissary seeks to undermine, to provoke, to throw the good guys off their game, and ultimately to set a trap for them.


~~~~
Coda - Miscellaneous Details

The Green Knight issues his challenge on horseback, since immediately afterward "Þe renk on his rouncé hym ruched in his sadel" to look around at the company (l. 303).  Moreover, once the challenge has been accepted, "Lyȝtly lepez he hym to, and laȝt at his honde" (l. 328).  So he's kinda doubling down on the not-dismounting thing until he gets what he wants.

The scene in LotR does not include a similar challenge/exchange.  The Mouth of Sauron is answering the heralds' challenge: "Come forth! [...] Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth! Justice shall be done upon him. For wrongfully he has made war upon Gondor and wrested its lands.  Therefore the King of Gondor demands that he should atone for his evils, and depart then for ever.  Come forth!" (LotR 887).  But this is a fundamentally different kind of challenge than the Green Knight's proffered exchange of one beheading for another.

The Mouth of Sauron does offers the company an exchange, but it, too, is fundamentally different from that offered by the Green Knight, since the terms are wildly unequal on their face (rather than like for like): He invites total submission and capitulation in return for the non-torture of one hobbit.

~~~~
Note on Etymology:

From the OED's etymological notes on "gang, n.":

Sense 8 probably developed primarily from the conception of a group of people going about together, whereas senses 9 and 10 were probably additionally influenced by sense 7, as denoting a group or set (of people or animals) having characteristics in common. Compare earlier ging n.1 It is uncertain whether there was any influence from early Scandinavian uses in compounds, or whether these simply show a parallel development; compare Old Icelandic þjófa-gangr group of thieves, gaura-gangr group of ruffians, and also drauga-gangr group of ghosts, músa-gangr group of mice. (Dutch gang and German Gang denoting a group of criminals show borrowings < English.)

In turn, the outline for "† ging, n.1" provides:

Origin: Of uncertain origin. Either (i) a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Or (ii) a borrowing from early Scandinavian. Etymon: i-geng n.
Etymology: Either (i) aphetic < i-geng n., or (ii) < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic ...
Obsolete.
 1. A company of armed men, a troop, army, host.
       OE—1632
 2.
 a. A retinue (of a great personage); a household, a body of retainers or followers.
       ?c1200—1601
 b. In plural. A person's followers or people. Also: people in general.
       c1330—c1626
 3.
 a. gen. A gathering of people, a company; a band, a gang; a set. Also figurative.
       ?c1200—1877
 b. depreciative. A crew, a rabble.
       c1250—1659
 c. spec. The crew of a ship or boat. Cf. gang n.
       1585—1670

 4. In Old Testament usage: the Gentile nations collectively; heathen peoples.

~~~~
NOTE: The citations are rather rough - I'll have to go back and clean them up at some point.

Works Consulted

Armitage, Simon. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation. W.W. Norton, 2008.

Borroff, Marie. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation. W.W. Norton, 1967.

---. “The Challenge Episode: A Stylistic Interpretation.” Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Authoritative Translation, Contexts, Criticism, edited by Marie Borroff and Laura L. Howes, 1st ed, W.W. Norton, 2010, pp. 93–104.

---. “The Translated Text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Authoritative Translation, Contexts, Criticism, edited by Marie Borroff and Laura L. Howes, 1st ed, W.W. Norton, 2010, pp. 1–64.

“gang, n.” Oxford English Dictionary Online, Third Edition, Mar. 2013, http://www.oed.com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/view/Entry/76566.

“ging, n.1” Oxford English Dictionary Online, Third Edition, June 2017, http://www.oed.com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/78368.

"Sir Gawayn and Þe Grene Knyȝt."  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, Clarendon Press, 1949.  (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/Gawain/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext)

---.  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, edited by Norman Davis, Norman, editor, 2nd ed., Clarendon Press, 1968.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. 50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2005.

Tolkien, J. R. R., translator.  “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, edited by Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1975, pp. 17–93.

“was upon [personal pronoun]”

I believe alas_not_me has been meditating on the phrase “the Ring was upon him” in LotR for a while, and he mentioned Friday night that it clearly means more than the literal physical location of the Ring on (or upon) Frodo's finger.  Among other things, he suggested it has similar overtones as saying “the enemy was upon him.”  (Here, we might say upon conveys the sense of immediate confrontation.)

But in context it also reminds me of a Biblical phrase such as “the Holy Ghost was upon him” - a sense of an overwhelming power infusing and overcoming Frodo.  If the Ring is upon Frodo, he is figuratively under its influence.  Indeed, he seems to start receiving multiple micro-visions (“small and clear”), as if he had the power of far-seeing in many directions; though they are silent, we might almost say he's been given a temporary gift of “seeing in tongues.”

Here are two examples in the KJV:

• Ezekiel 37:1 “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.”
• Luke 2:25 “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.”

~ ~ ~

Of course, one may wonder how Tolkien uses this phrase (“was upon [personal pronoun]”) elsewhere in LotR?  Here are all the usages that come up in a phrase search for “was upon” (obviously excluding three impersonal/non-human uses):  

• “no sign of age was upon them [Celeborn and Galadriel]” (354)
• “the Ring was upon him [Frodo]” (400)
• “The White Rider was upon them [the hosts of Isengard], and the terror of his coming filled the enemy with madness.” (542)
• “A new fear was upon them [Frodo, Sam, and Gollum]” (645)
• “a fury was upon her [Shelob]” (728)
• “the swoon that was upon him [Sam]” (729)
• “fled when we came, crying out that the King of the Dead was upon them [defenders and foes of the fords of the River Gilrain]” (875)

The first is fairly literal, of course. The second we have been discussing. Of the other five uses, three suggest to me an overwhelming power or experience (fear, fury, swoon); while two have more the sense of immediate confrontation - but nearby clauses reveal the confrontation itself is indeed overwhelming to those facing the onslaught.  So I think we can justify both interpretations for upon in “the Ring was upon him.”

~ ~ ~

As usual, alas_not_me makes additional connections and analysis (including intriguing nearby uses of upon) that further illuminate the passage.  But I'm trying to keep my focus narrow and not steal his thunder.