The Hobbit Language Analysis

Throughout the epic tales described in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, as well as in both The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, philology and language prove to be important aspects of creating a fictional universe that has become interlaced with popular culture. With contributing factors from both Tolkien’s time as a professor of Anglo- Saxon and English literature and language and as a research associate for Oxford English Dictionary, the importance of the language to his literary works is vastly evident. However, Tolkien’s interest in philology and language stemmed from a much earlier time in his life, during which he worked on becoming competent in Latin, Greek, Gothic and Finnish. As a result of this early established interest in language,

Tolkien, a linguist before an author, was quoted saying that “Nobody believes me when I say that my long book (LOTR) is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real, […] it was an effort to create a situation in which a common greeting would be elen sila lumenn omentielmo (Carpenter 264-265)”. Over the course of his lifetime, Tolkien created several different languages, such as Elvish (including Quenya and Sindarin), Dwarvish, Black Speech, and Entish. It seems that in Tolkien’s eyes, language was the beginning of a culture rather than only a product of it. Tolkien wrote that “The invention of languages is the foundation,” the ‘stories’ were made rather to fit the notion of the languages than the reverse.” In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien created Middle-earth as a world for his invented language [...]. Each invented language in his works plays an important role in the evolution of events and development of the characters in the story. Language and literature go hand in hand, however it is important for the dialogue of the story because it's one of the main ways for characters to communicate and interact with the world around