J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rivals and Mrs Malaprop

This weeks blog posting came about from a visit last night to London's The Haymarket Theatre to see Penelope Keith (Good Neighbors) and Peter Bowles (To the Manor Born, Rumpole of the Bailey) in Peter Halls excellent production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's first comedy The Rivals (1775)

I had planned for this weeks posting to be more about early Tolkien linguistics but then as I sat in the theatre I realised that as much as I tried to put Tolkienan things aside for one night - I had actually come back around to Tolkien - for Tolkien himself has been involved with a production of Sheridan's The Rivals and in his youth had played not the dashing Captain Jack Absolute or his father Sir Anthony Absolute - but indeed Tolkien played the "she wolf" Mrs Malaprop - she who "calls her words so ingeniously misapplied, without being mispronounced" as Julia Melville the cousin of our heroine Lydia Languish says of her in the play. It seems natural that Tolkien with his love for language would savour the opportunity to play a character who uses language in shall we say interesting ways - so what is the evidence of Tolkien taking to the stage to do this?


According to Christina Scull and Wayne G Hammond's J R R Tolkien Companion and Guide in Volume Two The Readers Guide in the section on Tolkien's involvement in pre World War One school days with "The Tea Club Barrovian Society"* -

"In autumn term 1911 Gilson (Robert Quilter Gilson) was Secretary of the Musical and Dramatic Society and planned a performance of The Rivals by Sheridan to be staged at the end of the term. Tolkien, by then at Oxford, was lured back to play Mrs Malaprop, while Wiseman (Christopher) played Sir Anthony Absolute, Gilson Captain Absolute and T.K Barnsley Bob Acres." (p. 999)

Gilson's motivation for producing The Rivals seems to have come a year earlier when according to Scull and Hammond's Tolkien Chronology for December 1910 RQ Gilson during a dinner of the King Edward's School Music and Dramatic Society recited the abduction speech from Shakespeare's Richard II and two scenes from Sheridan's The Rivals (p. 22).

The production of The Rivals was set for Autumn 2011. In Hammond and Scull there is a note that "after the dress rehearsal, the friends, still in costume, marched up Coronation Street in Birmingham to have tea in Barrow's stores (p.999). One could imagine Tolkien decked out as Mrs Malaprop walking up the high street!!

The T.C.B.S performance of The Rivals was given on 21 December 1911 at King Edwards School Birmingham. According to the King Edwards School Chronicle quoted in Scull and Hammond's Tolkien Chronology

"the performance was a thorough success both artistically and financially (ed note - in my line of work both items very welcome!) J R R Tolkien's Mrs Malaprop was a real creation, excellent in every way and not least so in make-up...." (p. 31)

(Now there is a oh I wish I could get in the TARDIS and go back in time moment to see the soon to be Oxford don in drag playing Mrs. Malaprop!!)

It is quite interesting to think that Tolkien a future philologist and creator of languages would play a character whose very name and action would be responsible for a new word in our language

"The word malapropos is an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "ill-suited")।[1] The earliest English usage of the word cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1630. Malaprop used in the linguistic sense was first used by Lord Byron in 1814 according to the OED. The terms malapropism and the earlier variant malaprop come from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, and in particular the character Mrs. Malaprop. Sheridan presumably named his character Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misspoke (to great comic effect), in joking reference to the word.A malapropism (also called a Dogberryism or acyrologia) is the substitution of a word for a word with a similar sound, in which the resulting phrase makes no sense but often creates a comic effect. It is not the same as an eggcorn, which is a similar substitution in which the new phrase makes sense on some level. Occasionally a phrase, rather than a single word, replaces the original word, for example Stan Laurel said "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e., catastrophe) in Any Old Port" (Wikipedia entry on Malaproprisms)

Some of the best of Mrs Malaprop's utterances are -

"...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." (i.e. obliterate; Act I Scene II Line 178)
"...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." (i.e. comprehend; Act I Scene II Line 258)
"...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." (i.e. alligator; Act III Scene III Line 195)
"Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" (i.e. apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets). (Sheridan, The Rivals)

One could just hear Tolkien declaring this in the play!!

In a similar way much later on his life Tolkien would construct a word that has now come into our language and the OED; namely "Hobbit"

But if Mrs Malaprop substituted "a word for a word with a similar sound in which the resulting phrase makes no sense but creates comic effect" what the later Tolkien did in developing his languages (not all together for comic effect) was use similar sounds to create a vast tapestry of language structure and from it developed the key languages of his legendarium.

It would be interesting to go through the legendarium and look for examples of malapropisms they must be there - the only related one I can think of right now is something I heard someone once say about Tolkien's works - "Middle Earth is Hobbit forming" (how true).

Welcome more Tolkienian malapropisms and thoughts!!

*it is sobering to think that many of these TCBS friends of Tolkien would soon perish on the battle fields of World War One as masterfully told in the best book on this subject John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War - soon to be in paperback and audio book.

Works Cited

Scull and Hammond The J.R.R Tolkien Companion and Guide (2 cols) HarperCollins:London 2006

Posted from Andrew Higgins IPAD asthiggins@me.com

The History of Middle Earth - A Chapter by Chapter Exploration

Some former students (including yours truly) of Dr Dimitra Fimi's excellent
Tolkien Myth and Middle Earth in Context through the University of Wales (UWIC) have banded together as a group called the Tolk-lings to start a chapter by chapter exploration of the twelve volume bedrock of Tolkien scholarship The History of Middle Earth. Thanks to Dr. Fimi and UWIC we have been given permission to use the UWIC Fantasy literature discussion board to explore and discuss each chapter and very excited with the group of UWIC students and others who are joining in
(and anyone can join as well)

Another thread of this blog, in addition to Wagner and Tolkien, will be some key observations On The History of Middle Earth as I journey chapter by chapter through it with a specific focus on the development in the legendarium of the language system of the Elves and Men (we have now received our first glimpse of the language of the first men, Taliska is Parma Eldalamberon 19)

So here is my first posting on the first chapter of Book of Lost Tales One - The Cottage of Lost Play





Tolkien's Early Concept of the Olore Malle - The Path of Dreams

So much in the opening chapter so where does one start? Well, one concept that has always interested me mainly because it is introduced in this chapter and then slowly fades away (or does it) is the Olore Malle - the pathway of Dreams on which mortal children travel to Valinor in their dreams as Tolkien illustrates in the poem "You and Me and The Cottage of Lost Play (Lost Tales I, pp 28-31). As Christopher Tolkien says the entire conception of the Children who went to Valinor was to be abandoned almost without trace (Lost Tales I, p. 27) with only two other major references to it throughout the rest of the Book of Lost Tales. So this was a very early concept of travel into faerie through dreams which Tolkien brought into the development of the Book of Lost Tales and then "abandoned.". One of the most fascinating aspects of the Book of Lost Tales, for me, is even at this earliest point in the formal development of his legendarium, Tolkien had already developed a body of poetic works about his early world. John Garth's excellent Tolkien and the Great War and Dr Dimitra Fimi's award winning Tolkien, Race and Cultural History are key sources for charting the development of these pre Book of Lost Tales works and their influences. As Dr Fimi indicates an important early influence of Tolkien and the specific development of the Olore Malle was J.M Barrie's Peter Pan which Tolkien saw as a child. Dr Fimi indicates that the idea of children coming and staying in fairy land parallels the story in Barrie's Peter and Wendy in which reference is made to Peter Pan living with the fairies and who when children died accompanied them part of the way so they would not be frightened (Fimi, p.37). So this early concept comes out of the Edwardian and Victorian fairy tradition that soon faded, as did this concept, in the harsh light of the aftermath of World War One. But did it? Actually the concept of "travel" in dreams to faerie actually persists in Tolkien's writings as we will see later on in his time travel stories The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers.

I was also struck on this re-read by how much of the atmosphere of the hall found it's way into the Hall of Fire in Rivendell where great tales are also told.

Works Cited

The Book of Lost Tales 1 in The History of Middle Earth (Part 1), edited by Christopher Tolkien. (London: HarperCollns: 2002)

Fimi, D (2010) Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: London: Palgrave







Also stop presses!!! Professor Corey Olsen otherwise known as The Tolkien Professor has announced a new course which he will make available for iPod listening called Faerie and Fantasy .

His course last year on Tolkien's major works was brilliant and I think a key event in Tolkien scholarship and looking at the reading list which includes Middle English literature, Chaucer, Dunsany, Lewis, Tolkien and more looks really exciting.

Professor Olsen should receive one of the rods of the Istari for opening up and allowing exploration of the works of Tolkien and others to international audiences!! I will be reading and listening along to this one.










Posted from Andrew Higgins IPAD asthiggins@me.com

The Tolkien Professor

Over the course of the last week I have been listening to a wonderful new IPOD lecture series called The Tolkien Professor. Its the work of Corey Olsen Professor of Medieval Lit and an English PhD. Professor Olsen has started his series with several lectures on The Hobbit and then he is gong to go into Lord of the Rings and hopefully the other parts of the histories. He is also offering a Q&A discussion group on Tolkien items. In his first edition of this special discussion there is some really good insights into the three age old question of whether Balrogs have wings and who exactly is Tom Bombadil? These are really worth a listen.

Looks like Tolkien Studies Vol 6 is on the Horizon.

We've Started the Eowyn Challenge and the Middle Earth Heritage Society

Apologies for no posts in a bit - its a busy time for Wotan at his workplace!! Yesterday the UK was blessed with one of the warmest days of the year so far and it afforded myself, partner and our Corgi, Charlie, to start the Eowyn Challenge (our cat Meowman was not interested and preferred to do the couch challenge). We have decided this summer to walk to Rivendell from Hobbiton (roughly 450 miles). We travelled to one of the ancient seats of the Bishops of Winchester - Farnham (the ruins of the castle are pictured)- and walked roughly 5 miles which essentially according to the Eowyn Challenge (the "Horse Joy" challenge as it were) got us into Tookland (27 miles to the first encounter with the Black Rider - why am I looking forward to that?).

Farnham Castle is currently managed by The English Heritage Society and as we were passing by the gates I got thinking about what The Middle Earth Heritage Society would look like in the future time of Middle Earth (say the 20th Age) what ruins would exist (Minas Tirith, Isengard, Edoras) - with the passing of the Elves one would think that Elvish buildings would fade as well (although as in the Lord of the Rings Online game - one would still see some remains of Elvish architecture like Edelethion). Would men have set up a society to manage and fund the upkeep of the most famous sites of Middle Earth and as a member of the Middle Earth Heritage Society you could get in free to all these sites. Would there be museum displays of the great battles - and I'm sure to secure government funding from the Elessarion goverment you would have to do some interactive educational elements (try on the armor of a Numenorian soldier, make your own remedy out of Athelas leaves, etc) - would there be a gift shop (purchase your own Lembas bread recipe, palantir snow globes, etc.). What would people be thinking as the walked across the stone ruins of what was Osgiliath or Minas Ithil - would there be a coffee/gift shop and travellers restaurant on top of Weathertop?

Coming back down to earth (middle) - I'm in the middle of reading Elizabeth Whittingham's The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology which gives an excellent analysis of how Tolkien developed key elements of his mythology and the various phases this development went through in the forty years Tolkien spent weaving his world - the chapter on the Valar alone is worth the book as it charts how Tolkien's concept of the Valar in Book of Lost Tales as being closer to the gods and goddesses of Greek and Norse myths (war like, descriptions of the buildings they built to live in, descriptions of who was married to who) changed over the years to more removed and ethereal powers more in line with the Judeo-Christian concept of the angels. Also an interesting tidbit that alluded me on first (and second) reading is the fact that in the early 1950's texts of the Ainulindale "the reader learns that Varda rejected Melkor prior to the Great Music and that as a result 'he hated her, and feared her more than all others," which helps explain the animosity Melkor feels for the Valar." I'll be blogging on this in the near future.

Great news that Guillermo del Toro is set to direct The Hobbit and the "other movie" (which according to his post on The One Ring.net Del Torro does not want to call "the bridge movie") - there is a lot in Appendix Two and several writings for the writers to draw upon to portray the 50 years between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - it will be interesting to see what they come up with and now that Sir Ian Mckellen is on board as Gandalf whether there will be a Grey Book Part 2 on his website.

Turin and the Dragon - Lines 39-44 and another Tolkien language

Some time this weekend to resume work on the Sindarin translation of Turin and the Dragon - here are lines 39-44 -

Dan dur din aun Morgoth Bauglir
in na ruith um gwennen
u-sint*
Ethir din, hur um egor galu en golu din
u-aunant siniath en gardh
in gwaith en Golodhrim bant

but the triumph he turned to doubt
of Morgoth the evil whom mad wrath took
Nor spies sped him, nor spirits of evil,
nor his wealth of wisdom to win him tidings
whither the nation of the Gnomes was gone.

*u-sint: based on the verb _ista_ (know) and the _u_ not. I found a gloss on a German Sindarin site for the word _zweifel_ which is _trass_ but can not find any source for it (yet) in Tolkien.

Just when you thought you have read about all of the languages Tolkien developed comes a new one (for me) - and that is Mago/Magol which is mentioned in the notes to book two of The History of the Hobbit (excellent book). Mago/Magol was developed by Tolkien based on, according to the ELF panel, Hungarian. At one time he intended to have the orcs speak it but decided not to. ELF promises that his grammar and notes for Mago/Magol will be published in the future. In a great email Patrick Wayne sent in response on the Labengolmor list (#1012) he said the language would have the sound of Elves who lived in Budapest!! Should be interesting - but first Taliska (I hope)...over and out.