Gnomes - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Morquesse · 12-01-2005, 06:06 PM

I had read that Tolkien originally called a group of Elves (the Noldor) "Gnomes". I had wondered about this choice of word for a while, and why Tolkien originally rejected it. Well, I was reading my "annotated Hobbit", when I came across the note on page 94, note 11, about the Tolkien's early usage of the word. He appearently wrote a letter to his publisher that " the word was used as a translation of the real name, accordning to my mythology, of hte High-elven people of the West. Pedantically, associating it with the Greek gnome 'thought, intelligence'. But I have abandoned it, since it is quite impossible to dissociate the name from the popular associations of Paracelsan gnomus=pygmaeus" (letters, no. 239).
I don't understand why Tolkien was concerned with the word Gnomes when the changed Orc to mean a goblin (instead of a dolphin thing), changed the spelling of the plural Elf and Dwarf, and created a different perception of Elves, and all sorts of stuff. I know he was a perfectionist (I suffer from it as well), but he seemed less concerned about the other points I made than of Gnomes.
I am eager to hear your dicussions.
~M

12-01-2005, 06:06 PM	#1
Morquesse Wight Join Date: May 2002 Location: Past the fields we know.... Posts: 202	Gnomes I had read that Tolkien originally called a group of Elves (the Noldor) "Gnomes". I had wondered about this choice of word for a while, and why Tolkien originally rejected it. Well, I was reading my "annotated Hobbit", when I came across the note on page 94, note 11, about the Tolkien's early usage of the word. He appearently wrote a letter to his publisher that " the word was used as a translation of the real name, accordning to my mythology, of hte High-elven people of the West. Pedantically, associating it with the Greek gnome 'thought, intelligence'. But I have abandoned it, since it is quite impossible to dissociate the name from the popular associations of Paracelsan gnomus=pygmaeus" (letters, no. 239). I don't understand why Tolkien was concerned with the word Gnomes when the changed Orc to mean a goblin (instead of a dolphin thing), changed the spelling of the plural Elf and Dwarf, and created a different perception of Elves, and all sorts of stuff. I know he was a perfectionist (I suffer from it as well), but he seemed less concerned about the other points I made than of Gnomes. I am eager to hear your dicussions. ~M __________________ I'm not ashamed to let you know I want this light in me to show. I'm not ashamed to speak the name of Jesus Christ.~Newsboys