Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc.

[Alfirin]

"gamling" also always reminded me of "gamy" in the British colloquial sense of injured or lame (when referring to a limb) which also fits with the "old and doddering man" image

You referece to Septimus was interesting as I reminded of a musing I once had. Given the general tendecy (at least in European and or western cultures) toward smaller familes I wonder how many people are walking around with the given names Septimus, Octavian (or Octavia) and Decimus (I'm sure there is some name for "nine" but I've just never heard of someone named with it (it would be someting like Nonian or Nonius, right) for whom it is actually accurate. For that matter (in a magic/power sense) how many seventh sons of seventh sons are their still?

[Guinevere]

I always wondered why the Mirkwood spiders were so enraged by Bilbo calling them "Attercop", since I know that "edderkopp" in Norwegian means simply spider.

Here's what I found in the internet:

At´ter`cop
n. 1. A spider.
2. A peevish, ill-natured person.

source: Thefreedictionary.com


attercop
"spider," O.E. attorcoppa, lit. "poison-head," from ator
"poison,"
from P.Gmc. *aitra- "poisonous ulcer" (cf. O.N. eitr, Ger. eiter) +
cop "top, summit, round head," probably also "spider". (cf cobweb)

source: Online Etymology Dictionary

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I always wondered why the Mirkwood spiders were so enraged by Bilbo calling them "Attercop", since I know that "edderkopp" in Norwegian means simply spider.

Here's what I found in the internet:

Hmmm...perhaps it's like calling a woman a 'broad'. Both are synonymous in the strictest sense, but I know of no woman who prefers to be called one.

I am at work, but I know there is a discussion regarding the term Attercop in The Annotated Hobbit. If no one has access to it, I'll look it up when I get home.