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

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

Smallest? Puns and jokes being "low", eh? Hmm...

Could this be a clue to the nature of hobbit resiliency? Whereas Men and Elves are always falling into despair over this that or the other, hobbits are able to endure even the grimmest of situations by injecting a little humor into them.

Hobbits also seem to lack a strong sense of authority or organisation. The Shire is said to be, after all, a sort of self-governing ideal. Comedy seems more likely among those who don't revere authority. Perhaps it is that Rohan and Gondor take themselves too seriously to admit of any undercutting of their authority.

Or that Tolkien's sense of humour could not be directed to such cultures.

[Morthoron]

I had forgotten to look up the mentions of Attercop and the other insults Bilbo throws at the spiders in The Annotated Hobbit, so here goes:

Attercop is from the Middle English atter-cop(pe), itself from Old English at(t)or-coppa, "spider" -- it means, literally, "poison head."

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Tomnoddy as "a foolish or stupid person."

Both Lob and Cob are words for "spider." Lob comes from the Middle-English loppe, lop(p), lob (Old English loppe, lobbe). Cob is rare as a separate word and is probably taken from cobweb (Middle-English coppe-web). In the Princess and the Goblin, however, George MacDonald used cob as a word for goblin.

The Annotated Hobbit is a treasure-trove (literally) of linguistic puns. Here is one regarding the name 'Gollum':

Constance B. Hieatt has noted that "Old Norse gull/goll, of which one inflected form would be gollum, means 'gold, treasure, something precious' and can also mean 'ring,' a point which may have occurred to Tolkien.

and another referring to the "An eye in a blue face" riddle in the 'Riddles in the Dark' chapter:

This riddle cleverly expresses the etymology of the word daisy in riddle form. The flower name comes from the Anglo-Saxon dæges eage ("day's eye"), which alludes to the flower's petals opening in the morning (revealing the yellow center) and closing in the evening. Hence it is the "eye of day" or "day's eye" -- the modern daisy.

[Guinevere]

Thank you, Morthoron, that was indeed interesting!

[Thinlómien]

Those who like this thread might also find this one

Words and Names in Tolkien's Work

interesting. It's shorter than this thread, and maybe a bit more serious, but there are some interesting things.