Entings - For the kids
 

So, another of my bedtime ponderings....What would you call a child fan of Tolkien?

I was just reading the latest issue of Amon Hen and child members of the Tolkien Society are called Entings. Could you call your own little one an Enting? Or would something like Elfling or Hobbit be more appropriate?

And yes, you can be a Tolkien fan at 11 months old. We changed channels last week when TT was on Channel Four and ye childe was shrieking and laughing with delight when he saw Gollum...:cool:

Haha, quite unlike me, then. Reputedly, when I saw the Gollum of the Finnish LotR TV series as a very small kid, I was terribly afraid of him. :D (In my defense I must say the Finnish Gollum was far more scary than Jackson's Gollum... ;))

As for the original question, I don't know. Enting is fine. Or what about halfling? Or does that create wrong kind of connotations for a native speaker?

I like halfling, that sounds about right for a half-sized (or less) little guy ;)

I don't think Gollum would scare the Halfling, he's already a Doctor Who fan and he's seen Davros and everything. I know he's a Doctor Who fan because he goes all quiet when he hears the theme tune - or maybe it's that he knows it's not the time to start pulling the cat's tail and so on when the show starts? :D

I rather like entings since Tolkien so loved his trees and Tree and Leaf is such a wonderful metaphor for his life and work that it seems "very right and proper".

However I remember overhearing at Oxonmoot 06 a mother saying that she had wanted to make her (absolutely cherubic looking son) a "Pippin in the livery if gondor costume" but had been too busy at which the elven fair moppet had scowled and said "I wanna be an orc". But a bit dangerous to suggest other peoples children are orclings....:p but then since they are commonly referred to as baby goats maybe it shouldn't be...

But of course small boys would rather be Orcs than be Pippin! They get to run round going "Raaaaaaargh!" and scaring the pants (or cloak) off Gandalf, rather than just mildly irritating Gandalf. ;)

Um I have to admit I saw some Doctor Who dress up outfits in Toys R Us (I wish I did not have to shop in stores with grammatically incorrect names but there you go...) the other day and I felt disappointed because they were for ages 5-6. I secretly can't wait til the poor lad is old enough to want to go to fancy dress parties ;)

How about Orclings if they are brats? Or Dwarflets if they are stubborn?

I think I must be a Dwarflet, seeing as I am both short and stubborn :D

Actually, you would more properly be a dwarflette (feminine version).

No, I couldn't be anything that sounds like a 'feminine hygiene' product! :D

and it is quite undwarvish to draw attention to the difference.

Oh I know I think some mothers forget that boys will be boys - I mean I saw my god son the other week and I couldn't understand why his parents were getting so narky with him - if you have a small boy, a stick and a set of railings it is inevitable that the small boy will trail the stick across the railings .. he wasn't actually doing any harm.....

Little children obsessed with Tolkien? What? How on Arda do you get them to be obsessed? It's easy to get them obsessed with things like Doctor Who, but Tolkien?

Anyway, I like orclings! That's what my little brother is! Or how about Middle-Earthlings? I suppose Entings works fine for the kids, but do you have to stay with the "ings" at the end of every word?

Sorry, I'm rambling...

Shouldn't we call them Nazgul-cubs? They sometimes sound like little Screechers:D. Sorry, I usually call most children I see (or hear, most likely;)) Nazgul-cubs. But seriously now, I think little Hobbits would suit young Tolkien-fans better than Entings. Most children have something Hobbitish in them in my oppinion.

Hm, I would disagree on this one, for at least for me Hobbit=hairy legs; and short, but not in the way the little kids are; and fat, but again not in the way as the little babies are chubby; and simply not cute like them in any case. The Screechers actually sound nice and Orclings too. But even the original idea of Entings is quite nice.

Shouldn't an Enting be when they are born. I think that's what Treebeard used to describe how the young ents were made. Entling would be better in my opinion.

Hmmm, now since a "normal" grown up Hobbit is a Halfling, would a young one be half a Halfling? In that case, you could call the little ones Quarterlings! :Merisu:

Halfhalflings...why does that remind me of The Man With Two Brains? ;) Yes, Quarterlings is better!

What if they're twins? Are they then Eighthlings? Doublequarterlings?

That makes a Halfling again. And if you had four babies at once, it would be just one complete Ling.

Sounds a bit fishy to me. Mind, I think we're floundering for cod terms now ;)

Half-pints, pints, quarts? Molly-coddling cods?

But half a halfling would be a farthing.... surely?

Dimturiel has a point here. ;) Though usually people aren't afraid of screeching children - only annoyed with them.

I think Orcling would be a good name, but then on the other hand I'm not sure if mothers all enchanted with their babies would like to call them Orclings.
However, there are several things that support the name. Children make noise. They bully animals and trample on flowers. They eat things they find on the street but not vegetables. They are quarrelsome. They are messy. And the only way you can get them to obey you is threatening. ;)