Thread: Gollum or Golem
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Old 03-15-2007, 04:14 PM   #10
The Squatter of Amon Rûdh
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Pipe Squeezing in an enquiry

Quote:
I do think it interesting though that Smaug's name has a similar meaning to Smeagol though from Old German smugen (squeeze through a hole)...
It is indeed very interesting. The two words are actually related: Primitive Germanic is the postulated common ancestor of all Germanic languages. You may remember the following from The Road to Middle Earth.
Quote:
[Smaug's] name is another 'asterisk word', being the past tense *smaug of a Germanic verb *smugan 'to squeeze through a hole', as Tolkien said in his 1938 Observer letter; also the Old Norse equivalent of an English magic word found in a spell wið sméogan wyrme, 'against the penetrating worm'. But he has a mental sense as well as a physical one, since O.E. sméagan also means 'to inquire into' and in adjectival form 'subtle, crafty'.

T.A. Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth 3rd ed. ch.3 The Bourgeois Burglar, p.102.
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Last edited by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh; 03-15-2007 at 04:16 PM. Reason: Missed out an apostrophe
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