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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
You know, you could be right, Kuru--straws making good strawmen--but I just sort of thought that Tolkien fans might be somewhat as curious about the ways of language as Tolkien was himself and when a rather unique word is used uniquely to describe two 'sides' in the major battle chapter of the book, well, gosh, it was just too tempting to make hay.
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Rather than make an edit to my post, I thought it preferable to add something in a new post.
One of the things which intrigues me no end about Tolkien was how he could maintain a love and great delight in the warrior epics of old in the face of his experience in the trenches of WWI. There are many ways this seeming contradiction can be resolved, of course, and none of them would be to the discredit of Tolkien. But finding the same word used for both sides really tweaked my curiosity about this point.
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Originally Posted by Lal
Fell is a word that interests me in the way Tolkien uses it so I think it's a good topic to discuss. I think that he was trying to make the point that 'fell' beasts and 'fell' Rohirrim warriors were taken by the same mood of anger - the first cannot but help be 'fell' as this is how they are bred to be, but the second can help it - which emphasises just how committed to battle they are.
. . .
Tolkien also uses the term 'fey' to describe the moods of characters in the book, which always strikes me as alike to 'faerie' - does he mean to conjour up an idea that the mood which takes people at this point could be both noble and at the same time perilous?
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'fell' and 'fey' indeed,
Lal, they are fascinating words to use. 'fey' elements in fairy stories always suggest to me danger and intrigue, of the kind that might lead to either death or greater knowledge. A risk that might not always pertain in the primary world.