Quote:
Originally Posted by Rumil
Interesting thought on 'mumakil',
could it perhaps be Adunaic as used by the Black Numenoreans?
I don't think the hobbit stories of oliphants necessarily mean wooly mammoths on the Tower Hills, though I do sort of like the idea, maybe confined to the far North and hunted by the snowmen of Forochel?
The 'chain' might be another explanation, like for trade goods. For example Bilbo's coffee beans might be grown in Ithilien, traded to Minas Tirith, then Rohan, Isengard, up the Greenway to Bree then to the Shire. Nobody actually travels all the way but the goods get passed along the chain. (An inverse Denethor's umbrella for those that remember the thread!). Likewise stories get passed from person to person and can travel further than the individuals
How about the oliphant description starting in Harad, the men of Khand see the oliphants while serving under Sauron, tell the Easterlings about this impressive beast, who mention it while collecting tribute from the Dorwinrim, who pass the story on the the men of Laketown, who tell the Wood-elves, who compose several poems, lays and theatrical performances on the subject, impressing a visiting elf from Rivendell, who recites his favourite back at home in company with the Rangers, one of whom recounts the amusing story at the Prancing Pony, where it's heard by a visiting Took, who relates this in the Green Dragon, and in five minutes half the Shire has heard of oliphants.
Of course the description might not be terribly accurate by the time it reaches Hobbiton, a bit like Chinese whispers.
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It could indeed be that, in fact that would explain how it could still have an elvish ending (I miswrote it as "ul" you are right it is "il" so it may come from a languages that has borrowed words and word fragments from both Dwarvish and Elvish, and Andunaic does fit that bill.
Well, what we know of the Lossoth says they use thier sleighs to hunt massive animals in their lands, Mammoths would fit that bill as well as anything else, and since the runners of thier sleighs are described as being bone, there has to be something up there with ribs big enought to make a god sleigh strut (whales would also work, but a mammoth rib would also fit the bill. The Inuit in our world (on which the Lossoth are supposedly based) certainly hunted mammoths, modern
Inuit still have folk stories about it.
I will point out, however, that the Mumakil are not described as woolly mammoths. No mention is made of a long coat so they are probably no harier than our elephants. In fact since Sam knows they are grey they really can't be, Mammoth fur is reddish (we know this from frozen specimens). And if Mumakil really have six tusks (I can't remember if this is actually from Tolkein, or an invention of Peter Jackson.) they aren't likey to be close relatives of our modern elephants, either (there were polytusked elephants, but those died out in deep prehistory. Freak elephants can grow more than two tusks, but they are incredibly rare.) So no wooly (at least in the south) Colombian Mammoths (less hairy) maybe, but not Woolies. My money has always been on mastodons (with their straighter tusks would be a great battle beast, they would have a great advantage in goring) or maybe a Stegodont (bigger and beefier than the modern elephant)