Capitalization

[davem]

There's an interesting note in the Foreword to the 50th Anniversary Edition:

Of course Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings over so long a period of time, some eighteen years, that inconsistencies in its text were almost inevitable. Christopher Tolkien even observed to us that some apparent inconsistencies of form in his father's work may even have been deliberate: for instance, although Tolkien carefully distinguished house 'dwelling' from House 'noble family or dynasty', in two instances he used house in the latter sense but in lower case, perhaps because a capital letter would have detracted from the importance of the adjective with which the word was paired ('royal house', 'golden house'). There can be no doubt, however, that Tolkien attempted to correct inconsistency, no less than outright error, whenever it came to his attention, and it was our opinion, with the advice and agreement of Christopher Tolkien, that an attempt should be made to do so in the anniversary edition, in so far as we could carefully and conservatively distinguish what to emend.

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

Aha! I see, thank you. I was reading the chapter at the Sign of the Prancing Pony when the hobbits are in Bree and there are two or three para graphs in a row that have funky capitalization. Makes much more sense now.