LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 01 - A Long-Expected Party

[davem]

This is the original - & if you click on it you can see the coloured version by HE Riddett. http://search.msn.com/images/results...2Fbag_endm.jpg

[Pitchwife]

Legate -

Please explain to me, why is someone called Twofoot? I would understand if a hobbit who lost one leg would be called Onefoot (though it won't be a family name but only his personal nickname), but why Twofoot? Harfoot, Puddifoot, why not, but there is either something I don't understand or we have had a wrong images in our heads all the time and most Hobbits in fact have three legs.

I'd imagine it refers to height: either ol' Daddy himself or one of his ancestors was uncommonly short even for a Hobbit (possibly not literally two feet - maybe just a little under three, and 'Twofoot' was a humorous exaggeration). In German, at least (and for all that I know in English, too), many family names - such as aren't patronymics or refer to the owner's profession - historically started as personal nicknames that became hereditary. Tolkien's own family name is a nice example, being derived from the German adjective tollkühn = 'foolhardy'. I'd suppose one of the Prof's ancestors (let's call him John) earned the name of 'John the Foolhardy' by his rash and daring temperament; now that person's son would be called 'Christopher Foolhardy' in shorthand for 'Christopher, John the Foolhardy's son', and thus the nickname would be passed on to future generations, although few of them, if any, displayed the character trait that inspired the name in the first place.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Ah, truly, truly, Pitchwife. It didn't occur to me. Thank you. (I was probably stemming from the fact that in the translation to my mothertongue, the "Twofoot" is really translated in the sense "Two-legs", so I haven't thought of the other possible interpretation.)

But still, I am not that hasty in accepting this possibility. After all, is there any definite proof in the books that the Hobbits really had usually just two legs?

[Pitchwife]

Can't help feeling like you're pulling my leg... Wait a sec - which of them? *Retires to count his appendages*
By the way, what is your native language?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Czech. And speaking of the translation, it's a very good one, just sometimes there are moments when the translator probably did not think that deeply about the etymology of some ambiguous names (like Twofoot. Another one I recall is Standelf, which is an otherwise unknown village on the edge of the Old Forest, apparently derived from stone-delf, which the translator however interpretated as stand-elf. But say, nothing one would discover unless really examining it deeply - and the trick is, if you think you understand the word, you usually don't think of questioning it and look for other possible translations).

[Morsul the Dark]

Granted I didn’t go line by line of the thread. But a quick search for the word “knocking” shows only one mention of the young Habbits knocking holes in the wall, and is used to show youngsters being more adventurous than adult Hobbits.

Now granted they seem to be youngsters but breaking down walls seems to need more discipline than “hey you kids get out of here!” Which simplified seems to be Frodo’s reaction.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

Granted I didn’t go line by line of the thread. But a quick search for the word “knocking” shows only one mention of the young Habbits knocking holes in the wall, and is used to show youngsters being more adventurous than adult Hobbits.

Now granted they seem to be youngsters but breaking down walls seems to need more discipline than “hey you kids get out of here!” Which simplified seems to be Frodo’s reaction.

Well, we ARE told elsewhere--in this same chapter, I believe--that Hobbit parents are rather easygoing. But, perhaps, this laxity on Frodo's part is proof of that rare temperament amongst Hobbits for NOT rearing children (Bilbo and Frodo are very much oddities for not having families, and there's nothing I read in Frodo's actions from this chapter to the end that indicates any sort of regret about this fate.)

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

Granted I didn’t go line by line of the thread. But a quick search for the word “knocking” shows only one mention of the young Habbits knocking holes in the wall, and is used to show youngsters being more adventurous than adult Hobbits.

Now granted they seem to be youngsters but breaking down walls seems to need more discipline than “hey you kids get out of here!” Which simplified seems to be Frodo’s reaction.

Mind you, Frodo was about to turn the place over to the Sackville-Bagginses and so probably wasn't all that upset if "minor damage" happened to occur.