LOTR and your Weltanschauung

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Look -- a eucatastrophe! An unexpected party for the newer set to party on.

Hmm... I had to look up eucatastrophe but knew Weltanschauung.... since I have degrees in literature but only a failed O level in German that has now affected my Weltanschauung .. :P

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Hmm... I had to look up eucatastrophe but knew Weltanschauung.... since I have degrees in literature but only a failed O level in German that has now affected my Weltanschauung .. :P

I do hope you looked eucatastrophe up in the right source--Tolkien's OFS. He does that to us all the time, though, doesn't he, with his philological derivations and historical development of words.

[Mithalwen]

No Bethberry I didn't. That would be a slippery slope that might get to make an attempt on threads such as Canonicity...without the help of a sherpa... I looked it up on Wikipedia.

[Nogrod]

Okay... Katastrophe

Originally Posted by The New Testament Greek lexicon

1. overthrow, destruction of cities
2. metaph. of the extinction of a spirit of consecration

Add then the prefix eu which means good.

Whatever Tolkien says...

[Aiwendil]

From the OED:

a. Gr. katastrophe overturning, sudden turn, conclusion, f. kata-strephein to overturn, etc., f. kata down + strephein to turn.

1. ‘The change or revolution which produces the conclusion or final event of a dramatic piece’ (J.); the dénouement.

So neither the etymology nor the first definition requires the sudden turn to be for the worse (what Tolkien called "dyscatastrophe").

[Mithalwen]

*fingers in ears* lahlahlahnotlisteninglahlahlahlah