The Lesser Rings

[littlemanpoet]

Good point.

[Lalwendë]

This makes me wonder if the blade was kept for specific use upon the Ringbearer once he was found. Presumably the Ringwraiths would know that such a weapon would fade once used, so it wouldn't be whipped out just to use on any common or garden enemy?

Have we gone too far off topic yet?

[jallanite]

From The War of the Jewels (HOME 10), page 383:

In S. the word gûl (equivalent to Q ñóle) had less laudatory associations, being used mostly of secret knowledge especially such as possessed by artificers who made wonderful things; and the word became further darkened by its frequent use in the compound morgul ‘black arts’, applied to the delusory or perilous arts and knowledge derived from Morgoth.

This explanation suggests, but does not prove, that when Gandalf uses the term “Morgul-knife”, he is referring to the knife being a knife of black magic rather than to it being made in Minas Morgul. Of course Gandalf might have meant both at once.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by jallanite

From The War of the Jewels (HOME 10), page 383:

In S. the word gûl (equivalent to Q ñóle) had less laudatory associations, being used mostly of secret knowledge especially such as possessed by artificers who made wonderful things; and the word became further darkened by its frequent use in the compound morgul ‘black arts’, applied to the delusory or perilous arts and knowledge derived from Morgoth.

This explanation suggests, but does not prove, that when Gandalf uses the term “Morgul-knife”, he is referring to the knife being a knife of black magic rather than to it being made in Minas Morgul. Of course Gandalf might have meant both at once.

Of course he meant both at once, but I think only because the place name "Morgul" is derived from the word for sorcery.

Also, a sort of "technical" note, even though the HOME offers many sources and notes on background of many things, the title "Morgul-knife", as we speak of it, is used within the context of LotR, where basically the only use of the word "Morgul" is with capital "M" and it is a toponym, the name of either Imlad or Minas Morgul (and derived terms, like captain of Morgul-hosts etc.). It is pretty clear that when somebody is talking about for example "Lieutenant of Morgul", "Morgul-host" or "Morgul-road", he does not mean "Lieutenant of black sorcery" or "army of black sorcery" or even less "Road of black sorcery", but the captain of/army/road belonging to/leading to the particular place. There is no reason to think about the knives otherwise.

Of course the meaning of the word is "dark sorcery" (as one can look it up also e.g. in the short Elven dictionary in Silmarillion, no need to go as far as HOME), and of course upon hearing the name, a person who knows Elvish would get both the connections in his mind. But there is no reason for Gandalf to speak of "Morgul-knife" in front of Frodo, who, even though he knows Elvish, would probably be rather confused at hearing that. If "Morgul-knife" really meant just "knife of dark sorcery", Gandalf could say just that: "You were hit with a cursed blade," perhaps elaborating a bit on that. It would just seem a lot unlike Gandalf to use the Elvish word "morgul" so randomly (as it seems to me) instead of just saying "sorcery" (as a more easily understandable equivalent, if the situation was like you say it was), since Gandalf is not the type of person who would enjoy using complicated terms when there is no reason to use them. In other words, it is as if a doctor-Gandalf told recovered Frodo: "you are suffering from supracondylar fracture of distal humerus" instead of "you broke your arm". I believe real Gandalf would rather use the second formulation.

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Also, a sort of "technical" note, even though the HOME offers many sources and notes on background of many things, the title "Morgul-knife", as we speak of it, is used within the context of LotR, where basically the only use of the word "Morgul" is with capital "M" and it is a toponym, the name of either Imlad or Minas Morgul (and derived terms, like captain of Morgul-hosts etc.). It is pretty clear that when somebody is talking about for example "Lieutenant of Morgul", "Morgul-host" or "Morgul-road", he does not mean "Lieutenant of black sorcery" or "army of black sorcery" or even less "Road of black sorcery", but the captain of/army/road belonging to/leading to the particular place. There is no reason to think about the knives otherwise.

That is not clear to me.

Of course the meaning of the word is "dark sorcery" (as one can look it up also e.g. in the short Elven dictionary in Silmarillion, no need to go as far as HOME), and of course upon hearing the name, a person who knows Elvish would get both the connections in his mind. But there is no reason for Gandalf to speak of "Morgul-knife" in front of Frodo, who, even though he knows Elvish, would probably be rather confused at hearing that.

I went as far as HOME because the HOME reference is fuller.

If "Morgul-knife" really meant just "knife of dark sorcery", Gandalf could say just that: "You were hit with a cursed blade," perhaps elaborating a bit on that. It would just seem a lot unlike Gandalf to use the Elvish word "morgul" so randomly (as it seems to me) instead of just saying "sorcery" (as a more easily understandable equivalent, if the situation was like you say it was), since Gandalf is not the type of person who would enjoy using complicated terms when there is no reason to use them. In other words, it is as if a doctor-Gandalf told recovered Frodo: "you are suffering from supracondylar fracture of distal humerus" instead of "you broke your arm". I believe real Gandalf would rather use the second formulation.

Yes, Gandalf could say that. But he said “Morgul”.

And next chapter the word Morgul-spells appears. And just previously occurs:

And on a time evil things came forth and they took Minas Ithil and abode in it, and they made it into a place of dread and it is called Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery.

I need of course have only gone to that place to indicate that Morgul means ‘Sorcery’. The toponym is Minas Morgul, not just Morgul.

Whether morgul was a reasonably familiar word to Frodo in its basic meaning or not at the time is not clearly indicated one way of the other in The Lord of the Rings. And whether the place name Minas Morgul was known to Frodo before the Council of Elrond is not clearly indicated one way or the other in The Lord of the Rings.

If Frodo knew the word morgul from other occurrences than Minas Morgul than your claim that Gandalf would have been using excessively technical vocabulary if he meant morgul in its primary sense is only special pleading.

Frodo obviously did know much about the earlier history of his world that does not come out in The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf earlier mentions rumors of Sauron that Frodo has previously heard, but that the reader has not. According to Sam in an earlier passage Frodo knows that many Elves are not sailing into the West to never to return, but this is the first time in either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings where there is any mention that Elves (except long ago) ever sailed to the West.

Frodo, in the same chapter, does not realize that the Rangers are the surviving remnant in the North of the “race of the Kings from over the Sea” although he knows somewhat of those people. Presumably Frodo knew that these people came to Middle-earth from an island now sunk into the Sea, but the reader does not get a hint of this until a conversation between Faramir and Éowyn in “The Steward and the King” in The Return of the King and must go to the Appendices for a fuller account.

If even Sam knows about Gil-galad from Bilbo’s teaching, Frodo must have be understood to know much more. Frodo even knows enough Elvish to speak a few words to Gildor in casual conversation.

That for Gandalf to use the word morgul in its primary meaning would be use a word too technical for Frodo to understand is a doubtful proposition. That when the word first appears it is too technical for the reader to understand, even if it means Morgul in Minas Morgul, is quite true. The reader has not yet encountered Minas Morgul. When the reader does it is immediately explained that Morgul means ‘Sorcery’.

Of course, when concerned with the warriors of Minas Morgul and its immediately surroundings, the word morgul is used topologically. Yet the word tirith is not so used in reference to the warriors and surroundings of Minas Tirith. Perhaps it is because the basic meaning of morgul lies closer to the surface and the meaning fits because old Minas Ithil and its surroundings are now a place of black sorcery.

There is no reason to believe that Gandalf did or did not intend Morgul- to mean ‘black sorcery’, ‘the Tower of Minas Morgul’, or both at once.

[blantyr]

Originally Posted by jallanite

That is not clear to me.

There is no reason to believe that Gandalf did or did not intend Morgul- to mean ‘black sorcery’, ‘the Tower of Minas Morgul’, or both at once.

It seems clear to me that Gandalf knows the language and thus the meaning of the word.

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by blantyr

It seems clear to me that Gandalf knows the language and thus the meaning of the word.

It is clear to me also that Gandalf is supposed to know the meaning of the word. What is not clear is which possible meaning Gandalf intends when both suggested meanings may work.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by jallanite

It is clear to me also that Gandalf is supposed to know the meaning of the word. What is not clear is which possible meaning Gandalf intends when both suggested meanings may work.

I don't know, this is something that is pretty clear to be both meanings. The blades being imbued with "black sorcery" but also being crafted in/around Minas Morgul. In The Siege of Gondor and Pelennor chapters, when necessary there are clear distinctions between the Morgul-host (ergo the host from Minas Morgul) and the other individual parts comprising the entire army (under the command of the Witch-King):

...from under the walls came the legions of Morgul and from the southward fields came footmen from Harad with horsemen behind them. ~The Battle of Pelennor Fields

"the legions of Morgul" meaning the host out of Minas Morgul, and to describe the movements of another individual part of the whole host, "footmen from Harad"

And towards the end of the same chapter:

Few ever came eastward to Morgul or Mordor...

Basically, "Morgul" is often used, and acceptable shorthand for "Minas Morgul" or in general the area surrounding Minas Morgul...Imlad Morgul, the Morgulduin..etc. And therefor, the Morgul-knives would, to me, mean the knives were made in Morgul, and they just happen to have a fitting double-meaning being blades enchanted with black sorcery.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by jallanite

Yes, Gandalf could say that. But he said “Morgul”.

And that's why I'd say he meant the place rather than the sorcery. Because if he meant the sorcery, he could have used the word "sorcery" in common tongue. The placename of course does not have any synonym, so you have to use "Morgul". And, like Boro showed, the word is used also alone, without "Minas" or "Imlad", simply as a shortened version.

Whether morgul was a reasonably familiar word to Frodo in its basic meaning or not at the time is not clearly indicated one way of the other in The Lord of the Rings. And whether the place name Minas Morgul was known to Frodo before the Council of Elrond is not clearly indicated one way or the other in The Lord of the Rings.

Agreed. But think about it from Gandalf's perspective, as a person who is trying to convey a message to somebody else. We know Frodo knew Elvish, not so much about the placename (though he was well educated), but then again, elsewhere in the books, Gandalf has no problem with speaking about foreign places to people who never heard about them or do not know clearly what they are. But I do not recall any other situation where Gandalf would use a word in foreign language unless it lacked a synonym. And that would be the main reason. (Also, a sort of meta-reason would be that Tolkien does not do that either. He is not the person to throw around completely unintelligible words because it sounds "cool and fantasy", like many - usually cheap - fantasy books nowadays do. So even though I agree with your later conclusions about the usage of the words and the explanation of their meaning in the books etc., I think if Tolkien had written that sentence in that meaning, he would make Gandalf say something like "They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife, a sorcerous blade, which remains in the wound...")

And last of all, with your explanation of "Morgul", I wonder if the term "Morgul-spells" won't be a pleonasm of sorts: meaning "dark magic spells" (it would be enough to say just "dark magic" or "dark spells", I think... I think a linguist like Tolkien wouldn't necessary use that kind of words. But that's just my impression depending on the use of language, which is nothing definite).

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I think if Tolkien had written that sentence in that meaning, he would make Gandalf say something like "They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife, a sorcerous blade, which remains in the wound...")

This is the “if I were Tolkien, then I would ...” argument which doesn’t really work. Neither you or I are Tolkien and Tolkien himself changed his mind again and again on many matters. Tolkien loved the works of George MacDonald and then later in life tried reading him again and couldn’t stand him.

The word Morgul- is first introduced in the Lord of the Rings exactly like a piece of bafflegab in some modern fantasy of which no-one could possibly know the exact meaning. Of course Tolkien probably would, since he had invented Sindarin but the reader would not. And possibly at that time Tolkien would not yet have imagined Minas Morgul which only comes in later.

But then Tolkien changes his mind on many issues later, for example, the backstory of Galadriel including the meaning of Celeborn’s name.

In short, when the tale tells us that Gandalf uses the word Morgul-knife but does not tell exactly what he meant by it, either literally ‘black sorcery’ or the derived name applied in Gondor to Minas Ithil. Both work in the final account. I had at some point in my rereading automatically assumed the ‘black sorcery’ meaning. You at some point assumed the ‘Minas Morgul’ meaning.

Neither of was particularly aware that the other meaning might be applied here.

But once aware of both meanings, I find it impossible to choose between them. Both work.

Gandalf’s mention of the Morgul-knife appears to first arise in the Fourth Phase version of Frodo’s conversation with Gandalf at Rivendell, although Christopher Tolkien does not present that part of the story. Christopher Tolkien does say in The Treason of Isengard (HOME 7), page 82, that the text is then as in FR except for places where Christopher Tolkien indicates differences. But Minas Morgul is not mentioned in the Council of Elrond for two more versions of the Council. In the version of the Council written to go with this version of the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf even Minas Tirith only appears in a late pencilled change to the manuscript.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by jallanite

This is the “if I were Tolkien, then I would ...” argument which doesn’t really work. Neither you or I are Tolkien and Tolkien himself changed his mind again and again on many matters. Tolkien loved the works of George MacDonald and then later in life tried reading him again and couldn’t stand him.

Certainly, but still, there are certain patterns of how things are used. Of course you can never know 100%, but if that meant "what we cannot say for certain, we should not make assumptions about", you can resign on trying to make any conclusions whatsoever. There is no 100% telling Tolkien whether did not imagine Balrog having pink wings and blue-striped wig, but it is rather likely that he didn't, based on what we know about him. And that is an assumption made in the same way.

In short, when the tale tells us that Gandalf uses the word Morgul-knife but does not tell exactly what he meant by it, either literally ‘black sorcery’ or the derived name applied in Gondor to Minas Ithil. Both work in the final account. I had at some point in my rereading automatically assumed the ‘black sorcery’ meaning. You at some point assumed the ‘Minas Morgul’ meaning.

Neither of was particularly aware that the other meaning might be applied here.

But once aware of both meanings, I find it impossible to choose between them. Both work.

Agreed. Exactly. But what I believe is, that once you become aware of both the options, you can try to attempt to figure out which of them might be more likely, for one reason or the other. Like you say, it had never occured to me that "Morgul-knife" could mean "Black sorcery-knife" before I saw you propose that, that itself is good, because it challenges set ideas and "automatized" assumptions. But the next step after some new proposal is made is to try to figure out whether there is some evidence for or against both of them (because obviously, Tolkien had one meaning or the other on his mind) and which seems more logical. The final conclusions, again, may possibly differ. But I do not think we can just conclude with saying "we do not know and can never know", because that is rather, well, unconstructive.

Gandalf’s mention of the Morgul-knife appears to first arise in the Fourth Phase version of Frodo’s conversation with Gandalf at Rivendell, although Christopher Tolkien does not present that part of the story. Christopher Tolkien does say in The Treason of Isengard (HOME 7), page 82, that the text is then as in FR except for places where Christopher Tolkien indicates differences. But Minas Morgul is not mentioned in the Council of Elrond for two more versions of the Council. In the version of the Council written to go with this version of the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf even Minas Tirith only appears in a late pencilled change to the manuscript.

Well, and does this indicate anything?