I have to admit I haven't exactly been keeping up with you guys; I've been going so much slower, re-reading chapters and checking things up in the appendices and other books. I've also just been appreciating Tolkiens amazing talent for writing, and for saying things that need to be said, or putting concepts that we're all used too, but never admit too, down in words.
So I though it might be nice to have a thread to make note of and discuss all the really tiny details that, when you take the time to notice them, or the even the larger concepts, make you sit back and go "Wow. That guy's brilliant."
I'll start with something I found in the prologue, and loved. While he hasn't written an entire language for the hobbits, Tolkien does add is words here and there. The one I love most in
mathom.
Quote:
...anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom.
Isn't that so cool? He's picked up on a very human habbit there. We really should have word like that! He doesn't refer to Hobbit words for anything but things that our language desperately needs a word for, but doesn't have. It's awesome. Mathom.