EDWARD VAJDA: Everyone
knows that JRR Tolkien was
a writer of fantasy, and
he's famous for that.
But not everybody pays
attention to the fact
that he was a
professional linguist.
One of the things that
makes his work special
is that he incorporates
his linguistic knowledge
into the way that he names
people, places, and events
in his books, because he has
a deep sense of subconscious
reaction of the
readers of his books
to different sounds
and different words.
And he uses that
very masterfully
in all of his writing.
The orc word for "fire"
that was uttered in Moria,
{?_[ORC] That sounds an
awful lot to me like the modern
Mongolian word that means
"fire", [MONGOLIAN].
It may be just a coincidence.
I don't know if we have any
writings of Tolkien that says,
aha, I used this Mongolian word.
But it's too similar,
And there are a
lot of other words
that sound Mongolian or also
are actual Russian words that
are incorporated into
the language that
are associated with all of
the evil forces in the book.
For instance, the Balrog in this
means "power demon" in Elvish.
But [RUSSIAN] in
Russian means "horn".
And I do not believe
that it's a coincidence
that he chose the
word [RUSSIAN] as part
of the name of the Balrog--
even though in Elvish, it isn't
supposed to mean "horn" at all.
My research is in northern
Asia and Russia, Siberia.
I do field work with
native peoples--
especially the Ket people
of the Yenisei River.
So this is an area quite
far removed from Tolkien.
But a lot of the
problems that I have
to grapple with in trying
to document a disappearing
language are problems
that Tolkien also
dealt with when he was
learning the numerous languages
of the real world that he knew
in order to use to construct,
the languages that are in
the Lord of the Rings and The
Hobbit.
I've always wanted to teach
some special things that I
can't fit into my schedule.
And one of them is to combine
my own interest in folklore,
history, literature, literary
appreciation, and also
linguistics together in
a course about Tolkien--
to connect those in
the study of Tolkien,
just like Tolkien
himself connected them
when he was creating
his own works.
And so this summer, I hope to
teach a course on Tolkien's
imaginary languages.
But it will be more
than just language.
It will be art appreciation,
literature appreciation,
and also a little bit of a
study of the folklore that he
used in creating his works.
All right, I'll go back to
my little office there--
[INAUDIBLE] my hobbit hole.
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
