The One Ring Forums: Tolkien Topics: Reading Room: "We shall fight Morgoth on the strands, in the passes, amidst the peaks, and before the plains of Valinor." (squire)

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"We shall fight Morgoth on the strands, in the passes, amidst the peaks, and before the plains of Valinor."

squire
Half-elven

Jun 15 2013, 1:46pm

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"We shall fight Morgoth on the strands, in the passes, amidst the peaks, and before the plains of Valinor." [In reply to]	Can't Post

Churchill maintained, I believe, that because he was a terrible student of Latin he focused on teaching himself to how to orate in approved classical style using the English language, with its large supply of shorter and punchier, non-Latinate, Anglo-saxon words and syntactical structures. It is not hard to find examples of just how cumbersome and bloated the rhetoric of most public men of that time seems to us now, compared to Churchill, even if Churchill's prose now also seems rather formal and elongated with the passing of time and the modernization of style.

We've speculated here that Tolkien too was 'suspicious' of over-using in his writings the longer and more formal words from our Latinate vocabulary. Instead, due to his rarefied taste in the sounds of languages, he is supposed to have favored shorter, more descriptive, and at times more obscure words descending from Old English - a subject he made himself a master of only after completing the standard Classical education you describe.

Tolkien and Churchill can be difficult to modern readers, but a lot less difficult than a lot of other writers of their generation. I guess their two approaches to English rhetoric are linked enough that we readers may see connections between Tolkien and Churchill, for all the disparate subjects of their literature -- not to mention the fact that Tolkien seems to have despised Churchill's leadership style during the second war.

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Subject	User	Time
Of the Coming of Men into the West, III: "Weariness which they knew not in themselves".	sador	Jun 13 2013, 10:36am
Children of Arda	CuriousG	Jun 13 2013, 12:41pm
I agree - far from failure! //	noWizardme	Jun 13 2013, 4:33pm
"It seems like Men's mortality should make the Elves emotionally withdraw from them."	noWizardme	Jun 16 2013, 10:04am
No a failure in the least Sador! And lots about Haleth	Brethil	Jun 13 2013, 7:37pm
As usual, a Breth of fresh air	CuriousG	Jun 13 2013, 8:12pm
Many thanks CG! And about the melon...	Brethil	Jun 14 2013, 12:18am
"Great leaders are not born, they are made"	CuriousG	Jun 14 2013, 1:04am
Interesting question!	Brethil	Jun 14 2013, 1:16am
That's a neat thought	CuriousG	Jun 14 2013, 1:29pm
Good Queen Haleth	noWizardme	Jun 14 2013, 9:35pm
Nice use of that line! //	Brethil	Jun 14 2013, 10:48pm
Succession down the male or female line	noWizardme	Jun 15 2013, 7:04am
All depends on the cultural law	Brethil	Jun 15 2013, 1:30pm
The Tudors - a somewhat dysfunctional family	noWizardme	Jun 15 2013, 1:54pm
Absolutely NoWiz	elaen32	Jun 15 2013, 7:40am
"We shall fight Morgoth on the strands, in the passes, amidst the peaks, and before the plains of Valinor."	squire	Jun 15 2013, 1:46pm
Haha, just saw this Elaen...!	Brethil	Jun 19 2013, 12:16am
I am thoroughly enjoying your discussion, sador...	telain	Jun 13 2013, 11:43pm
Time and Tide....	Brethil	Jun 14 2013, 10:38pm
Sorry to hear about your family issues Sador	elaen32	Jun 15 2013, 8:02am
ah, sador	Maciliel	Jun 20 2013, 2:40am
Summary, and my own responses	sador	Jun 30 2013, 5:12pm
Responses to responses	CuriousG	Jun 30 2013, 6:11pm
Ah, not quite what I meant	Brethil	Jul 3 2013, 3:33am
Now there is an understatement!	Voronw�_the_Faithful	Jul 3 2013, 7:09pm
Thank you! //	sador	Jul 4 2013, 2:30pm
i would +love+	Maciliel	Jul 4 2013, 2:53pm

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