Whenever a friend highly recommends a book or an author, those names go down on my "to read" list. Not only because I might like them as well, but also because I need to be able to talk intelligently with my friend about her passion. So when my friend Tiffany started reading Louis L'Amour, I knew my time was coming.
Western novels have never really been an interest of mine. I don't know why, since for most of my childhood I was enamored of horses and cowboys. I read every book about horses I could get my hands on, and devoured every title Dale Evans (wife of famous cowboy actor Roy Rogers) published. Yet it never occurred to me to read a Western. Until now.
Louis L'Amour is a storyteller. He considered himself to be a "troubadour of the West". And that is his greatest talent. His stories paint an exciting picture of life during the early days of America's history. But as a writer, he can be a bit sloppy. Both Mustang Man and Ride the River were at times painfully repetitive and gave the impression of being dashed off quickly without a backward glance. I wondered as I read if an editor's eyes had ever perused their pages—they were that bad.
Man from the Broken Hills supports my theory that perhaps L'Amour fell into the trap that many successful, prolific writers have fallen into: that of becoming careless in the latter years of their careers. Written 10 years previous to the above titles, the book is of considerably better quality. The story is captivating, with far less of the slap-dash effect. So while my first impressions weren't entirely favorable, I'll not shelve this author yet!
The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the English Dictionary
By Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner
Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, British novelist, poet, and essayist, Songs of Travel, 1896
This book interested me for two reasons: first, because I am a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, and secondly, because I’m fascinated by etymology, and my dream dictionary is the Oxford English Dictionary. (OED)
Divided into three sections, the Ring of Words covers Tolkien’s short stint as a lexicographer for the OED, examines his use of words as an author, and finally covers in depth the history of many of the more unusual words contained in his writings.
Tolkien was unique in his approach to storytelling. As a philologist, Tolkien was very much word-driven. An example of this is the word “Ent”. In a letter, he explained: “As usually with me they grew rather out of their name than the other way about. I always felt that something ought to be done about the peculiar A[nglo] Saxon word ent for a ‘giant’ or mighty person of long ago-to whom all old works were ascribed.” (p.119) From this small seed of a word grew the odd tree-herders of the Lord of the Rings. Examples of other words discussed in this book include farthing (did you know this originally meant something divided in four?), malefit, mithril, smial, unlight and wose.
In The Hobbit, the main character taunts a bit of what I always thought was poetical nonsense:
"Attercop! Attercop!
Won’t you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me?"
I now know that Attercop is an ancient word for spider, coming from the Old English“attor” (poison) and “coppa” (spider). Ever seen a cobweb? “Cob” is simply a variant, as is “lob”. (As in Shelob, the monstrous female spider in the LotR)
I recommend The Ring of Words as a treat for anyone interested in Tolkien’s ability as a wordsmith, as well as for anyone interested in words in general.
