Re: The Hobbit, after all these years

On 11/8/2012 3:45 PM, Wayne Morrison wrote:
> randall.m@gmail.com said:

>> In Tolkien's sources--the Elder Edda, I believe, though it's been a
>> while--Gandalf was a dwarf's name, so in the first drafts he may actually
>> have been a dwarf, not a wizard at all.
>
> That's interesting. I thought I'd heard that "alf" was a particle that
> meant "elf".
>
The husband could most likely answer most of those questions.

But aelf (the ae is a ligature which is really a rune called aesc, again
with that ligature and pronounced ash) does in fact mean elf (or sprite
or fairy). Often with aesc, the e was eventually dropped or just made
into "ae" as with many Anglo-Saxon names. Gandulf was a real Anglo-Saxon
name.

As Tolkien was a scholar of Old English, I'm sure none of this was
unintentional.

--
Jen
___________
"You cheated."
"Pirate."