Tolkien and the OED
In a much-publicized media and phone-based poll conducted by the BBC over the last few weeks and culminating in a grand finale on Saturday 13 December, J. R. R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings was voted Britain's favourite novel, beating Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which was also on the final short list.
Most readers of The Lord of the Rings know that J. R. R. Tolkien was a Professor of English Language and Literature, but few know that before he became a professor, Tolkien spent some time working on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. The Dictionary evidently enriched Tolkien's mind; he later said that he ‘learned more in those two years than in any other equal period of my life’.
However, the connection goes much deeper than that. The central focus of Tolkien's imagination was language and, in particular, the way that one language develops by changes of sound and structure into another. He even said that he created Middle Earth as a setting for the languages he invented. The nation's favourite book came into being as a by-product of his fascination with language development.
This study of the weaving and unravelling of the web of language, known as historical linguistics or philology, is the very basis and essence of the Oxford English Dictionary, where, in the 21st century, Tolkien's craft is daily followed by the team who chart the development of the English language.
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Edmund Weiner
09/01/2004
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