Spiders All the Way Down
This post is going to be a little different than my normal fare, since I just got through reading one of the most interesting pieces of philological dissection I've ever come across. In The Hobbit, when Bilbo calls the spiders stupid names, I never really considered why he said what he did -- figured it was just silly names to fit with the relatively childish feel of the book.
Oh boy was I wrong! To quote Jason Fisher, author of said piece, "how far down the rabbit hole it is possible to go!" Truly, Tolkien's words have some of the most complex, interesting histories drawing from over a dozen different languages. In fact, all three names he calls the spiders in The Hobbit -- attercop, lazy lob, and crazy cob -- all mean spider (in some way or another)!
My man actually researched and made up (or resurrected if you'd prefer) three ancient words to mean the same thing, and for a single song no less!
Previously when I had read The Hobbit as a kid, I loved it, but that's because I found it charming and witty and all the other things kids love in simple novels. But now I've got to thinking about it again, and I'm wondering how many little philological in-jokes, references, and connections are hidden away in those pages...
So if you've ever sat down to re-read The Hobbit and thought ah, this is a kid's book, I've got better things to read, like Dostoyevsky (weird choice but stay with me), maybe come at it from a more analytical perspective! Ask yourself why Tolkien made all the strange small choices he did with words and whatnot -- it might give you the same new appreciation of the book as it did me!
