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.....So Marquessa Laurellen gives me this word out of Tolkien as part of the Tolkien word challenge, 'Guthwine'. In terms of Tolkien, it is easy to define and easy to give an etymology. It is 'Old English' for 'Battle' or 'War' - 'Friend'. This was almost too easy. What Marquessa Laurellen didn't know was my stint as Baronial Book Herald and the fact that I still have all of my reference sources for Old English name construction. :-) In LotR, it is Rohirric and the name of Eomer's sword.

.....But, I remembered seeing something about it being referenced in Beowulf itself. So I pull out one of my trusty annotated translations of Beowulf and see if I can look up the reference in there. But it was not mentioned at all by name.

.....So I go to the internet to see about tracking this down. I find several hundred sites that talk about the name being mentioned in Beowulf and the connection to Tolkien. But the interesting part of this is that none of them that I went through actually cite the source location in Beowulf.

.....So now I'm starting to wonder. I pull up a copy of Beowulf in its original on the internet and do a couple of initial searches for 'Guthwine'. No hits. I go back to my original and look at those sections where Beowulf actually pulls out his sword in preparation for battle. He gives a couple of really good speeches in a couple of these spots. A couple of them are actually addressed to his sword. But I don't see any reference to 'Battle-Friend' or 'War-Friend' in any of these speeches I read.

.....so, now I'm REALLY curious. :-) Which is bad news. That's one step short of obsessed. :-) I've got my own copy of Beowulf in the original and am pouring through it paragraph by paragraph to see if I can find this reference to Guthwine.

.....I'm almost convinced that it doesn't exist and that all of these Tolkien sites are basing their 'facts' on something that doesn't exist. Makes me wonder if at some point some Tolkien fanatic hypothesized that this name came from Beowulf due to Tolkien's work with Beowulf. Once something is 'in print' it is amazing how easily it is taken as truth and gospel.

.....I could be wrong though. Tolkien was a true expert in Beowulf. His treatise 'Beowulf: The Monster and The Critics' is still used as a reference source for scholars of Beowulf and its construction to this day.

.....Damn! Not exactly something though that I want to pick up and research twenty-four days before July Coronation. Marquessa Laurellen is truly evil! :-)

.....Arontius.

Date: 2006-06-21 02:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrq-laurellen.livejournal.com
Well, now I know... :) and shall rove further afield in my search for words.

If I were truly evil, I'd tell you that I knew where to find the Guthwine reference in Beowulf... but I wouldn't tell you where.

Bwahahaha

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