9b9e697a   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message   
   <16eb5f8c-d135-472e-bc62-723b6c97bbd3@t29g2000vby.googlegroups.com>   
   Christopher Kreuzer  spoke these staves:   
   >   
      
      
      
   > I've read that passage loads of times and I've only just noticed   
   > that word 'nill' now. Did anyone else completely miss that when   
   > reading that passage previously, or was it just me?   
      
   I think I must have, because I had this sense of 'I know that' when   
   you quoted the dictionary ;-)   
      
   Except that my understanding is that _nill_ is the opposite to _will_   
   rather than the complement (the difference being that the latter   
   includes indifference, while the former does not).  The dictionary   
   definitions that you cite seem rather to favour the complementary   
   (not to will) (the difference that I am trying to describe here is   
   rather like the difference between normal darkness and Ungoliant's   
   Unlight, which was not the mere absense of light, but rather the   
   antithesis to light).   
      
   It may, of course, depend on whether the word is used transitively or   
   intransitively.   
      
   > I'm wondering how many archaisms just slip past the reader without   
   > them realising?   
      
   I remember that the description of the Pelennor Fields slips quite a   
   lot of words by the reader that I, at some reading within the last   
   few years, suddenly realized that I had no idea of the specific   
   meanings of (mostly words for various farm outhouses etc.)   
      
   > My favourites are words such as weregild and glede, but there are   
   > many others as well.   
      
   These are good ;-)   
      
   Kine is also one of favourites, but I think my favourite passage is   
   still Ulmo's speech to Tuor in UT -- the archaisms there lend the   
   whole thing a gravity that is absolutely beautiful (to my eyes, of   
   course).   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer    
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       Ash nazg durbatuluk,   
       ash nazg gimbatul,   
       ash nazg thrakatuluk   
       agh burzum ishi krimpatul.   
      - /The Fellowship of the Ring/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)