The Devil's Coach Horses
Encyclopedia
The Devil's Coach Horses is a 1925
essay by J. R. R. Tolkien
("Devil's coach-horse" is a British expression for a particular kind of rove beetle
).
Tolkien draws attention to the devil's steeds called eaueres in Hali Meidhad, translated "boar" in the Early English Text Society
edition of 1922, but in reference to the jumenta "yoked team, draught horse" of Joel
, in the Vulgata Clementina
computruerunt jumenta in stercore suohttp://www.latin-nerds.com/latin-vulgate-bible/Joel.php (the Nova Vulgata has semina for Hebrew "grain").
Rather than from the Old English word for "boar", eofor (German Eber) Tolkien derives the word from eafor "packhorse", from a verb aferian "transport", related to Middle English aver "draught-horse", a word surviving in northern dialects. The Proto-Germanic root *ab- "energy, vigour, labour" of the word is cognate to Latin opus.
1925 in literature
The year 1925 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* April: F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway meet in the Dingo Bar on rue Delambre, in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France shortly after the publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and shortly before...
essay by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
("Devil's coach-horse" is a British expression for a particular kind of rove beetle
Rove beetle
The rove beetles are a large family of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra that leave more than half of their abdomens exposed. With over 46,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is the second largest family of beetles after the Curculionidae...
).
Tolkien draws attention to the devil's steeds called eaueres in Hali Meidhad, translated "boar" in the Early English Text Society
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes are in Middle English and Old English...
edition of 1922, but in reference to the jumenta "yoked team, draught horse" of Joel
Book of Joel
The Book of Joel is part of the Hebrew Bible. Joel is part of a group of twelve prophetic books known as the Minor Prophets or simply as The Twelve; the distinction 'minor' indicates the short length of the text in relation to the larger prophetic texts known as the "Major Prophets".-Content:After...
, in the Vulgata Clementina
Sixto-Clementine Vulgate
Vulgata Sixto-Clementina, is the edition of Latin Vulgate from 1592, prepared by Pope Clement VIII. It was the second edition of the Vulgate authorised by this Pope, and it was used until the 20th century.- Clementine edition :...
computruerunt jumenta in stercore suohttp://www.latin-nerds.com/latin-vulgate-bible/Joel.php (the Nova Vulgata has semina for Hebrew "grain").
Rather than from the Old English word for "boar", eofor (German Eber) Tolkien derives the word from eafor "packhorse", from a verb aferian "transport", related to Middle English aver "draught-horse", a word surviving in northern dialects. The Proto-Germanic root *ab- "energy, vigour, labour" of the word is cognate to Latin opus.
Further reading
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The devil's coach-horses in: The Review of English Studies: a quarterly journal of English literature and the English language; vol. 1, no. 3 (July 1925), pp. 331–36 London: Sidgwick & Jackson http://www.tolkienbooks.net/php/details.php?reference=13210, reprinted 1969 http://res.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/I/3/331