Talk:Rings of Power

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Review: April 26, 2021. (Reviewed version).

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Capitalization of “hobbit”

Chiswick Chap has apprised me that JRR Tolkien did, in fact, capitalize “hobbit” on at least one occasion. I see in “Concerning Hobbits” from The Fellowship of the Ring that he repeatedly capitalizes it there. That’s awkward. All my flipping through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings text body showed only lower-case. This means, I think, that the preponderance of Tolkien’s usage was uncapitalized. He also lead out his introduction to the race with In a hole in a ground there lived a hobbit. So, I think it makes more sense to use the uncapitalized form, but I’m not going to start a fight over it. Tolkien was not consistent with capitalization on other occasions, either. Strebe (talk) 20:23, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is addressed in Hammond & Scull's Readers Guide, quoting Christopher Tolkien's advice to the publisher.^[1] Overall, capitals are appropriate for reference to a race or kind, or in a generalised sense ('the Hobbits migrated', 'the Orcs served Sauron') and lower case for reference to specific individuals or groups ('the hobbits climbed the stairs', 'the orcs attacked the Company'). He acknowledged that there are ambiguous cases, and some inconsistency in Tolkien's text. 'Concerning Hobbits' deals almost exclusively with the Hobbits as a kindred, whereas the narrative deals primarily with specific hobbits. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 21:04, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2006b). The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide. London: HarperCollins. p. 25. ISBN 0-007-14918-2.

[1] Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2006b). The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide. London: HarperCollins. p. 25. ISBN 0-007-14918-2.

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