Origins of Races

There were Gondorian characters in PJ's film?! Somehow I just got the impression of Denethor on his own-where do the others come into it?
I think Hama gets one name check in TT, but i could be wrong.

Eldorion wrote:The book version was, as the name implies (in Anglo-Saxon, the language Tolkien used to represent Rohirric) an old man

Gamling is also a word for old man in Norwegian

Mmm I wonder if thats where the Scot slang 'gammy' comes from, means sort of worn out, or not oprating properly, usually from age and is normally applied to body parts- so someone who say had a leg which was permently damaged might say they had a "gammy leg". Doesn't mean old in the strcitest sense but their is an association of age with the word, as usually its applied to older people with physical ailments.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:There were Gondorian characters in PJ's film?! Somehow I just got the impression of Denethor on his own-where do the others come into it?

This is Madril (along with Faramir, obviously) and this is Irolas (although some sources say that he is Imrahil).

I don't believe that either are named in the films, just in supplementary material. Make of that what you will.

I'm trying but no matter how willing I just can't [sigh].

Since Mirabella was kind enough to resurrect this thread, what do you make of Frodo's statement "I don't care if we are being followed by every orc ever spawned."

I always read it as simply a more archaic way of saying "every orc ever bred."

Having a look on google the middle english was spawne- which is from spawnen, to spawn, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Latin expandere.

That last one the root Latin is of course where we get expand from, and I would think Tolkien had this in mind, their ever increasing numbers in the build up to the War.

At also retains in the modern usage two following subsidiary meanings that I think Tolkien is applying-

'to bring forth in general'

and

'to reproduce, especially in large numbers'

And that's the joy of Tolkien, even so deceptively a simple line reveals so many nuanced layers of applicable meaning.
And a clear demonstration of just one of the ways PJ's films disrespect and don't understand Tolkien's writing.

gamling is named in TT and so is Hama (and his son). who's imrahil, isn't he a prince?

You can't forget Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth!  The ladies swoon over him, Norc!  In the book he's the one who has the line about going to attack Morder with something like 8 thousand men is like a fly attacking a fully armed knight.

He's the guy who got lines in the book...