Thursday 17 September 2015

lord of the rings - Why Did J.R.R. Tolkien Capitalize Certain Words Throughout His Books?

Sometimes Tolkien used capitalization to add weight of emphasis to objects or places, either as an indirect reference to the proper noun (such as referring to Mount Doom as the Mountain), or as a personification of some greater concept.



He did not use capitalization consistently, so it is fair to assume that much of it depends upon the immediate context of the statement. For example, in the 50th Anniversary Edition, it was noted in the Addenda and Corrigenda that Gondor was titled “City of the Kings” on page 973, but then was called “city of the kings” on page 1062, suggesting that Tolkien chose, in the first instance, to capitalize ‘City’ as a means of denoting special import or majesty to the name.



Most of the races received capitalization when named, but again, this was somewhat inconsistent on Tolkien’s part (“hobbit”, in particular, often went uncapitalized). However, this does explain “Man” and “Black Men” in the quotes provided.



“Wild”, “North”, “Twilight” and “Shadow” all referred to specific geographic regions (“Shadow” can refer to either Sauron himself, or the lands directly under his control), and the capitalizations indicate that they are being used as if they were proper nouns (although this appears to be some poetic license).



“Sun” and “Moon” refer to the personifications of celestial bodies (maia, as Mark Trapp points out).



“Doom of Man” is the title given to Man’s mortality.



The Gate reference is the shortened form of the proper name for the specific gate in question.

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