“Those naughty Oxford professors!”

[beowabbit]

You can skip this if you read wispfox, since she’s who I got it from. (Sorry, John, “whom”.) An imagined dialogue between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien on the shocking things the younger generation might read into the relationship between Frodo and Samwise. Lo, I am slain!

(Mind, a philogist of Tolkien’s day would never say “as a Christian, we are to keep our loves pure” or “my hobbits are quite miffed at you and I,” and I doubt whether he would have used “psychologically” quite that way, but I have to say it’s quite well done.)

Comments

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

since she’s who I got it from. (Sorry, John, “whom”.)

I don't know if I'm the John you meant, but I think "since she's the one from whom I got it" would be more grammatically correct. ;)

[beowabbit]

Actually, the good philologist from Oxford — it was he of whom I was speaking.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

See my comment on "John" vs. "Ronald".

Tollers

[beowabbit]

You know, I knew that once, but I had forgotten, and took “John” from the original post. Thanks for the correction. I trust any future slash I may write shall be more accurate. :-)

[arfur]

nice userpic!

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

Oh my.. That is quite amusing ^-^

[ilthit.livejournal.com]

Apologies - I am not a philogist. (Isn't that philologist? Not sure.) Actually, I'm not even English. I'm a native speaker of Finnish. Fairly good excuses, those, as excuses go, I think.

Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[beowabbit]

Excellent excuses indeed, and your dialogue was quite delightful. Thanks for writing it!

Philologist, from philo- ‘friend’ or ‘love’ + logos ‘word’. So a philologist is a lover of words or of languages (specifically ancient ones).

[ilthit.livejournal.com]

Thought so - you'd dropped a 'lo' in the above post, but I figured it might be some English language transformation. It's 'filologi' in Finnish, which makes sense.

[beowabbit]

Ah! Oops. Nope, just poor typing. :-)

[beowabbit]

And by the way, those grammatical “errors” are entirely common and natural among 21st-century native English speakers. It’s just that an Oxford Anglo-Saxonist in the first half of the 20th century, steeped in Latin an Anglo-Saxon grammar and academia would not have spoken that way. Didn’t want you to worry your English isn’t better than that of most native speakers, at least in my country; it is. :-)