tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post1976530900927275935..comments2024-03-19T04:32:18.795+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: 'Thirty' white horses on a red hill? The insoluble riddleBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-50985346714390998462016-08-14T03:59:09.533+01:002016-08-14T03:59:09.533+01:00Hmm... even if it's a 'traditional' ri...Hmm... even if it's a 'traditional' riddle, perhaps Tolkien is enjoying a subtle implicit excursus into Middle-earth dental anthropology whereby hobbits are characterized by hereditary hypodontia in the form of agenesis of two permanent teeth, in which both Smeagol and Bilbo think in terms of having thirty teeth because both are members of hobbit(-like) races in which this is the norm.<br /><br />I read a fascinating account by Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald of his discovery of various distinctive specimens of early human teeth by going around purchasing 'dragon's teeth' from vendors of traditional medicines in the Far East - something (conjecturing with wild abandon) I can imagine would have struck Tolkien had he read about it while writing The Hobbit and which might have turned his thoughts to dental palaeoanthropology in the context of this "thirty" and the distinct 'humanity' of hobbits.<br /><br />David Llewellyn DoddsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-22959566816127503372016-08-12T01:11:25.079+01:002016-08-12T01:11:25.079+01:00You have inspired me to review my favorite verse c...You have inspired me to review my favorite verse collections for accuracy.<br /><br />Housman's Shropshire lad knows the price of a knife. He knows the difference between one-and-twenty and two-and-twenty. And at Eastertide, when he sets out to calculate his future life expectancy, his arithmetic is quite correct:<br /><br />Loveliest of trees, the cherry now <br />Is hung with bloom along the bough, <br />And stands about the woodland ride <br />Wearing white for Eastertide. <br /> <br />Now, of my threescore years and ten,<br />Twenty will not come again, <br />And take from seventy springs a score, <br />It only leaves me fifty more. <br /> <br />And since to look at things in bloom <br />Fifty springs are little room,<br />About the woodlands I will go <br />To see the cherry hung with snow.<br /><br /><br />But of course modern improvements have made the seventy-year estimate of life expectancy obsolete, and even apart from that, the calculation is actuarially unsound. The longer you survive, the greater your expected age at death; this is why you are never really too old to buy green bananas.<br /><br />We must, however, not neglect<br />To add some supplemental terms<br />Like the survivorship effect,<br />Plus better diet, fewer germs.<br /><br />So fifty’s just a lower bound<br />On years to expect before life’s ebb.<br />Now, therefore, I shall turn around<br />And go indoors and surf the Web.Karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06030980000235824571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-85809980374969069672016-08-11T18:52:58.376+01:002016-08-11T18:52:58.376+01:00@Karl and SJ - OK guys, point taken -- but this is...@Karl and SJ - OK guys, point taken -- but this is not poetic license - it's a riddle! More like a crossword puzzle clue than a poem. <br /><br />Thirty two horses on a red hill, <br />White and champing -<br />Then they stamp -<br />And then they stand still. <br /><br />See, even I can make it scan AND be accurate!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-46528908172865572872016-08-11T16:14:47.642+01:002016-08-11T16:14:47.642+01:00Rode the six hundred and seven.
(Russell's re...<i>Rode the six hundred and seven.<br /><br />(Russell's report in The Times recorded that just short of 200 men were sick or for other reasons left behind in camp on the day, leaving "607 sabres" to take part in the charge.)<br /></i><br /><br />Ha, ha, good find. Exactly - it's clearly poetic license, to make the verse flow better, nothing more. (I HATE it when people nitpick stuff like this!)<br /><br />It's worth noting that the bible itself frequently employs this sort of "rounding-off". As anthropologists observe, in many ancient cultures they simply didn't care about being strictly accurate about these things; ergo, just about any number you come across in the bible is going to be somewhat open to interpretation. Did Jesus really feed exactly five thousand people? Was there really a remnant of exactly seven thousand who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal?<br /><br />(And hence the JWs who think precisely 144,000 people are going to heaven are off the mark...)Samson J.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-42872858960980840192016-08-11T04:00:48.541+01:002016-08-11T04:00:48.541+01:00Forward, the Light Brigade!
Was there a man disma...Forward, the Light Brigade! <br />Was there a man dismayed? <br />Not though the soldier knew <br /> Someone had blundered. <br /> Theirs not to make reply, <br /> Theirs not to reason why, <br /> Theirs but to do and die. <br /> Into the valley of Death <br /> Rode the six hundred and seven. <br /><br />(Russell's report in The Times recorded that just short of 200 men were sick or for other reasons left behind in camp on the day, leaving "607 sabres" to take part in the charge.)<br /><br />Karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06030980000235824571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-65932497089334737292016-08-10T14:12:18.058+01:002016-08-10T14:12:18.058+01:00@Craig - But maybe Hobbits have an extra molar on ...@Craig - But maybe Hobbits have an extra molar on just the lower jaws, to oppose the two upper pre-molars - or something... <br /><br />But I imagine that Hobbits need all the teeth thay can fit-in...Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-42892448661435905072016-08-10T13:54:34.753+01:002016-08-10T13:54:34.753+01:00Indeed, my youngest sister is having a couple teet...Indeed, my youngest sister is having a couple teeth pulled before her birthday because they are unopposed.Craignoreply@blogger.com