I'm curious

[serai]

Why do so many hobbit fic writers insist on using the Scottish word bairn, when Tolkien himself said that hobbit babies and children are called fauntlings or faunts? I can see digging up a word if he had never addressed the issue. (Though I'd try to find an English word, or at least one derived from the same sources, rather than something Scots. From what I understand, Tolkien didn't like Scots or Gaelic, just like he didn't like French, and took great care not even to use words that English had appropriated from them.) But in this case, he actually had a word, told us what it was, and people still don't use it.

Can someone explain this? Because it makes no sense to me at all.

Comments

[elycia.livejournal.com]

Tolkien did use the word "bairn" in at least one instance. Elanor and Fastred's children eventually are known by the family name of "Fairbairn." In one place--HoME, perhaps?--he says it's because the children are exceptionally attractive, though the name might also be an outgrowth of Elanor's being known throughout the Shire as "The Fair."

That is why I, at least, don't feel terribly uncomfortable using the word "bairn" in fanfic, especially if a hobbit is the one saying it. You can only use "lad" or "lass" so many times in a paragraph before it starts getting really old. :-)

[serai1.livejournal.com]

What makes "bairn" preferable to "baby", then? "Baby" and "child" are perfectly good English words, so why throw them over in favor of a word that isn't English? If there were no word in English for the concept, I could see using "bairn", but there's no reason to do it. I think it's the use of "bairn" in narration that irks me, not in the hobbits' mouths.

That's it, there. I just did a search of LOTR and found that other than that one name, hobbits don't use "bairn", certainly not the way hobbit writers use it, as a substitute for both "baby" and "child". He uses "child" or "maidchild" (for girls), and the use of "bairn" for "child" also makes me scratch my head.

It's been an enduring frustration for me when the folks writing these stories, which are based in a world created by a guy obsessed with language, use words in such a careless manner, or decide that the words he invented are either unimportant enough to be ignored or that it's okay to redefine them because...they just feel like it? No, thanks.