Genle "men"?

[Lady Ashley]

Ok, I've a question...you all know at the movie where Aragotn says, "Gentlmen, we do not stop until nightfall." Well, hello, why does he call them gentle"men"? They're not men...it would have been cooler if the script read "Gentlehobbits". Wouldn't tht have been cool? And would have been calling them what they are...hobbits.

Right?

[Mirkgirl]

For the same reason that gentlemen is used for crowds in which there's hardly a single gentleman - that's the saying

And gentlehobbits would be confusing. And pretentious.

[Sindarin]

Besides, they were male Hobbits.

[hydra]

i guess Aragorn should have said...



"Gentlmale, we do not stop until nightfall."

[Pil]

lol But that would have been so weird! lol

[Ringwraith]

Maybe he wanted to make the hobbits feel closer to him by eliminating the barrier between races, since he knew they would spend a long long time together and that it was best if they all trusted each other as brothers do. And so he called them gentlemen.

[Bawax]

he should have just gone off and left them, that would have got them back for not trusting him at first. :grin:

[Algamesh]

I tend to agree with MirkGirl ... this form of addressing is probably the way that Aragorn was raised to address a group of people. Living in Middle-earth, I'm fairly sure I would say "Gentlemen" as well to grab attention.

Here's some research for you ... was that particular line created for the movie or does it exist in the literature?

[Mirkgirl]

I was re-reading LotR these days and saw something that made me think about this thread... first of all it is indeed a strictly movie line, it doesn't exist in the book. Actually the word gentlemen (or gentleman) does not appear in Tolkiens masterpiece

On the contrary, the word gentlehobbit is used by the Gaffer twice: In the chapter "A Long-expected Party" he says "A very nice well-spoken gentlehobbit is Mr. Bilbo" and then in "The Scouring of the Shire": "Mr. Frodo is a real gentlehobbit".

But the Gaffer is a hobbit and as such he is using the term gentlehobbit... one who is not a hobbit (and Aragorn is not) probably wouldn't change the word "gentlemen" simply not being aware of the existence of such term as gentlehobbit

[Fëalossë]

Yeah... 'Gentlehobbit' was another one of those uniquley "hobbit" words... like 'nasturitans,' 'drownded,' etc. (It's so cute when they talk like that! lol)

[Mithrandir]

Well...
Not to be mean or anything I think that gentle hobbit, sounds a bit cheesy, or...hmm not quite apprpropiate for that, and is not really used, and have you ever seen Aragorn say Gentle hobbit? hmm, a bit strange

Please dont take it in a bad way ;)

[Gwaihir]

Well, I think that to some people it sounds weird just because it is not a term used in our world. In the Shire it is probably a term used just like "Gentlemen". Nothing strange about that.

[Lady Ashley]

lol geez, I was a newbie when I started this thread loooooong ago. I can't believe I actually started this thread...I was such a newbie/Purist. (am still a Purist, but not a dumb one. However, I was young and stupid at the time. :)

[Tirithel]

So there could be, like, Gentle-Elves and Gentle-Dwarves, right?

Hey, another question. As someone who does a bit of writing and is always seeking the better word for something, is there any good term for a female elf? Cuz you can't call them women and "she-elf" sounds so coarse...thoughts? Opinions?

[Lady Ashley]

Elven-maid, I always thought. That was what the elves sang in The Hobbit. And Luthien and Nimrodel were called elven-maids in their respective songs.

[Gwaihir]

They can also be called Elf-maids. There is a mound called Haudh-en-Elleth, which means Mound of the Eld-maid.