00:00 Pull
out from Tolkien name on book cover to reveal books
Pan
across books
Guide Voice: Professor J R R Tolkien was a man
who knew something about the power of words and their
origins."Oscar", an Anglo Saxon word, means "Spear
of God".
00:11 Lord
of the Rings Trailer (courtesy of Distibutor EPK)
00:31 "Making
of" shots of LOTR (courtesy of Distibutor EPK)
Wide
showing J R R Tolkien’s membership of the English
Place-Name Society
c.u.
Tolkien’s signature
Tilt
down to books
Guide Voice: How many "Spears of God"
will Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Tolkien’s
classic work pick up at the upcoming Oscar awards? Professor
Tolkien was a member of the English Place-Name Society. We know he
drew heavily on Anglo Saxon and Celtic languages for the names of
places and characters in his writing – perhaps his research
within the society influenced the creation of Middle Earth place
names such as Gondor, Rivendale and Rohan?
00:59 SOT: Dr Paul Cavill - “The
English Place-Name Society was founded in 1923 to explore the
origins of all the names in all the counties of England. The idea
was that the earliest records of the place names should be
investigated because the earlier the record is the closer it is to
a meaningful term.”
01:22 Exteriors,
University of Nottingham, UK
Sign
for Institute of Name Studies
Dr
Cavill at desk – various shots
c.u.
Doomsday Books
Guide Voice: The English Place-Name Society has
been based at the UK’s University of Nottingham since 1968
and is a long-standing project aiming to explain the origin and
development of all the place-names of England, based on the
analysis of spellings recorded in documentary sources over 1400
years.
01:40 SOT: Dr Paul Cavill -
“It’s important to find out the history of names
because they change a great deal in the process of time. One of the
slightly extraordinary aspects of names is the way that they can
repeat themselves. So for example in Leicestershire there is a
place called Breedon-on-the-Hill. And we know, that, and indeed
there is a Breedon in Northamptonshire as well, Bree is an early
Celtic word meaning hill. The Anglo-Saxons added to that word
“Doon” which means hill in Anglo-Saxon, so the
Anglo-Saxon name for this place means, etymologically at least,
hill-hill.”
02:27 Slow
pan across County Place Name books
Wide
of Dr Cavill at a map
c.u.
map and hands
Wide,
Doomsday Books
Slow
pan across more County books
Guide Voice: So, Breedon on the Hill is, in
fact, "hill-hill on the hill"!
Place names can tell us a great deal about our history.
The original language used to describe a settlement or landscape
feature reveals something about the origin and dialect of the
people who gave the name and helps us track changes in land use and
the influence of migration.
02:48 SOT: Dr
Paul Cavill (note* Speaking while indicating names
on a map) - “Right, well if we just look at this
small section of the Trent Valley to the East of Nottingham, the
thing that dominates the map here is the Celtic named river, the
River Trent. After the Anglo-Saxon invasion we’ve got lots
of, English names on both sides of the Trent Valley, where
it’s safe, where the land is good, and where Anglo-Saxon
farmers could make a decent living. There’s a few
“ford” names, so, Shelford, and East Bridgford, and
West Bridgford and so on. We’ve got all those names, which
are, important for the crossing of the Trent. Now the only safe
place to live in the Trent valley is Hoveringham. That’s an
English name, and it means place on a ridge in the Trent. So,
it’s safer to live here than anywhere else because it’s
higher up than anywhere else in this valley. And actually in the
Trent valley we’ve got several Scandinavian names, Bleasby,
that’s the farm of a man called Bleasy; Caythorpe – the
farm of a man called Catty; and Gunthorpe, Gunny’s
farm”.
04:09 "Making
of " shots of LOTR (courtesy of Distibutor EPK)
Wide
of Tolkien society membership entry closing in on
signature
Guide Voice: From Gunny’s farm back to
God’s spear. When Lord of the Rings collects its Oscars this
month, we should give some thought to the English Place-Name
Society.
04:20 End
