Hey folks. I’ve been remiss; I didn’t publish anything for the last two cycles. This is not Patrick’s fault—it’s entirely mine. But contact me directly if you’d like a more groveling apology. Right now we’ve got stuff to talk about.
First of all, Patrick finished his penultimate school term. He did well, except in math, which he passed by the skin of his teeth. But C’s get degrees, right? E’s in fact, in The Gambia. I won’t pretend to understand the grading system, other than to note that I’ve seen it. Anyway, he’s in good standing and will graduate at the end of the current term, which may or may not come at the end of the summer—it’s never quite clear, not least because there is no summer in The Gambia. There’s just the rainy season and the dry season. In any event, based on what happened last year, I expect he’ll be finished by October.
During the break between terms, Patrick started reading a book I sent him, The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I figured this would be something he could understand without any great effort—maybe he could even read it to his siblings. He took to it immediately, becoming thoroughly enmeshed with a desire for adventure and admiration for Bilbo and Gandalf, who Patrick inevitably calls Grandalf:
Oh I find the novel so interesting and my favorite is Bilbo at the moment. He is so kind and generous to his colleagues especially the dwarves at the dinner table. If he loves adventures as Grandalf urges him to join then I will love him more. Imagine adventures across the water, mountains, and in strange places too.
However, I didn’t really think much about Tolkien’s weird vocabulary, so much influenced by ancient northern European languages. But, this turned out to be a fun problem, as Patrick began sending me lists of words for which he didn’t know the meaning. To wit:
Ale, audacious, awkward, bannock, beech, blimey, burglar, canny, carven, cavalcade, cloak, conspirators, crept, dale, defray, drowsy, elves, embers, fierce, fist, foam, folly, fright, furry, glade, gloomy, gravy, grim, heir, hoot, howl, incantation, incline, knob, jelly, lout, mince, merrily, muttering, nick, oak, ought, pantry, parapet, paraphernalia, parchment, plunder, pony, prudent, queer,1 reeking, requisite, ridiculous, rune, saucer, scanty, scowl, scuttle, seldom, sheath, skewer, sling, slither, sneaking, solemn, splendid, squeak, strode, trolls, valley, whacked.
I think one can agree, if these aren’t uncommon they are at least not common. I will note that I myself had to look up “bannock.” I defined them for Patrick as best I could, noting those that are perhaps falling out of use, e.g. “dale” and “glade,” as well as sketching some of the historical background behind those which reach back in one way or another to old European traditions—“rune” and “elves” I’m looking at you. It’s a funny reminder that the substrate most of us bring to a book like The Hobbit is not necessarily universal.
But Patrick is a curious guy and he enjoys reading my wandering passages about ancient European history. Moreover, he doesn’t allow these words to pass him by as mere novelties. He told me he’s been putting them to use in his exchanges with teachers and fellow students. Some of them, he noted, think he’s putting them on, but he brought the book to school and showed them. At least one of his professors announced a desire to read The Hobbit in the coming months.
Recall that The Gambia is a nation of about two million people. Is it possible that I’ve sparked a cultural phenomenon? Might it come to pass that in a few months practically every Gambian is reading The Hobbit? Well, it’s possible. Pretty unlikely, but it’s fun to dream.
Since one major object of this newsletter is to feature a visual tableau of this tiny, faraway country, I thought I’d conclude with a few pictures of something I presume we all love: animals. Not much connection to The Hobbit, though Patrick did stumble over “pony” so we’ll call it a wash. Onward, then.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your support. I can’t believe Patrick is almost to his goal. It’s been a strange couple of years, but before long I expect to send y’all an image of him in his graduation regalia.
Tolkien uses this word in the older sense of “strange” or “unusual,” but I explained in great detail to Patrick why he should in fact be careful with this one.