"The Devil's Coach Horses" is a 1925

philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

essay by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

(" devil's coach horse" is the common name of a kind of

rove beetle The rove beetles are a family (biology), family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousand ...

). Tolkien draws attention to the devil's steeds called ''eaueres'' in '' Hali Meidhad'', translated "boar" in the

Early English Text Society The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...

edition of 1922, but in reference to the ''jumenta'' "yoked team, draught horse" of Joel (), in the

Vulgata Clementina The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is an edition of the Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be formally authorized by the Catholic Church, the first be ...

''computruerunt jumenta in stercore suo''. Rather than from the Old English word for "boar", ''eofor'' (German ''Eber'') Tolkien derives the word from ''eafor'' "packhorse", from a verb ''aferian'' "transport", related to Middle English ''aver'' "draught-horse", a word surviving in northern dialects. The Proto-Germanic root ''*ab-'' "energy, vigour, labour" of the word is cognate to Latin ''

opus Opus (: opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera ...

''.

References

External links

* Full text o
"The Devil's Coach Horses"
at HathiTrust Digital Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Coach Horses Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien 1925 essays