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I'm proofreading the Spanish edition of Erebor and there is something that puzzles me.

When describing the Northern Dalelands, in page 53:

Newly built farms and villages are springing up everywhere, and golden fields of corn have been sown

.

Am I missing something (like a second meaning) or is it referred to the plant brought from America to Europe?

If it's the American plant, I'm afraid is not the best option. From Tolkien Gateway:

"And just bring out the cold chicken and tomatoes!"
― Gandalf to Bilbo Baggins, An Unexpected Party

Tomatoes were supposedly a plant known to the Hobbits.

They were referenced in the first edition of The Hobbit,[1] but J.R.R. Tolkien changed this to "pickles" in the third edition (1966).[2] The most usual explanation for the change is that the American plant-life would not fit in his setting of ancient Middle-earth. However, as pointed out by John D. Rateliff, it may have been simply that Tolkien felt that it was too early in the year for tomatoes and substituted a preserved food instead.[3]

Corn in the British English sense refers to grains of various kinds. When it's necessary to distinguish the New World plant, the term maize is used.

Tolkien also changed tobacco to pipe-weed for The Lord of the Rings, even though he kept tobacco in The Hobbit. He was interested in excising as many non-Old English terms as he could. Tomato comes from Nahuatl via Spanish; maize also comes from Spanish; corn comes from Old English.

We could suppose that one or more variety of vegetable was brought to Middle-earth by the Númenóreans, and might have originally native to Númenor or an uninhabited dark continent. That might explain both pipe-weed and potatoes. Yams (as opposed to actual sweet potatoes) are native to several parts of the world might have been imported from the East.

Sound reasonable, since Númenóreans are the greatest traveller ever. They could have picked vegetables and rare plant from any part of the world. We could even imagine that the boats of the Faithfull bring some of the seed of useful plant from Númenór (beside the fruit of the White Tree).

A German professor in college claimed that after WWII when the Americans asked the Germans what supplies they needed, the Germans said "corn". What they actually meant was "korn", or grain, but the Americans gave them corn. This particular professor said that for the 40+ years since he had been unable to stomach another bite of cornbread.

Thanks for the answers!

"Fields of grain" sounds a bit odd in Spanish, would be too far-fetched to translate it as "wheat"?

Arthadan wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2017 6:44 pm

"Fields of grain" sounds a bit odd in Spanish, would be too far-fetched to translate it as "wheat"?

I guess that depends on the language and its usage. Like in English, German has a generic term for all these crops. In English it's "grain", while in German you say "Korn" or more commonly (nowadays) "Getreide". "Wheat", "barley" or "rhye" are then the specific plants/crops under the common appellation of "grain" (or "Getreide").
If you use a specific term like "wheat" or "rhye", you make a very specific statement, while "grain" could be any of these. If you look at the plants themselves, they look also similar (at least for the untrained eye) unless you have a closer look. Therefore a more generic term sounds more appropriate to me. But if that is not common in Spanish I suggest to use the Spanish idiom that comes closest to describing such crops without details about the actual plant species.

Cheers
Tolwen

Tolwen wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2017 9:16 pm

I guess that depends on the language and its usage. Like in English, German has a generic term for all these crops. In English it's "grain", while in German you say "Korn" or more commonly (nowadays) "Getreide".

Cheers
Tolwen

That is true today, but before maize was brought over to Europe, 'corn' was a word used in England and Ireland that could be applied to any cereal crop, especially wheat, barley or oats. In the U.S., at least, that usage is archaic today. According to the dictionary I'm using right now, the words corn, grain, kernel, granite and grenade are derived from the same Indo-European root meaning "grain". The German korn doubtless stems from the same root.

Good points

In addition (and as a more direct answer to Arthadan's question), it depends on the situation. In German it's perfectly normal to refer to a "Getreidefeld" (a field of grain) if the specific situation does not warrant a specific definition of the exact cereal crop grown there. I guess that also holds true for English, but the native speakers here may make a authorative statement on this.
I can't judge on the situation in Spanish, for which you (Arthadan) are the expert

Cheers
Tolwen