Two Kinds of “Fell”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Caroline Germany.

Hi, Caroline. Where are you calling from?

I’m calling from northeast Tennessee from Clinch Mountain.

Clinch Mountain. That’s a fantastic name.

Welcome to the show. What can we help you with?

I’m sitting on 26 acres, me and my puppy,

And it was time to start reading old classics

While this, you know, thing is going on

And with no people around.

So I started with all of Tolkien’s stuff, and I ran into the word fell, and I thought, you know, I have run into this quite a bit, not as the past form of fall, but describing a person that’s not very nice.

And then I picked up the Yorkshire Vets books again, and they use fell a lot, but it’s describing something in Yorkshire geographical.

And I can’t tell if it’s obviously a mountain or a cliff, but it’s not like a hollow. I don’t know what that is.

So this is a really interesting word to me.

So what are these two fells, Martha? F-E-L-L, right?

Yeah, so you’re seeing fell in those books, or in the Tolkien books anyway, as sort of a synonym for cruel.

I mean, it’s weird to see that word used as an adjective, right?

Right. And it’s always a bad guy that they use it. He uses it as a description.

Caroline, there is a place where Tolkien describes the Nazgul as fell riders,

And there’s another place where he describes fell beasts.

I think he’s talking about the things that live in the mines of Moria.

Oh, okay.

The Balrog.

The Balrog, but other things that are under there, the unnameable things that we just don’t know about, never find out about really.

But fel beasts and fel riders, these are the spirits of nine kings who are taken over by the Dark Lord.

Right.

So you can kind of guess from the context that fel in those situations means cruel or fierce or vicious.

And the etymology is a little bit murky, but it may come from an old French word that means the same thing.

And the light bulb for me is that some etymologists think that it is connected to the word felon.

F-E-L-O-N, as in a criminal.

Right.

Yes.

Right.

And you probably know the expression at one fell swoop, right?

Yes.

Oh, yes.

I forgot about that.

Mm—

Mm—

Yeah, that’s the same idea.

So that means an evil swoop or one instance of something evil.

Yes, yes, like a ruthless and deadly attack by a bird of prey.

Yeah, got them all in one fell swoop, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, now the other books, the other sense of fell as a feature of the landscape, that’s a new one on me.

Do you have any thoughts about that, Grant?

Yeah, so Tolkien and James Harriot both talk about the fells, and a fell is an elevated bit of land,

And there’s a couple contradictory meanings.

One is a hill or a mountain, not necessarily like a tall, tall mountain.

We’re not talking about the Himalayas, but maybe a rise in the land.

And sometimes, though, it’s a level field that’s in an altitude,

Usually an uncultivated plain or uncultivated mesa of some kind.

The two fells are etymologically unrelated.

It’s just an accident of history that they’re spelled the same.

Oh, okay. All right.

Caroline, we are so grateful for your calling and sharing these thoughts with us.

We wish you and the pup the best.

Take care of yourself.

It was my pleasure.

I really enjoy it.

It’s my favorite show on NPR.

Oh, that’s nice.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Be well.

You’re welcome.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

All righty.

Take care.

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