[crying] Tolkien why do the men of Rohan speak Old English all the time but Isengard is “as the Men of Rohan call it”. Why are the men of Rohan suddenly using a Norse word (-gard). Did they get in-Universe Danelaw-ed. I know u thought all this through and I’ve made some miscalculation 300 pages ago but I’m a small weak creature (read: not a linguist) and im not gonna make it. Do they (Men of Rohan) have the word sky yet or not!! Shaking the gates of heaven (heofon) (not sky(?)) like come out here and talk!!! To me!!!
Context, English did not get the word “sky” for the sky till roughly the time Danes (Vikings) invaded and ruled part of the British Isles (got called “the Danelaw”) for a while. It was the Norse word for cloud-cover, but like with many Norse words, Old English copy/pasted but then slightly changed the definition. Before “sky” you had to call the thing up there heofon (heaven(s)) or the rodor. Lean times in the old word-hoard.
Okay so I think Rohan didn’t get Danelawed, they are the Danelaw. About 500 years before the events of the lord of the rings they got that land from Gondor. They were already living on some of it, but they definitely also displaced the Dunlendings across the river Isen.
The Dunlendings speak a language that’s part of the same family as the languages of the Hobbits, Rohan, and historically other men in that area (getting this from https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dunlendish)
So I think they got -gard from the Dunlendings, who speak the equivalent of a different Germanic language and used to live right next to Isengard. Maybe they also got sky! Some of the characters from Rohan also speak Dunlendish so they’re probably loaning words all over the place.
(Also I bet Tolkien couldn’t resist the fact that it’s enclosed by a wall. He had to. It’s probably based on a specific type of fort and he was probably like now everyone will have to learn about gards.)