Saturday, September 24, 2011

What happened, Adam Tolkien? "Now"="maintenant" OR "or"

When "now" could without absurdity (though in some cases untruth) be exchanged for "right now" it means "maintenant" in French.

When that is not the case, is in "now" introducing a next step in an argument or - in some informal styles - narrative, it is "or".

Now I am here=Maintenant je suis ici.

Socrates is a man.
Now, every man is a mortal.
So, Socrates is mortal.

=

Socrate est un homme.
Or, tout homme est mortel.
Donc, Socrate est mortel.

Now, Mr Tolkien, which of the uses do you think your grandfather (or greatgrandfather?) intended when he introduced paragraph after paragraph in Book of Lost Tales Pt I with "now"? I was not happy to read "maintenant" time after time.

Hope this was a case of an old edition Christian Bourgois made, and you have been able to correct mistake in a more recent one!

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Beauvais,
24th of Sept. 2011

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