'It takes a lot o' believing,' said the gaffer, 'though I can see he's been mixing in strange company. What's come of his weskit? I don't hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.' (RotK 294)This bit of English dialect was lost on me the first time I read Return of the King, and ever after my eye glanced over it, never giving it due consideration. What on earth is a "weskit"? In my mind, I linked it with the word "mess kit", and suspected the Gaffer was asking after Samwise's lost cooking gear. But I didn't know for certain, and never would have used the expression in a sentence.
This lamentable ignorance--and yet more lamentable incuriosity--was remedied the other day by my UGA colleague Matt Lewis, who is a veritable font of Tolkien lore. Apparently "weskit" is simply an English dialectal pronunciation of "waistcoat": in other words, a vest. Knowing that, I can make sense of the Gaffer's complaint: Sam isn't wearing what he ought to wear--a waistcoat--but is wearing what he oughtn't wear--a chainmail shirt. Perfectly parallel and sensible, with none of my nonsense about cooking gear.
2 comments:
By the way, Brian said you should have just asked him. :o)
Ha! Never thought about it, really, back in the day. One day Matt up and uses the word, and I'm all, "Weskit? What on earth?" and he's all, "Waistcoat, dude. Haven't you read LOTR?" and I'm all, "Tag. But I thought it was a messkit!" and he's all, "Moron!"
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