"fairy," OED 4a

[Scot LaFaive]

But by saying he is "of faerie," couldn't that also mean he was of the
faerie people or of the faerie, using faerie as a race or type of creature
and not a place name? I haven't read the original, I just found that to be
one possible reading based on this very small quote.
Scot


>From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "fairy," OED 4a
>Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:27:37 -0500
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: "fairy," OED 4a
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Tolkien quoted correctly the text as given in Gower's _Complete Works_, ed.
>G. C. Macaulay (Oxford: Clarendon, 1899-1902), 3:146. It reads "of"--not
>"a."
>
>--Charlie
>__________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:28:06 -0800
> >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject: "fairy," OED 4a
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >OED offers this as its primary citation of _fairy_, a kind of elf-like
>supernatural being :
> >
> >  1393 J. Gower _Confessio Amantis_ II. 371 And as he were a fairie.
> >
> >  J. R. R. Tolkien challenged this as an exemplification of the sense so
>long ago as 1938. In his well-known essay "Tree and Leaf," Tolkien wrote,
> >
> >  "But this Gower did not say. He wrote _as he were of faerie_, 'as if he
>were come from Faerie.'"  Tolkien then quotes the passage at length in
>Middle English.
> >
> >  The online OED hasn't corrected this error, if error it be.
> >
> >  Question: Be this an error ?  Or be Tolkien in error ?
> >
> >  JL
> >
> >
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