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Post by Sparrow on Aug 24, 2004 20:30:59 GMT -6
What do you make of these horses? How do you explain their boldness in trotting up to Gandalf and Bilbo, "looking at them intently with very intelligent faces"? Gandalf explained to Bilbo that the horses were going to "tell [Beorn] of the arrival of strangers." Do you think Gandalf meant the word "tell" literally, or in what sense?
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Post by Stormrider on Aug 26, 2004 8:52:41 GMT -6
I mentioned the following under the talking animals thread:
"The thought crossed my mind that these horses might be mearas since they are a very intelligent breed of horse to begin with. Gandalf spoke to Shadowfax and Shadowfax understood Gandalf. I can't recall off the top of my head if there was an instance when Tolkien wrote that Shadowfax spoke to Gandalf."
I also mentioned that I thought that Beorn and his animals were speaking in some kind of universal animal language rather than in a language that people of Middle-earth would understand.
So yes, I imagine Gandalf meant exactly to use the word "tell".
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Post by Stormrider on Aug 22, 2012 18:52:51 GMT -6
We had an animal communicator out a long time ago and she telepathically spoke to our horses. It was pretty believable because she said that Pistol broke into her "talks" with the other horses and he wanted to know if he was going to stay at our place for a long time. He was my son's horse and he trades horses, so Pistol knew that and liked it at our place and was hoping to stay awhile. The things she told us our other horses said was also amazing and very believable and she did not know us at all!
Anyway, if the woman who communicated with our horses could do it, I can understand the animals in The Hobbit could communicate the same way with each other and with Beorn who was half man/half bear.
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