The Shibboleth of Feanor is a section in The Peoples of Middle-earth,
Volume 12 of HoME. It started as a linguistic discussion on the change of a
single consonant in Noldorin Quenya. In typical Tolkien fashion, this
linguistic discussion grew to give us some details on Feanor's family that are
not found elsewhere.
The word Shibboleth comes from the Bible (Judges, I think). It was used by a
tribe to determine whether or not some people were from their tribe. The other
tribe pronounced it "sibboleth", which was a dead giveaway. The word is now
used in English with the meaning of a saying, custom or practice that
distinguishes a particular
group.
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It was luxuries like air conditioning that brought down the Roman Empire. With air conditioning their windows were shut, they couldn’t hear the barbarians coming.
- Lake Wobegon Days
