None of the other animals seem to have any comment to make, but Garm reflects
his 'owner's' opinions and is kind of a braggartly version of him. So I guess
he fulfils an important role that the other animals don't. However, clearly a
cow is a more important animal than a dog to get such a glamour-puss name.
Giants are clearly both stupider than dogs and less important than cows. Turns
the whole mythology upside down, but does reflect real life fairly directly, I
suppose. The immediate is often more important than the remote, however huge
and dangerous.
I think the comment 'reserved for their betters' is also ironic, as discussed
in the language posts below. There's clearly games afoot with the whole latin
vs vernacular thing, and I don't think the latin's superiority is really borne
out at all. So maybe Garm should be the hero
;-)
"Like Bentham's Panopticon, Sauron's power and authority is placed in the discipline of surveillance a la Foucault."
