The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Saeros used the name as an insult to Túrin in I 484
Race
Settlements
Saeros used the name in Menegroth in Doriath
Pronunciation
woo'dwoses
Meaning
'Wild men of the woods'1
Note
The full term 'woodwose' was only used of Túrin in Doriath; for the shortened form used for the Drúedain or Wild Men of the Woods, see the entry for Woses2

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About this entry:

  • Updated 7 August 2022
  • This entry is complete

Woodwoses

Wild creatures of the deep forest

Man-like creatures, hairy and wild, that were rumoured to live secret lives in the darkest depths of forests. The Woodwose is a creature from British folklore, but the name was used by Saeros in Doriath to taunt the unkempt and wayworn Túrin. Woodwoses were also connected, via the word 'Woses' from the same etymological root, with the Drúedain, the wild forest-dwelling Men commonly called Woses by the people of Rohan.


Notes

1

'Woodwose' is a modernised spelling of Old English wudewása, a word that seems to have originally meant something like 'woodland outcast', simply referring to people forced to live wild in the forest. Over time, the word took on a more supernatural element, so that it came to mean something more like a 'forest spirit'. In this later sense the word wása came to mean something like 'troll' or 'faun', and in heraldry a woodwose would appear as a wild hairy man, often clad in leaves and bearing a club.

It seems that Saeros' insult to Túrin was based on the original meaning of simply a wild man of the woods (and indeed Túrin would later call himself 'Wildman of the Woods'). The shortened form 'Woses' was later used by Tolkien as a word among the Rohirrim for the wild people known as Drúedain (and also called 'Wild Men of the Woods') who lived in the forests of the White Mountains. There does not seem to be a direct connection between the two uses (indeed, they represent translations of different words: an unknown Elvish insult from Saeros, and the word rógin in the language of the Rohirrim).

2

When Saeros called Túrin a 'woodwose' in Menegroth, he meant this as simple insult (Túrin had a tangled and unkempt appearance, having just come from the forest, hence Saeros' use of a name meaning 'wild man of the woods'). It doesn't have a direct connection with the people known in Rohan as Woses, though the two uses do indeed share a common etymological origin (see note 1 above).

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 7 August 2022
  • This entry is complete

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