Cotton family: Difference between revisions

From Tolkien Gateway
Line 15: Line 15:
It is not supposed that the plant/textile cotton was known in [[Middle-earth]] that time.
It is not supposed that the plant/textile cotton was known in [[Middle-earth]] that time.


==Origin of the name==
==Inspiration==
[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] chose to couple the Cottons with the [[Gamgee Family|Gamgees]] because of ''Gamgee cotton'' (also known as ''Gamgee tissue''), a surgical tissue he heard of as a child. It was invented by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_Gamgee J. Sampson Gamgee].
[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] chose to couple the Cottons with the [[Gamgee Family|Gamgees]] because of ''Gamgee cotton'' (also known as ''Gamgee tissue''), a surgical tissue he heard of as a child. It was invented by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_Gamgee J. Sampson Gamgee].



Revision as of 10:54, 10 October 2010

The Cotton family was a working class family of Hobbits.

Origin

Cottar, the founder of the Cotton clan, was born some two hundred years before the War of the Ring. It was his grandson, Holman, who was the first to take the surname Cotton. "Long Hom", as Holman was known, is also the first of the Cottons to be explicitly connected with the village of Bywater, which remained the seat of the family from that time on.

Holman's son Tolman farmed the lands to the south of Bywater, and it was he who made the family one of the most important in the Shire. He played a significant part in the decisive Battle of Bywater, the most important step in the recovery of the Shire from Sharkey's Men, and his daughter Rose married Samwise Gamgee in the following spring.

Etymology

The name Cotton is a real-life English surname and means cottage town.

It is also a translation of the Westron Lothran, associated with the name Hlothram, "Cotman". Hlothran was "a fairly common village-name in the Shire", though none is mentioned (or noteworthy enough) on any map.

It is not supposed that the plant/textile cotton was known in Middle-earth that time.

Inspiration

J.R.R. Tolkien chose to couple the Cottons with the Gamgees because of Gamgee cotton (also known as Gamgee tissue), a surgical tissue he heard of as a child. It was invented by J. Sampson Gamgee.

References