eoten

On the subject of Tolkien, he did use 'eoten' directly in a different context - as far as I know it's the origin of 'Ent'.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

Nicola - 'etin' looks like an updated spelling of the original 'eoten', straight out of Beowulf, so it's presumably what Hild would have called them when speaking Old English.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

I could use the Old English word ‘eoten’ from the Beowulf poem.

Kings of Lindsey Carla 2010

‘Troll’ has roughly the right image to do duty as a translation for Old English ‘eoten’: large, strong, malevolent, roughly humanoid, not conspicuously bright or devious, wilderness-dwelling, nocturnal creatures who eat human flesh.

Kings of Lindsey Carla 2010

I could use the Old English word ‘eoten’ from the Beowulf poem.

Archive 2010-08-01 Carla 2010

I could use the Old English word ‘eoten’ from the Beowulf poem.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

It presumably influenced word choice in the original, since the poet uses a variety of words e.g. eoten, thyrse to refer to Grendel, so they were presumably sufficiently close in meaning to do duty for each other as the metre dictated.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

Tenthmedieval - aha, so were you an ogre or a troll, an eoten or an orc?

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

So eotens were a particular type – the modern term might be something like species – of monster, and Grendel could be described as an eoten.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010

‘Troll’ has roughly the right image to do duty as a translation for Old English ‘eoten’: large, strong, malevolent, roughly humanoid, not conspicuously bright or devious, wilderness-dwelling, nocturnal creatures who eat human flesh.

Old English gods and myths: Eotens Carla 2010