I don’t now how many times I have read the Lord of the Rings, but it wasn’t until working on this project that I noticed the phrase in the title of this post. It shows up in the chapter The Uruk-Hai.
Merry and Pippin heard, clear in the cold air, the neighing of war-horses, and the sudden singing of many men. The Sun’s limb was lifted, an arc of fire, above the margin of the world. Then with a great cry the Riders charged from the East; the red light gleamed on mail and spear.
The Two Towers, Chapter 3 The Uruk-Hai
I think every time I read this passage, I must have unconsciously substituted rim for limb. That is, basically, the correct meaning. The visible rim of a celestial body, such as the sun or moon, is called the limb.
But why? Is it connected with human limbs? Tree limbs? As it turns out, no to both. There are two sources for the word limb, one Germanic and the other Latinate, and these have developed quite differently over time, though in the present language they are spelled and pronounced the same.
Let’s Do Science
The fastest one, and the introduction to this topic, is the Latinate source. It is not clear if we borrowed the word directly from Latin limbus or its French descendant limbe. Limbus originally meant a hem, a border, or an edge. English borrowed the word as a scientific term to talk about astronomical objects. While we know that the sun, moon, and stars are spheres, from our Earthly perspective they look like disks. The word limb was adopted as a way to refer to the apparent rim of the visible disk. Technically, a sphere doesn’t have a “rim”, so a new word was desired. (I say “desired” instead of “needed”, because scientists always have the option of redefining a word to be more suitable. They chose not to in this case.)
So, the “Sun’s limb” has nothing to do with arms and legs and branches. The passage in the story paints a picture of the exact moment of dawn, the fiery rim of the sun rising over the horizon, signaling the attack by the Rohirrim.
The Bodies of Men, Elves, …. you get it
The Germanic root first shows up in Old English as lim, in Old Norse as limr, and in Swedish as lem. It originally referred to any organ or part of the body, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It later developed a more specialized meaning, referring to any part of the body distinct from the head or trunk, and then later even more specific to just arms and legs.
Tolkien uses the word to refer to both arms and legs, as one would naturally expect. In the next example below, limb is most naturally viewed as referring all of Gollum’s arms and legs.
Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but it looked as if it was just creeping down on sticky pads, like some large prowling thing of insect-kind.
The Two Towers, The Taming of Sméagol
In one passage it seems possible that Tolkien was playing with the older meaning of limb, back when it could be any part of the body. In this passage, “every limb” is kind of odd, if it refers just to legs and arms. The sensation seems to work its way through the entire body, legs, arms, torso, head, and finally hair; yet only the toes, limbs, and hair are explicitly mentioned. It is possible Tolkien just skipped the torso, neck, and head as obvious parts of the progression; or he might have been using the oldest version of the word. Hard to say definitively, really.
The effect of the draught began at the toes, and rose steadily through every limb, bringing refreshment and vigour as it coursed upwards, right to the tips of the hair.
The Two Towers, Treebeard
Indeed, Tolkien uses limb as a metaphor for the body (as opposed to the spirit or will) in a few places, usually in conjunction with heart or will. For example, after Tom Bombadil rescues the Hobbits from the barrow, he tells them:
Be glad, my merry friends, and let the warm sunlight heat now heart and limb!
The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-Downs
He is suggesting that the sunlight can warm their bodies and their spirits after their harrowing encounter.
All of the examples above involve Hobbits or Hobbit-adjacent Sméagol. That’s just a coincidence of the passages I chose for illustration. Other passages directly refer to the limbs of other races: Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli feel weariness in their heart and limbs as they race across the grasslands; Orc heads and limbs are strewn about the courtyard in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
Animals
The word limb can be used for the extremities of animals as well as people, but the term is only used for two non-human-ish references in LotR: Shelob and a vague reference to “monster”. And really, Shelob is not an animal, but an animal-shaped monster. Regardless, her eight legs are called limbs twice, as in the passage below.
No such anguish had Shelob ever known, or dreamed of knowing, in all her long world of wickedness. Not the doughtiest soldier of old Gondor, nor the most savage Orc entrapped, had ever thus endured her, or set blade to her beloved flesh. A shudder went through her. Heaving up again, wrenching away from the pain, she bent her writhing limbs beneath her and sprang backwards in a convulsive leap.
The Two Towers, The Choices of Master Samwise
The other reference is a comparison between the roots of the Hurons at Helms Deep and some kind of monster:
The ends of their long sweeping boughs hung down like searching fingers, their roots stood up from the ground like the limbs of strange monsters, and dark caverns opened beneath them.
The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard
None of the horses, Eagles, or evil steeds of the Nazgûl are said to have limbs, though the word is perfectly suitable. I don’t think there is anything particularly interesting about this; I just thought I would mention it, since I had the data. Maybe someone else can think of a use for it.
Trees and Tree Herders
At some point in the history of English, people began talking about trees using the same terminology as animal bodies. A main branch of a tree separating off of the trunk became known as a limb, on analogy with human and animal limbs. In fact, the first use of limb in LotR is with this meaning:
Not far from the road-meeting they came on the huge hulk of a tree: it was still alive and had leaves on the small branches that it had put out round the broken stumps of its long-fallen limbs; but it was hollow, and could be entered by a great crack on the side away from the road. The hobbits crept inside, and sat there upon a floor of old leaves and decayed wood.
The Fellowship of the Ring, Three is Company
Strictly speaking, a tree limb is supposed to be the first branching off from the trunk. The final branch is called a twig. Everything in between is a branch. Tolkien does not follow this nomenclature, however. In his description of the greatest tree in Caras Galadhon, he describes the branches of the tree as having limbs.
Upon the south side of the lawn there stood the mightiest of all the trees; its great smooth bole gleamed like grey silk, and up it towered, until its first branches, far above, opened their huge limbs under shadowy clouds of leaves.
The Fellowship of the Ring, The Mirror of Galadriel
Simplifying the structure: “its first branches opened their huge limbs”. “Their” must refer to the first branches, so the “limbs” must be a part of the branch. A strict arborealist may not approve, but Tolkien is not unique in ignoring this classification. Many people, in the past and in the present, simply use limb to mean one of the large branches.
The Ents, the tree-herders, are described as having limbs.
Even as he spoke, there came forward out of the trees three strange shapes. As tall as trolls they were, twelve feet or more in height; their strong bodies, stout as young trees, seemed to be clad with raiment or with hide of close-fitting grey and brown. Their limbs were long, and their hands had many fingers; their hair was stiff, and their beards grey-green as moss.
The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard
It is tempting to think that Tolkien might be having a bit of linguistic fun here, using this word that is used of people and trees for his tree-people. However, Tolkien also uses the words arm and leg in describing Ents at various times. His use of the words limb, arm, and leg with regard to Ents all match the way he used them with regard to more traditionally shaped people.
‘Yes, a tall grey Ent is there,’ said Legolas, ‘but his arms are at his sides, and he stands as still as a door-tree.’
The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard
The calls were answered; and turning again, the riders saw other creatures of the same kind approaching, striding through the grass. They came swiftly from the North, walking like wading herons in their gait, but not in their speed; for their legs in their long paces beat quicker than the heron’s wings.
The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard
The Hills Have Limbs
The final use of limb is geological. English uses human body parts to refer to geological features sometimes. You can be at the foot of a mountain, or its head. They also have limbs and shoulders. The limb of a hill or mountain is a projection away from the main part, like a ridge, though not one that connects to another mountain peak.
The Hobbits ride down the limbs of hills after leaving the house of Tom Bombadil. In this description, there are some long, downward-sloping ridges that lead into valleys. These seem better to ride down than the steeper hill sides.
Their way wound along the floor of the hollow, and round the green feet of a steep hill into another deeper and broader valley, and then over the shoulders of further hills, and down their long limbs, and up their smooth sides again, up on to new hill-tops and down into new valleys.
The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-Downs
It is worth noting that within LotR, Tolkien only uses limb for hills this one time. After the travelers leave the gentle, hilly landscape around the Shire and reach sharper, taller mountains, Tolkien changes the word to spur, which has the same meaning. He likewise never uses spur for hills.
Ahead the water-course came to an end in broken steps of rock; for out from the main range there sprang a high barren spur, thrusting eastward like a wall. To meet it there stretched out from the grey and misty northern range of Ered Lithui a long jutting arm; and between the ends there was a narrow gap: Carach Angren, the Isenmouthe, beyond which lay the deep dale of Udûn.
Return of the King, The Land of Shadow
This distinction between limb and spur seems to be unique to Tolkien. I don’t see evidence that this is a general pattern in the language. It is just something Tolkien did. However, since he only used limb in this sense once, and spur five times, it is impossible to say if this is a real pattern, or a coincidence.
Other Uses
There are other uses of limb in general English. Buildings and castles can have limbs, for example, with a meaning similar to the limb of a mountain. Leaves also have limbs, using the Latinate root meaning ‘edge, rim’, like the sun and moon. These uses aren’t found in the Lord of the Rings, however.
A Hobby for the Tome 