What does "fine and vail" mean?

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Context:
Its market's known far and wide, full of the bounties fine and vail. peaceful and prosperous.

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Type: Question • Score: 1 • Views: 3,067 • Replies: 12

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@oristarA,

"Vail means to lower or tip. But I'm wondering if that isn't just the older spelling of "veil"meaning bounties a bit uncertain or tenuous

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vail can also mean respectful.

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You only gave a part of the context, omitting the most important. The quote appears to be from the script of a film (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) based on the characters in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and was preceded by the words "There was the city of Dale."

The apostrophe in "market's" should not be there.

Tolkien used archaic language to give a pseudo-ancient feel to his stories. This technique has been copied, usually badly, in an extremely tiresome flood of books, films and computer games in a genre called "swords and sorcery", mainly liked by Americans.

Vail was a Middle English word. It was a verb used without object and meant "to be of use or profit". Thus the markets of the city of Dale were profitable and full of fine (good quality) goods. I am not sure that the word is used correctly. Is this a quote from the movie script or the book?

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@contrex,

It seems that the quote is taken from the movie's subtitles in foreign countries.

Over the internet you can find:

- Fine and vale
- Fine and vail
- Fine and vile

I'd go with the latter..

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@timur,

timur wrote:

I'd go with the latter..

I presume that was a joke? Based on the quality the films? In which case I agree.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

You only gave a part of the context, omitting the most important. The quote appears to be from the script of a film (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) based on the characters in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and was preceded by the words "There was the city of Dale."

The apostrophe in "market's" should not be there.

Tolkien used archaic language to give a pseudo-ancient feel to his stories. This technique has been copied, usually badly, in an extremely tiresome flood of books, films and computer games in a genre called "swords and sorcery", mainly liked by Americans.

Vail was a Middle English word. It was a verb used without object and meant "to be of use or profit". Thus the markets of the city of Dale were profitable and full of fine (good quality) goods. I am not sure that the word is used correctly. Is this a quote from the movie script or the book?

Just the movie script, Contrex.

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Movie scripts can be full of crap, especially this kind.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Movie scripts can be full of crap, especially this kind.

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@contrex,

You start out with an extraordinarily crappy book, you can't expect a movie script to save it.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

You start out with an extraordinarily crappy book, you can't expect a movie script to save it.

As you say, an extraordinarily crappy book.

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@oristarA,

You guys are funny. It helps to get the actual quote, in which case you likely wouldn't need clarification. It's amazing how subtitles can help with this. The actual quote: "There was the city of Dale, its markets full of the bounties of vine and vale."

Makes sense now, right? The "bounties of vine and vale" - the grapes from the vines (perhaps also indicating wine fermented from them), the fruits from the harvests grown in the valleys.

Amazingly, no, the movie doesn't suck as bad as a bunch of illiterate whiners want to claim it does.

1 Reply

@CasualIntellect,

Your reply is excellent.
And the movie is hexcellent!

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What does "fine and vail" mean?

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