"We must away ere break of day": What is this grammar? Is it alive?

Question

This phrase appears in a song of the dwarves in Tolkien's The Hobbit:

Far over the Misty Mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To find our long forgotten gold.

Tolkien was an outstanding linguist, and I guess this line is one of the antique structures he often used in such poems. To my knowledge, the line means “We must go away before dawn”, but omits the main verb completely. What is this structure exactly? Does it appear in contemporary English in any way?

MetaEd · Accepted Answer

In this example, away means go away. The verb go is suppressed. It is an archaism, the sort of thing that Tolkien was fond of. It is rare in modern texts, but has been around for hundreds of years.

Here are some examples from the New English Dictionary:

1375 Otherwais mych thai noch avay.
  1393 Whither awaie with my hens, foxe?
  1594 I will away to Barnet presently.
  1623 We must away euery man to his lodging.
  1872 Meantime we must away.

"We must away ere break of day": What is this grammar? Is it alive?

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question