Both Uses of
muse
in
The Return of the King
- And then his musings broke off, and he saw that Denethor and Gandalf still looked each other in the eye, as if reading the other's mind.†
Chpt 5.1 *musings = thoughts
- 'Bless me!' he mused.†
Chpt 6.4mused = thought -- possibly aloud
Definitions:
-
(1)
(muse as in: her musings) reflect (think) deeply on a subject -- perhaps aloud
-
(2)
(muse as in: She was his muse) the source of an artist's inspiration - especially a person or mythological goddessThe 9 muses were the daughters of the Greek gods Zeus & Mnemosyne. Each of the muses was thought to inspire and preside over one of the arts.
-
(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, muse is used as a synonym for "poet". In Shakespeare's time, muse could be used in the sense of being astonished or puzzled by something strange or unexpected.