Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor. Well, now, if they still live, our friends are weaponless. I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.
– Aragorn in The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
I've heard this expression on occasion. It doesn't make much sense to me. I've never heard seeing against sight, or fearing against fear.
A friend who is not a native speaker was confused by this recently.
I'm looking for either the origin of this peculiar expression, or an explanation of the phrase's construction.
Best Answer
Rhetorician has pointed out correctly that this phrase is a quotation from the Bible (Romans 4:18), or, more precisely from the 17th-century King James version (“Who against hope believed in hope..”). The Greek original has: ὃς παρ᾽ἐλπίδα ἐπ᾽ἐλπίδι ἐπίστευσεν, where the Apostle plays with the double meaning of ἐλπίς, which can mean both (positive) “hope” and (neutral) “expectation”. In older English “hope” also had both meanings, but the latter is now obsolete. A modern English literal rendering might then be: “Who against expectation believed in what he hoped for”.