The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (72 page)

As stated in the Appendices the ‘outer' public names of the northern Dwarves were derived from the language of men in the far north
not
from that variety represented by A.S., and in consequence are given Scandinavian shape, as rough equivalents of the kinship
and
divergence of the contemporary dialects. A-S will have nothing to say about
Gimli
. Actually the poetic word
gim
in archaic O.N. verse is probably not related to
gimm
(an early loan < Latin
gemma
) ‘gem', though possibly it was later associated with it: its meaning seems to have been ‘fire'.

Legolas
is translated
Greenleaf
(II 106, 154) a suitable name for a Woodland Elf, though one of royal and originally Sindarin line. ‘Fiery locks' is entirely inappropriate: he was not a
balrog
! I think an investigator, not led astray by my supposed devotion to A-S, might have perceived the relation of the element
-las
to
lassi
‘leaves', in Galadriel's lament,
lasse-lanta
‘leaf-fall' = autumn, III 386; and
Eryn Lasgalen
III 375. ‘Technically' Legolas is a compound (according to rules) of S.
laeg
‘viridis' fresh and green, and
go-lass
‘collection of leaves, foliage'.

Rohan.
I cannot understand why the name of a country (stated to be Elvish) should be associated with anything Germanic; still less with the only remotely similar O.N.
rann
‘house', which is incidentally not at all appropriate to a still partly mobile and nomadic people of horse-breeders! In their language (as represented)
rann
in any case would have the A-S form
ran (cf. Gothic
razn
‘house'). The name of [the] country obviously cannot be separated from the Sindarin name of the Eorlingas:
Rohirrim. Rohan
is stated (III 391, 394) to be a later softened form of
Rochand.
It is derived from Elvish
^*
rokkō
‘swift horse for riding' (Q.
rokko,
S.
roch
) + a suffix frequent in names of lands.
Rohirrim
is a similarly softened form of
roch
+
hîr
‘lord, master', +
råm
(Q.
rimbe
) ‘host'.

Nazgul.
There is no conceivable reason why a word from the Black Speech should have any connexions with A-S. It means ‘Ring-wraith', and the element
nazg
is surely plainly identical with
nazg
‘ring' in the fiery inscription on the One Ring. I do not know any O.E. compound
gael-naes,
but in any case an inventor, engaged in rational linguistic constructions would not supplement a failure in inventiveness by reversing the order of elements in a word of a totally unconnected language, which had no appropriate meaning!

Moria.
Your remarks make me suspect that you are confusing
Moria
with
Mordor:
the latter was a desolate land, the former a magnificent complex of underground excavations. As to
Moria
you are told what it means, III 415, and that is an Elvish (actually Sindarin) name = Black Chasm. Does it not plainly contain the √MOR ‘dark, black', seen in
Mordor, Morgoth, Morannon, Morgul
etc. (technically √MOR:
^*
mori
‘dark(ness)' = Q.
more
, S.
môr
; adj.
^*
mornā
= Q.
morna,
S.
morn
‘dark'.) The
ia
is from Sind.
iâ
‘void, abyss' (√YAG:
^*
yagā
> S.
iâ
).

As for the ‘land of Morīah' (note stress): that has no connexion (even ‘externally') whatsoever. Internally there is no conceivable connexion between the mining of Dwarves, and the story of Abraham. I utterly repudiate any such significances and symbolisms. My mind does not work that way; and (in my view) you are led astray by a purely fortuitous similarity, more obvious in spelling than speech, which cannot be justified from the real intended significance of my story.

This leads to the matter of ‘external' history: the actual way in which I came to light on or choose certain sequences of sound to use as names,
before
they were given a place inside the story. I think, as I said, this is unimportant: the labour involved in my setting out what I know and remember of the process, or in the guess-work of others, would be far greater than the worth of the results. The spoken forms would simply be mere audible forms, and when transferred to the prepared linguistic situation in my story would receive meaning and significance according to that situation, and to the nature of the story told. It would be entirely delusory to refer to the sources of the sound-combinations to discover any meanings overt or hidden. I remember much of this process – the influence of memory of names or words already known, or of ‘echoes' in the linguistic memory, and few have been unconscious. Thus the names of the Dwarves in
The Hobbit
(and additions in the
L.R.
) are derived from the lists in
Völuspá
of the names of
dvergar;
but this is no key to the dwarf-legends in
The L.R.
The ‘dwarves' of my legends are far nearer to the dwarfs of Germanic [legends] than are the Elves, but still in many ways very different from them. The legends of their dealings with Elves (and Men) in
The Silmarillion,
and in
The L.R.,
and of the Orc-dwarf wars have no counterpart known to me. In
Völuspá, Eikinskjaldi
rendered
Oakenshield
is a separate name, not a nickname; and the use of the name as a surname and the legend of its origin will not be found in Norse.
Gandalfr
is a dwarf-name in
Völuspá
!

Rohan
is a famous name, from Brittany, borne by an ancient proud and powerful family. I was aware of this, and liked its shape; but I had also (long before) invented the Elvish horse-word, and saw how Rohan could be accommodated to the linguistic situation as a late Sindarin name of the Mark (previously called
Calenarðon
‘the (great) green region') after its occupation by horsemen. Nothing in the history of Brittany will throw any light on the Eorlingas. Incidentally the ending
-and (an), -end (en)
in land-names no doubt owes something to such (romantic and other) names as
Broceliand(e),
but is perfectly in keeping with an already devised structure of primitive (common) Elvish (C.E.), or it would not have been used. The element
(n)dor
‘land', probably owes something to say such names as
Labrador
(a name that might as far
as style and structure goes be Sindarin). But
not
to Scriptural
Endor
. This is a case in reverse, showing how ‘investigation' without knowledge of the real events might go astray.
Endor
S.
Ennor
(cf. the collective pl.
ennorath
1250) was invented as the Elvish equivalent of Middle-earth by combining the already devised
en(ed)
‘middle' and
(n)dor
‘land (mass)', producing a supposedly ancient compound Q.
Endor
, S.
Ennor.
When made I of course observed its accidental likeness to
En-dor
(I Sam. xxviii), but the congruence is in fact accidental, and therefore the necromantic witch consulted by Saul has no connexion or significance for
The L.R.
As is the case with
Moria.
In fact this first appeared in
The Hobbit
chap. 1. It was there, as I remember, a casual ‘echo' of
Soria Moria Castle
in one of the Scandinavian tales translated by Dasent. (The tale had no interest for me: I had already forgotten it and have never since looked at it. It was thus merely the source of the sound-sequence
moria
, which might have been found or composed elsewhere.) I liked the sound-sequence; it alliterated with ‘mines', and it connected itself with the MOR element in my linguistic construction.
^fn115

I may mention two cases where I was
not
, at the time of making use of them, aware of ‘borrowing', but where it is probable, but by no means certain, that the names were nonetheless ‘echoes'.
Erech,
the place where Isildur set the covenant-stone. This of course fits the style of the predominantly Sindarin nomenclature of Gondor (or it would not have been used), as it would do historically, even if it was, as it is now convenient to suppose, actually a pre-Númenórean name of long-forgotten meaning. Since naturally, as one interested in antiquity and notably in the history of languages and ‘writing', I knew and had read a good deal about Mesopotamia, I must have known
Erech
the name of that most ancient city. Nonetheless at the time of writing
L.R.
Book V chs. II and IX (originally a continuous narrative, but divided for obvious constructional reasons) and devising a legend to provide for the separation of Aragorn from Gandalf, and his disappearance and unexpected return, I was probably more influenced by the important element ER (in Elvish) = ‘one, single, alone'. In any case the fact that
Erech
is a famous name is of
no
importance to
The L.R.
and no connexions in my mind or intention between Mesopotamia and the Númenóreans or their predecessors can be deduced.

nazg:
the word for ‘ring' in the Black Speech. This was devised to be a vocable as distinct in style and phonetic content from words of the same meaning in Elvish, or in other real languages that are most familiar: English, Latin, Greek, etc. Though actual congruences (of form + sense) occur in unrelated real languages, and it is impossible in
constructing imaginary languages from a limited number of component sounds to avoid such resemblances (if one tries to – I do not), it remains remarkable that
nasc
is the word for ‘ring' in Gaelic (Irish: in Scottish usually written
nasg
). It also fits well in meaning, since it also means, and prob. originally meant, a
bond
, and can be used for an ‘obligation'. Nonetheless I only became aware, or again aware, of its existence recently in looking for something in a Gaelic dictionary. I have no liking at all for Gaelic from Old Irish downwards, as a language, but it is of course of great historical and philological interest, and I have at various times studied it. (With alas! very little success.) It is thus probable that
nazg
is actually derived from it, and this short, hard and clear vocable, sticking out from what seems to me (an unloving alien) a mushy language, became lodged in some corner of my linguistic memory.

The most important name in this connexion is
Eärendil.
This name is in fact (as is obvious) derived from A-S
éarendel
. When first studying A-S professionally (1913 –) – I had done so as a boyish hobby when supposed to be learning Greek and Latin – I was struck by the great beauty of this word (or name), entirely coherent with the normal style of A-S, but euphonic to a peculiar degree in that pleasing but not ‘delectable' language. Also its form strongly suggests that it is in origin a proper name and not a common noun. This is borne out by the obviously related forms in other Germanic languages; from which amid the confusions and debasements of late traditions it at least seems certain that it belonged to astronomical-myth, and was the name of a star or star-group. To my mind the A-S uses
^fn116
,seem plainly to indicate that it was a star presaging the dawn (at any rate in English tradition): that is what we now call
Venus:
the morning-star as it may be seen shining brilliantly in the dawn, before the actual rising of the Sun. That is at any rate how I took it. Before 1914 I wrote a ‘poem' upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark from the havens of the Sun. I adopted him into my mythology – in which he became a prime figure as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men.
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima
(II 329) ‘hail Earendil brightest of Stars' is derived at long remove from
Éala Éarendel engla beorhtast.
But the name could not be adopted just like that: it had to be accommodated to the Elvish linguistic situation, at the same time as a place for this person was made in legend. From this, far back in the history of ‘Elvish', which was beginning, after many tentative starts in boyhood, to take definite shape at the time of the name's adoption, arose eventually (a) the C.E. stem
^*
AYAR ‘Sea'
^fn117
, primarily applied to the Great Sea of the West, lying between Middle-earth, and
Aman
the Blessed Realm of the Valar; and (b) the element, or verbal base (N)DIL, ‘to love, be devoted to' – describing the attitude of one to a person, thing, course or occupation to which one is devoted for its own sake.
^fn118
Earendil
became a character in the earliest written (1916–17) of the major legends:
The Fall of Gondolin
, the greatest of the
Pereldar
‘Half-elven', son of
Tuor
of the most renowned House of the Edain, and
Idril
daughter of the King of Gondolin.
Tuor
had been visited by
Ulmo
one of the greatest
Valar
, the lord of seas and waters, and sent by him to Gondolin. The visitation had set in Tuor's heart an insatiable sea-longing, hence the choice of name for his son, to whom this longing was transmitted. For the linking of this legend with the other major legends: the making of the Silmarils by Fëanor, their seizure by Morgoth, and the recapture of one only from his crown by
Beren
and
Lúthien,
and the coming of this into Earendil's possession so that his voyages westward were at last successful, see I 204–6 and 246–249. (The attempt of
Eärendil
to cross
Ëar
was against the Ban of the Valar prohibiting all Men to attempt to set foot on
Aman
, and against the later special ban prohibiting the Exiled Elves, followers of the rebellious Fëanor, from return: referred to in Galadriel's lament. The Valar listened to the pleading of
Eärendil
on behalf of Elves and Men (both his kin), and sent a great host to their aid. Morgoth was overthrown and extruded from the World (the physical universe). The Exiles were allowed to return – save for a few chief actors in the rebellion of whom at the time of the
L.R.
only
Galadriel
remained.
^fn119
But
Eärendil
, being in part descended from Men, was not allowed to set foot on Earth again, and became a Star shining with the light of the Silmaril, which
contained the last remnant of the unsullied light of Paradise, given by the Two Trees before their defilement and slaying by Morgoth. These legends are deliberately touched on in Vol. I as being the chief ones in the background of
The L.R.,
dealing with the relations of Elves and Men and Valar (the angelic Guardians) and therefore the chief backward links if (as I then hoped) the
Silmarillion
was published.