Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author:J.R.R. Tolkien [Tolkien, J.R.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0100-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Things

Few of the entries in this section of the Index require comment, since they are either in alien (especially Elvish) languages, or simply in modern English (= Common Speech) and require normal translation.

Elder Days. This is naturally taken by English readers to mean 'older' (that is, former), but with an archaic flavour, since this original form of the comparative is now only applied to persons, or used as a noun in Elders (seniors). In inventing the expression I intended this, as well as association with the poetic word eld 'old age, antiquity'. I have since (recently) come across the expression in early English be eldern dawes 'in the days of our forefathers, long ago'. This, meaning 'Days of the Seniors', might help in devising a translation that is not just the equivalent of 'the older days'. The Swedish version has simply i Äldre tiden; the Dutch de Oude Tid (less correctly, since this would naturally also apply to the other ages before the Third).

The similarity to Eldar, plural of Elda 'Elf', is accidental and unintentional. Elda is the Quenya form of the Grey-elven word edhel. See Elder Kindred. Elven-. With regard to this old adjectival form, see Elven-smiths.

Evermind. A flower-name, translation of Rohan simbelmynë. The element -mind has the sense

'memory'; the name thus resembles 'forget-me-not', but a quite different kind of flower is intended: an imagined variety of anemone, growing in turf like Anemone pulsatilla, the pasque-flower, but smaller and white like the wood anemone. Translate by sense. The Swedish and Dutch versions both omit the element -mind, and so produce names equivalent to 'everlasting flower', which is not the point. Though the plant bloomed at all seasons, its flowers were not 'immortelles'. (The Swedish has evighetsblommor, the Dutch Immerdaar).

Ithilstone. Translate the second element -stone.

Kingsfoil. Translate: -foil (from Old French foil) = 'leaf', as in English plant-names such as cinquefoil. Only the leaf of asëa was valued.

Lithe. The former and later Lithe (Old English líða) were the old names for June and July respectively. All the month-names in the Shire Calendar are (worn-down) forms of the Old English names. In the Hobbit Calendar (the) Lithe was the middle-day (or 183rd day) of the year (see Appendix D). Since all Hobbit month-names are supposed not to be Common Speech, but conservative survivals from their former language before migration, it would be best to keep Lithe unaltered—as would be necessary with the other calendar names in any translation of the Appendices. The Dutch version keeps Lithe. (The word was peculiar to English and no related calendar word is found elsewhere). The Swedish version rewrites the passage (I 19) '. . . who was elected every seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe, that is at Midsummer': Han valdes vart sjunde år vid midsommarvakan uppe pä kritklipporna i sommarsolståndets natt.

This, besides omitting the 'Free Fair' and misrendering the 'White Downs' as the 'chalk cliffs', misrepresents the passage and the customs plainly alluded to. It was not a

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