Names and Places
Tolkien's Languages
Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Names and Places
Almost everyone who has read Middle-earth has met more Elvish in its names than anywhere else. This chapter gives you a method for taking a name apart, shows it working on five well-known names, and explains why the same place can have an Elvish name and an English one.
A Method for Reading a Name
- Which language? The sound tells you (Chapter 3): dh, ch, ae and closed syllables point to Sindarin; open syllables, qu, ty and hy point to Quenya.
- Split into parts. Most names are two elements joined, like Mith-randir.
- Look each part up. Tolkien's own notes, the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and a dictionary such as Eldamo or Parf Edhellen give the meaning.
- Check for mutation. In Sindarin the first letter of the second part may be softened (Chapter 6), so a part can look different from its dictionary form.
Worked Examples
| Name | Language | Parts | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mithrandir | Sindarin | mith "grey" + randir "wanderer, pilgrim" | Grey Pilgrim: Gandalf's Elvish name |
| Imladris | Sindarin | imlad "deep valley" + ris "cleft" | deep, cloven valley (Rivendell in English) |
| Legolas | Sindarin (Silvan form) | laeg "green" + golas "foliage" | green foliage (from the Sindarin Laegolas) |
| Lothlórien | Sindarin | loth "flower" + Lórien | disputed: "Dreamflower" or "Lórien of the blossom" |
| Galadriel | Sindarin | the sources checked give no breakdown | check a dictionary: not settled here |
The stress of these names follows the rule of Chapter 3. The pronunciation given for Galadriel in the source is ga-LA-dri-el, with the stress on the second syllable, which is exactly what the rule predicts for a word whose next-to-last syllable dri is light.
The Same Place, Two Names
Tolkien presents the books as translated from the old Common Speech (Chapter 2). He therefore translated the names of places in the Shire and its neighbourhood. Rivendell is an English calque of Imladris, both meaning "deep valley". A calque is a word-for-word translation of a name into another language, the way English "skyscraper" has Spanish rascacielos.
| In the books | Original | Why two names |
|---|---|---|
| Rivendell | Imladris (Sindarin) | The English is a translation of the Elvish |
| Gandalf | Mithrandir (Sindarin) | The Elves call him by a Sindarin name; others use another |
| Lórien | Lothlórien | A short and a long form of the same name |
- "Every name has one fixed meaning." Several have more than one proposal.
- "All Elvish names are Sindarin." Many in the books are Quenya, and some are mixed.
- "Rivendell is a place Tolkien invented from nothing." It is the English form of Imladris, and the translation is part of the book's fiction.
Hands-On Exercises
Split Mithrandir and Imladris into parts, give the meaning of each part, and state the language. Explain what the English name Rivendell is and why it exists.
📄 View solutionExplain the difference between Legolas and Laegolas and why a name can have two forms. Then apply the four-step method to a name of your own choice from the books and say which step you could not complete.
📄 View solutionA friend says that Lothlórien definitely means "dream-flower". Using this chapter, explain whether that is certain, and what you would check to settle it.
📄 View solutionChapter 7 Quick Reference
- Method: find the language, split the name, look up each part, watch for mutation
- Mithrandir = grey + pilgrim; Imladris = deep valley + cleft; Legolas = green + foliage
- Rivendell is an English translation (a calque) of Imladris
- Lothlórien has more than one proposed meaning; Galadriel: check a dictionary
- Treat unsourced fan glosses with caution