Firawyn
The Captain
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 2,374
Hello all. Last year I was in a Public Speaking class, and I had to prepare a five minute speech, not memorized, yada, yada. So I did it on 'The Origin of Tolkien's LotR Names'. It's in speech format, but it's interesting. Enjoy!
I am going to be talking to you about how JRR Tolkien came up with all of the names he put into Lord of the Rings. Where did they all come from? Hundreds of names were put into these epic tales and not one name, neither good nor evil, was without meaning. This includes people, countries, river, creatures, and cultures. Before I go directly into the specific names I want to give you a little background on where Tolkien got his ideas.
JRR Tolkien was a professor at Oxford University in England from the late 1920ās to the late 1960ās. He had been fascinated by languages from the time he was a boy and before the end of his life he was fluent in sixteen different languages which did not include the tongues he created for his beloved Middle Earth. These languages spanned from French to Norwegian to Ancient Greek. If it was out there, he spoke it. All of this knowledge was compiled to create some of the most complex languages the world knows today. This was the beginning of the names.
Where did Professor Tolkien start? He read books, including Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names, E.Ekwallās English River Names, and P.H. Reaneyās Dictionary of British Surnames. If you were to spend ten minutes in any of those books you would know the origin of two dozen middle earth names. Tolkien also pulled out of history and legends from Europeās past. Now I will give you some examples and explanations for a few of the better known Lord of the Rings names.
Letās start with Frodo, the main character and hero of the story. Frodoās name came from the epic Beowulf. The original form was FrĆ³di, and he was a Norse king who desired peace.
Now Frodo wouldnāt have gotten very far without Samwise the Brave, so letās have a look at him. Sam Gamgee was named for Tolkienās neighbor, Samson Gamgee. This is one of the few characters named for an actual person.
Another great character is Gandalf. His name came out of an Old Norse poem along with quite a few Dwarves names that are seen in Tolkienās book The Hobbit. His name means āsorcerer elfā in Old English.
It would be a shame to leave out a personal favorite of mine. What meaning does the name Aragorn have? Well, I was unable to come up with an answer to that, save an interesting fact about one of Aragornās other names, the name the hobbits were first given when they met him in Bree. Where did Strider come from? The name strider came out of Tolkienās first name for this character, a mysterious hobbit called Trotter. It is hard to imaging that this King of Gondor started life out as a hobbit, but that is how it was. When writing the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien pretty much made it up as he went along.
Up till this point, Iāve only looked at good characters. Letās have a look at the dark lords Sauron and Saruman. Sauron, the Lord of the Black Land, got his name from the Norse language, the word meaning abominable or detestable. Saruman, the White Wizard, got his name from the Old English word āsearuā meaning ātrickyā or ācunningā.
Now Iām going to move on to Creatures of Tolkienās Middle Earth. Letās start with Shelob, the great spider. Her name came quite easily. The Old English word ālobā means spider, put together with āsheā, creates a female spider. It was really that simple.
Another creature worth mentioning is the Nazgul. This name came after Tolkien created one of his own languages. In Black Speech, the tongue of Mordor, the work āNazgā means ring, added to the word āghoulā brings together āring ghoulā of āring wraithā. On a funnier note, the word āNazgā also means ring in Gaelic, a fact that Tolkien forgot until after the books were published!
So that now weāve covered the people and creatures of Middle Earth, letās have a look at the places. First weāll look at Frodoās home; Bag End. This was one of the other few, named for an actual person, or in this case, place. One of Tolkienās aunts lived and the end of a cul-de-sac that locals referred to as Bag End
Our Next stop will be the Misty Mountains. This title was borrowed from Norse Legends that refer to the Misty Mountains as āfull of dangers and hidden in the half darkness.
Another name that was taken from Tolkienās surroundings was Rohan. Rohan was the name of a wealthy family in France, though Tolkien only used it because he liked the word, not to make any kind of point. The Mark, which is the area surrounding Rohan also came from Tolkienās surroundings. It came from the word Mercia, which was the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom that borders Birmingham and Oxford.
I have now covered various spectrums of Tolkienās Middle Earth names. My goal of this speech was to show you how great a scholar and writer JRR Tolkien was. There are many ways I could have gone about that, this is just an area I found interesting yet little known. I hope that each of you learned something new today, and that you now have more appreciation for the man who made Middle Earth.
PS..I hate public speaking
I am going to be talking to you about how JRR Tolkien came up with all of the names he put into Lord of the Rings. Where did they all come from? Hundreds of names were put into these epic tales and not one name, neither good nor evil, was without meaning. This includes people, countries, river, creatures, and cultures. Before I go directly into the specific names I want to give you a little background on where Tolkien got his ideas.
JRR Tolkien was a professor at Oxford University in England from the late 1920ās to the late 1960ās. He had been fascinated by languages from the time he was a boy and before the end of his life he was fluent in sixteen different languages which did not include the tongues he created for his beloved Middle Earth. These languages spanned from French to Norwegian to Ancient Greek. If it was out there, he spoke it. All of this knowledge was compiled to create some of the most complex languages the world knows today. This was the beginning of the names.
Where did Professor Tolkien start? He read books, including Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names, E.Ekwallās English River Names, and P.H. Reaneyās Dictionary of British Surnames. If you were to spend ten minutes in any of those books you would know the origin of two dozen middle earth names. Tolkien also pulled out of history and legends from Europeās past. Now I will give you some examples and explanations for a few of the better known Lord of the Rings names.
Letās start with Frodo, the main character and hero of the story. Frodoās name came from the epic Beowulf. The original form was FrĆ³di, and he was a Norse king who desired peace.
Now Frodo wouldnāt have gotten very far without Samwise the Brave, so letās have a look at him. Sam Gamgee was named for Tolkienās neighbor, Samson Gamgee. This is one of the few characters named for an actual person.
Another great character is Gandalf. His name came out of an Old Norse poem along with quite a few Dwarves names that are seen in Tolkienās book The Hobbit. His name means āsorcerer elfā in Old English.
It would be a shame to leave out a personal favorite of mine. What meaning does the name Aragorn have? Well, I was unable to come up with an answer to that, save an interesting fact about one of Aragornās other names, the name the hobbits were first given when they met him in Bree. Where did Strider come from? The name strider came out of Tolkienās first name for this character, a mysterious hobbit called Trotter. It is hard to imaging that this King of Gondor started life out as a hobbit, but that is how it was. When writing the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien pretty much made it up as he went along.
Up till this point, Iāve only looked at good characters. Letās have a look at the dark lords Sauron and Saruman. Sauron, the Lord of the Black Land, got his name from the Norse language, the word meaning abominable or detestable. Saruman, the White Wizard, got his name from the Old English word āsearuā meaning ātrickyā or ācunningā.
Now Iām going to move on to Creatures of Tolkienās Middle Earth. Letās start with Shelob, the great spider. Her name came quite easily. The Old English word ālobā means spider, put together with āsheā, creates a female spider. It was really that simple.
Another creature worth mentioning is the Nazgul. This name came after Tolkien created one of his own languages. In Black Speech, the tongue of Mordor, the work āNazgā means ring, added to the word āghoulā brings together āring ghoulā of āring wraithā. On a funnier note, the word āNazgā also means ring in Gaelic, a fact that Tolkien forgot until after the books were published!
So that now weāve covered the people and creatures of Middle Earth, letās have a look at the places. First weāll look at Frodoās home; Bag End. This was one of the other few, named for an actual person, or in this case, place. One of Tolkienās aunts lived and the end of a cul-de-sac that locals referred to as Bag End
Our Next stop will be the Misty Mountains. This title was borrowed from Norse Legends that refer to the Misty Mountains as āfull of dangers and hidden in the half darkness.
Another name that was taken from Tolkienās surroundings was Rohan. Rohan was the name of a wealthy family in France, though Tolkien only used it because he liked the word, not to make any kind of point. The Mark, which is the area surrounding Rohan also came from Tolkienās surroundings. It came from the word Mercia, which was the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom that borders Birmingham and Oxford.
I have now covered various spectrums of Tolkienās Middle Earth names. My goal of this speech was to show you how great a scholar and writer JRR Tolkien was. There are many ways I could have gone about that, this is just an area I found interesting yet little known. I hope that each of you learned something new today, and that you now have more appreciation for the man who made Middle Earth.
PS..I hate public speaking
