Recall that
Smaug was trying to wheedle
Bilbo’s name out of him, but
Tolkien notes that when talking to
dragons, “you don’t want to reveal your proper name”, presumably because if the
dragon knows your name, he will use it and you may more easily fall “under the dragon-spell.” Such happened to both
Turin and his sister
Nienor.
In Genesis 3:29, when Jacob wrestles in the night with the man who comes upon him at the ford Jabbok (Penuel), the man refused to reveal his name, but he did bless Jacob:
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
In Exodus 3:13–14, when Moses meets
God at the burning bush, this exchange takes place in which God reveals His name to Moses:
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
In Tolkien’s world, the
Elves have at least two names or
essi, and often a name added later, the
epessë, by the people around them. (I am repeating part of
Osric’s post: I failed to notice it before I wrote, but fortunately, just as I began to post.) An
Elf could also give himself names,
kilmessi, or names of personal choice. In
Peoples of Middle-earth, “The Shibboleth of
Fëanor”, this system is described. At birth, an Elf-child received a “father-name”, and a “mother-name” given either then or at a later time. The “mother-name” was believed to have a special insight into the child. Fëanor’s father-name was
Finwë (“Skilled One”), the same name his father bore, though it was later modified to
Kurufinwë or “Skillful [son of] Skilled One”. (This was also the name of Fëanor’s fifth son,
Curufin, which is the
Sindarin equivalent.) His mother-name was
Fëanor, “Spirit of Fire”, and it is by this name he was known.
Galadriel’s father-name was
Artanis, “Noble Woman”, and her mother-name was Nerwendë, “Man-Maiden”, for her great strength of body and will, as great as any of the
nerí (
men) of the
Noldor. But her lover
Celeborn called her
Alatáriel, which might be translated as “Maiden Crowned with a Festival Garland” in reference to her beautiful hair, and in Sindarin this became
Galadriel, her
epessë, by which she was known.
Findarató Ingoldo was the elder brother of Galadriel and the eldest child of
Finarfin, who refused to proceed in the
Flight of the Noldor, turned backed, and was made King of the Noldor in place of his murdered father, Finwë, and his elder brothers who continued to Middle-earth, Fëanor and
Fingolfin.
Findarató Ingoldo, however, is not
Quenya, the language of the Noldor, but Telerin, for Finarfin’s wife was Eärwen, the daughter of Olwë, King of the Teleri and brother of
Elu Thingol. (“
Thingol”, “Grey-Cloak”, is an
epessë.)
Findarató might be translated as either “Noble Finwë” or “Noble Golden Hair” (the latter is the translation offered in “Shibboleth”, the former elsewhere);
the golden hair of
Findarató Ingoldo and his sister Galadriel came from their father’s mother, Indis of the
Vanyar.
Ingoldo might mean “Wise One” (related to the Quenya
Ñgoldo, “one of the Noldor”), so the whole name might (with a little imagination) be taken to mean “Noble Golden Haired Noldo”. But his Telerin name was pronounced in Sindarin as
Finrod, and he was given not one but two
epessi, and neither by Elves. He was first given the
epessë Felagund by the
Dwarves, and it was in fact a Dwarvish name meaning “Hewer of
Caves” and referred to his expansion of the caves above the river Narog to construct the
hidden city of
Nargothrond. He also bore a second
epessë given to him by the
Edain of the First House and their first lord in
Beleriand, Balan Bëor
the Old: this was
Nóm, “
the Wise”, and may mean the same as
Ingoldo. Notice that both
epessi of
Finrod Felagund are in non-Elvish tongues, reflecting his importance not only among the Elves, but to the people among whom they lived.
Since we began by speaking of the names of Dwarves, let me end that way. “Not even on their tombs do they inscribe” their true names (
Return of the King, “Appendix F”), but on the tomb of
Balin were his common names and title inscribed in
Westron and in
Khazâd.
And notice that the Common written across the bottom of the tomb-slab – the upper part is in Dwarvish – transliterates to “Balin sen ov Fundin Lord ov
Moria”. Not Westron, but English.
(TTF'er “Barliman Butterbur” used to be called “Lotho_Pimple”?!!?)
