Quote:
Originally Posted by Morthoron
I think it's less a matter of naming conventions fitting Elvish historical personages, and more a feature of the Hobbit squirearchy putting on airs. That, and Tolkien having a bit of fun.
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Definitely true, and the names are hilarious! The fact that some of the highfalutin families have names like "Bolger" make it even more so: there's a beautiful mismatch in the names of Odovacar Bolger or Adamanta Chubb.
But at the same time, Tolkien makes it clear that they
are names of historical people:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Appendix F
In some old families, especially those of Fallohide origin such as the Tooks and the Bolgers, it was, however, the custom to give high-sounding first-names. Since most of these seem to have been drawn from legends of the past, of Men as well as of Hobbits, and many while now meaningless to Hobbits closely resembled the names of Men in the Vale of Anduin, or in Dale, or in the Mark, I have turned them into those old names, largely of Frankish and Gothic origin, that are still used by us or are met in our histories. I have thus at any rate preserved the often comic contrast between the first-names and surnames, of which the Hobbits themselves were well aware. Names of classical origin have rarely been used; for the nearest equivalents to Latin and Greek in Shire-lore were the Elvish tongues, and these the Hobbits seldom used in nomenclature. Few of them at any time knew 'the languages of the kings', as they called them.
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So I was definitely looking the wrong way with the Arnorian kings, and I don't think there are any named Northmen far enough back to have inspired Hobbit names. It does suggest the possibility that a Tookish landowner could call his especially fierce dog something that sounds a lot like Scatha, though - or even Smaug. And Pip is definitely named for a "legendary traveller" with an Elvish name.
In HoME XII, I think Tolkien talks about the Stoorish Brandybucks using names from the area of Dunland (which from a fanwriter perspective means we could use Welsh for Dunlending, right?
), but again we don't have any names from far enough back...
except for the kin of Tal-Elmar. I wonder which of Merry's ancestors was actually named after
Mogru, Master of Agar?
hS