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Old 02-01-2020, 05:18 AM   #31
Saurondil
Animated Skeleton
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: North-East of the Great Sea
Posts: 38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arvegil145 View Post
Hello!

I have recently been rereading HoME, and two passages from The Lays of Beleriand caught my attention. First one, from The Lay of the Children of Húrin:

"There wondrous wove he words of sharpness,
and the names of knives and Gnomish blades
he uttered o'er it: even Ogbar's spear
and the glaive of Gaurin whose gleaming stroke
did rive the rocks of Rodrim's hall;
the sword of Saithnar, and the silver blades
of the enchanted children of chains forgéd
in their deep dungeon; the dirk of Nargil,
the knife of the North in Nogrod smithied;
the sweeping sickle of the slashing tempest,
the lambent lightning's leaping falchion
even Celeg Aithorn that shall cleave the world."


And the second one, from The Lay of Leithian:

"...of steel and torment. Names she sought,
and sang of Glend the sword of Nan;
of Gilim the giant of Eruman;
and last and longest..."


Does anyone have any idea of what be those names: Ogbar, Nargil, Gaurin, Rodrim, Saithnar, Celeg Aithorn, Glend, Nan, Gilim?

I mean, what are your thoughts on who these characters and items might be? Are they simply random names Tolkien created without any substance, or do you think there might be more to them?

I am aware that the names of the giants Gilim and Nan might be more metaphorical, in that they are representations of winter and summer respectively. But Ogbar, Nargil, etc. I simply cannot shoehorn into any specific category of races, peoples, items, ...

Any thoughts?
Gilim is the name of a cuneiform sign used to write Sumerian. Since Uruk is the Akkadian name of the place called Erech in Genesis 10, and since Sumerian and Akkadian were both languages of Ancient (what is now) Iraq, I have occasionally wondered whether Tolkien had any knowledge of those two languages.

“Nargil” sounds as though it should mean “fire-star” in Elvish.
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