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Old 08-26-2015, 06:10 PM   #2
Pervinca Took
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: The Treetops, C/O Great Smials
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Brilliant thread!

Alliteration plays a part in the choice of letters, of course, but I don't think Tolkien was generally random in his choices. Or something might come to him randomly, perhaps, but then I think he once said/wrote that he would then 'find out' what it meant ... perhaps like when he wrote down 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' (of which he later said 'I did not and do not know why.') Christopher Tolkien said on the Film Portrait Of JRR Tolkien that when his father wanted a word, he wouldn't just select a collection of letters that appealed to him, he would think what that word would be, then work out the sound-changes it would undergo through time.

But regarding placing the names you cite above in a people or culture, I can't think of anything specific for the moment, except that Ogbar is ringing vague Old English bells for me ... but that might simply be due to the nature of the verse, the fact that he has a spear, the mention of all the weapons, the violent verbs and the reference to a hall ... all of which make me think of Beowulf.
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Last edited by Pervinca Took; 08-27-2015 at 06:21 AM.
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