[Huinesoron]

I love this thread. In true me-fashion, I think the names in Beleg's spell are worthy of an etymological attack.

• 'Ogbar's spear'. From the 'knives and Gnomish blades' description, we can assume Ogbar is a Noldo (since a spear isn't a knife). Oeg- is a Noldorin word meaning 'sharp' - it's the direct precursor to 'Aeg' as in Aeglos. -bar could be Gnomish -bar, 'dweller', but might make more sense as barc, 'dread/terror'; I think this would become mbarc through lenition, and Oegmbarc would become Oengbar(c), and then contract further to Ogbar. 'Sharp dread' would be a lovely name for a spear - but the line is clear that it's the holder.
• 'the glaive of Gaurin whose gleaming stroke did rive the rocks of Rodrim's hall'. A glaive is a polearm, pretty much a sword stuck on the end of a spear. 'Gaur' immediately jumps out - it's Noldorin for 'werewolf'. That -in suffix seems to be an adjective, so the name comes out as 'Warglike' - this sounds like a personal name for a Noldo warrior (since it's still a 'Gnomish blade'). As for Rodrim, '-rim' is usually the collective plural, meaning it certainly looks like the name of a people. Notably, there is a Gnomish word 'rodrin', 'cavern'; 'cave-people' seems a pretty obvious reading, and it does look like a variant on 'Rodothlim'. Or... is it the end of 'Thangorodrim'? Wolfesque the Valinorean warrior attacking the walls of Angband with a pointy stick has a certain appeal...
• 'the sword of Saithnar'. Another Noldo by implication; the name starts with the Gnomish for 'hunger', and I would suspect the ending of being 'naur' ('fire' in Noldorin and Sindarin, or 'snarl' in Gnomish). Either 'consuming flame' or 'ravening grin' works as a... you know, honestly, these names all sound more Orcish than Noldor. Are the 'Gnomish blades' actually blades made by the slave-Gnomes for Morgoth's army?
• 'the silver blades of the enchanted children of chains forgéd in their deep dungeon'. Oh look, the 'Gnomish blades' are made by slave-Gnomes for Morgoth's army. ^_^ No Elves would keep 'enchanted children' chained in a deep dungeon; that is a clear reference to Morgoth. Treebeard says 'Eldest of all, the elf-children', so it's entirely possible Beleg just means elves.
• the dirk of Nargil, the knife of the North in Nogrod smithied'. And just as we get proof that these swords and things aren't all in the hands of Good, we get one which sounds very familiar. 'The knife of the North in Nogrod smithied'? Surely this is none other than Angrist, the blade of Curufin! It could be contracted from Noldorin naur+geil -> naurceil -> narcil, meaning 'burning star' - thunderbolt iron, perhaps? In this case 'of' would just be denoting the name of the blade. (Note that Angrist doesn't appear in the Tale of Tinuviel - Beren just uses a kitchen knife. It shows up in the Lay of Leithian, but doesn't appear to be named. This may well be Tolkien's first attempt to pin a name to it.)
• 'the sweeping sickle of the slashing tempest, the lambent lightning's leaping falchion even Celeg Aithorn that shall cleave the world'. I love this line. 'Celeg Aithorn' is clearly the name of the blade (a falchion is a one-handed sword, basically an elegant machete); 'Celeg' is Noldorin 'swift', but also Gnomish 'glass'; 'Aithorn' is obviously derived from 'thorn', eagle, and could use Gnomish 'aith', which literally means 'sword'. 'Crystal Blade of Eagles' is a wonderful Gnomish name for a holy weapon, and definitely evokes Manwe, just as the storm imagery does. The only issue is that... well, Manwe destroying the world doesn't fit with Middle-earth at all.
• 'Glend the sword of Nan; of Gilim the giant of Eruman'. Arvegil already highlighted that these may be seasonal entities, and Christopher Tolkien wrote of them: "Gilim in the Gnomish dictionary means 'winter', which does not seem particularly appropriate: though a jotting, very difficult to read, in the little notebook used for memoranda in connection with the Lost Tales seems to say that Nan was a 'giant of summer of the South', and that he was like an elm." So like the dwarven incarnations of time (Danuin, Ranuin, and Fanuin), perhaps they're exactly what they sound like. 'Nan' in Gnomish... well, it means 'mother', but 'Nand' means 'field', which would make a certain sense for a Summer entity. Noldorin is even better, giving us 'Nann', 'wide grassland'. CT connects 'Glend' to Gnomish 'glen, glent', which connote slenderness. It's interesting to note that 'Geluim', a direct relation of 'Gilim', is listed in the index to the Lost Tales as a name of Melkor, 'when exercising his opposite functions of extreme cold'.
• Torhir Ifant, author of Dorgannas Iaur, which we might call the 'Description of the Lands of Beleriand'. 'Ifant' is a Noldorin word for 'elderly', and Noldorin also gives us 'Tor', brother, and 'tortha', 'to control'. To get a lenited h, you need to start with S, and 'sir' immediately evokes the words for rivers. Perhaps some variant on 'Rivermaster' could translate Torhir, which would probably place him at Eithel Sirion or Nargothrond (the two places with obvious needs for water control). Either of these would be ideal locations for someone working on an atlas. (To slip into fanon for a moment... if he was a Nargothrond elf, he could conceivably have made it to the Havens of Sirion, and still been there when Pengolodh arrived from Gondolin. Scholar team-up!)

So what have we learnt? Well... I think I'm onto something with Narcil = Angrist, and the idea that the first few swords are evil blades rings true (Luthien invokes Draugluin and Glaurung in her spell, so there's precedent). Other than that, probably not a whole lot. But it was fun!*

hS

*For me, at least. ^_^