Quote:
Originally Posted by Galadriel55
Any thoughts or suggestions? What sounds less jarring - Earl Beren? Cyning Beren?
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It's quite possible that Beren's title was formally
Beor. It's a Taliska word meaning "vassal", which was taken by Balan as a personal name; the Fingolfin/Finarfin case shows that adopting the first king's name as (part of) your own was a Middle-earth concept.
Liege is a viable translation of
beor, in the sense of 'The subject of a sovereign or lord; a liegeman'. But in more common use, it refers to the sovereign or lord themselves:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, of all things, uses this ("Bedevere, my liege!"). If we picture Beren as a feudal lord, it's a very possible word.
Landgrave is exactly right for Beren's position - he's a major landowner who owes fealty directly to Finrod as overlord. But it's maybe a bit long, and too modern-sounding even though nobody knows the word.
If you want to go for something people will recognise but not immediately be able to place -
Thane, as in "Hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor". Actually that might be a really good option - it's a title for landowners under the crown, but it's also the origin of Thain (of the Shire). Middle-earth precendent!
Unlike a lot of the others, you can also use it in all positions - "My Thane", "Thane Beren", "Beren, Thane of Dorthonion". It doesn't have a historical feminine form (because sexism & patriarchy), but it ultimately derives from the same roots as "thine", the pronoun. Thine is the source of German
dein, which in the feminine is
deine - 'thine-a(h)'. A female title
Thana or
Thegna would fit in nicely. Or go full Hobbit and just do Thain/Thaina.
I'm kind of inclined towards Thane/Thegna myself; the feminine is different
enough that it looks natural, while not being so different that you can't connect the two.
hS