Thread: Name Changes?
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Old 12-02-2010, 11:17 AM   #33
Galin
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aiwendil View Post
(...) 2. dh/š vs. d - It's not clear to me whether this is merely an issue of Anglicization or a veritable linguistic one. I'm inclined to think it's the latter, however, as normally (as far as I can remember) Tolkien does not Anglicize Sindarin 'dh' to 'd'. If it is merely an Anglicization issue, then it seems to me that we're obliged to use 'dh' since this transliteration is established in LotR. However, if it represents a real change to the Sindarin name, we must go with whatever is latest, as long as it's linguistically tenable. As far as I can tell, the form with 'd' is the later one. Note that if we adopt this, then issue 1 becomes moot.
I think some confusion might stem from Tolkien anglicizing even the name Maidhros/Maidros. In Etymologies for example:

Quote:
'N meiš, maiš, hence Maidhros (anglicized Maidros) = pale glitter [RUS]'
Here the Noldorin words involved end in š, but this is no longer the derivation of the name in the Shibboleth of course.

Quote:
'Maedros combines elements of Nelyafinwe's mother name Maiti- (Common Eldarin magiti- shapely, Sindarin maed) and of the epesse Russandol (C. E. russį, Sindarin ross).' Vinyar Tengwar 41
The word appears to be maed not *maedh here. I'm no expert, but generally speaking I think a voiced t (d) here makes enough sense with respect to Sindarin phonology (looking at note 15 we can see a revision of Maedhros to Maedros, but we can't know if this was but a slip, changed in light of the new concept).

Quote:
3. -ros vs. -ron - The issue here is definitely linguistic. My understanding from XII (I don't know if any of the VT texts bear on this issue) is that "-ron" is the form that appears latest. The question, then, is whether the change from "-ros" to "-ron" is associated with the projected stem changes in "The Problem of Ros", which we must reject because of the name "Cair Andros".

Galin argued that the -ros > -ron change does not depend on the rejected points of "The Problem of Ros", but I'm not sure I agree. For one thing, the introductory statement to "The Problem of Ros" says: (...) So the name "Maedros" is associated with the projected changes of "Ros" by Tolkien himself.
Yes but I would say it is associated simply because the name contains one of the two Eldarin homophones that Tolkien thinks are difficult to accept.

To my mind the -ros in Maedros, outside of being the same word in form and sound, has nothing really to do with the ros in Elros, or the connection to Rothinzil or Elwing, or to Cair Andros being the reason the solution failed (in this idea Beorian ros had an older form roth, and Elros is called Elroth at one point).

This is all the 'foam, spray' side of a solution, and I think Tolkien needed to deal with only one of these words to solve his problem.


Quote:
Also, Tolkien's marginal note that "Maedros" was so long established that it would be difficult to alter implies that altering "Maedros" would be a necessary consequence of adopting the projected stem changes, and it seems at least highly plausible that these changes were the one and only reason for the name change.
I would agree that Tolkien mused (at least briefly) about altering Maedros as a possible solution. We can note that Elros is not altered by the proposed solution, as that can't be altered aside from giving it an older form Elroth.

But to me, although it's still a 'stem change' in general, it's very much about a reassignment of languages:

Quote:
'But instead of deriving them [ros, wing] from the Nandorin (or Green Elvish) of Ossiriand, it would be an improvement to derive them from the Mannish tongues: the language of Beren father of Dior; both *ros and *wing could thus be removed from Eldarin.' JRRT, The Problem of Ros
Altering Maedros is a solution that might have worked -- had Tolkien, at this point, thought it would not be difficult to alter the name -- but he did not take this path in the subsequent essay, which doesn't seem to be really concerned with anything that would necessitate altering Maedros. There should be no need to change Maedros if the solution had worked, as then these two words would not constitute Eldarin homophones.

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True, Christopher Tolkien does not say where the subsequent note that did indeed adopt "Maedron" is found. However, it seems to me that this note would provide us evidence in favor of keeping "Maedron" while rejecting the "Ros" stem changes only if it definitely derives from after Tolkien noticed "Cair Andros" and rejected the proposed changes.
Yes there's a misty element here. I agree it's certainly possible and plausible that, having failed to characterize ros 'spray, foam' as Beorian, Tolkien later attempted to solve the very same problem in a different way, by eliminating the 'red-brown' word. Incidentally, in other forums I have asked if the issue of these homophones is really necessarily that problematic, and so far have received a very limited response.

In Sindarin Maedron may simply mean *shapely one. Tolkien might have just liked this better at some point, but if he was still trying to solve the problem of the Eldarin homophones (again, not unlikely I admit), then it seems that we, or at least I, can't really know how far reaching this change might be.

I think Maedron raises questions, but we know Maedros is paired with Amros at least, even if Maedron might be later. As I say, concerning this 'later note', the simple declaration of a change Maedros to Maedron doesn't seem much to go on. CJRT noted this in a somewhat appropriate place -- appropriate here because it shows that Tolkien changed his mind despite the earlier note that Maedros would be difficult to alter.

By the way, I hope this isn't too repetitive or annoying, but having thought about this essay and the name Maedhros for a while now, it's fun to bounce my opinions off of knowledgeable Tolkien readers in some detail.

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Just for fun speculation: there's a stem RUN 'red, glowing' for example, and noting URUN 'copper' (note 61, The Shibboleth of Feanor).


Maedros was said to have worn a copper circlet and to have had red-brown hair. Again I'm no expert, but I think a C. E. *runnį could yield -ron in Sindarin as well. Could part of Maedron similarly refer to hair, at least in some loose way?

But would we then also have *Ambarunna and *Runnandol? and Sindarin Maedron, Amron? or might we have some other linguistic scenario which retained certain 'russa, ros names' except for (for some reason) Maedros?

Last edited by Galin; 01-05-2011 at 09:30 PM.
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