Words and Names in Tolkien's Work

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by LadyBrooke

Celeborn/Teleporno
It means, depending on what time frame in Tolkien’s writings we are looking at, “silver, tall” or “silver tree”. In a paper I once wrote for English class, the internal explanation I gave for this discrepancy was that while language is an ever evolving thing, names aren’t. Therefore an elf who’s name originally meant silver tree might find himself with a name meaning silver tall.

The thing I am more curious about is the fact that this name clearly invokes Teleperion, one of the two trees. However, this name would be largely incompatible with Tolkien’s history of Celeborn as set in LotR where Celeborn is clearly not from Valinor, if we assume that it is his original name. Therefore Celeborn must be an epesse, given to him by somebody who had seen the two trees - either Melian, Elwe, or one of the returning Noldor.

There are two divergent stories Tolkien wrote regarding Celeborn. One regarded, of course, his Sindarin roots and relation to Thingol, but the second one was that his name was Teleporno, a Telerin Elf of Valinor who meets Galadriel in the Telerin city of Alqualonde, and then the two decide to set off for Middle-earth. Although not part of the Kin-slaying, they are caught up in the Ban because they have not sought permission to leave Valinor. The Thingol relation story became part of the Silmarillion because Christopher Tolkien decided against a major rewrite regarding Galadriel's past, but it seems the Telerin version Teleporno was actually JRR Tolkien's last word on the character.