General changes in TftE

[Aiwendil]

Yes, Christopher Tolkien's discussion in XII is not completely clear. He says among other things that:

In the last of the genealogical tables Artanaro (Rodnor) called Gil-Galad appears

Thus implementing the note of August 1965. The date of this 'last of the genealogical tables' is not clear, but CT says that these genealogies were still being used and altered when the excursus from the 'Shibboleth of Feanor' was written. This would suggest that the use of 'Rodnor' on the genealogical table was contemporary with the use of 'Ereinion' in the text, in which case the question of which came later is very doubtful.

However, he also notes that some corrections were not made to the genealogy - e.g. the genealogy still has the earlier three daughters of Finwe and Indis whereas in the 'Shibboleth' text they had two daughters. So it seems that the 'Shibboleth' excursus represents, at least in some respects, later ideas than the genealogical table.

Nonetheless, CT, after giving a brief schematic of the final situation arrived at in the table, remarks:

There can be no doubt that this was my father's last word on the subject

But I think that what he is referring to here is not Gil-Galad's name but his parentage. That is, the last word on Gil-Galad's parentage is that he was Orodreth's son. He certainly does not offer any evidence that the name 'Ereinion' in the 'Shibboleth' was superceded by the name 'Rodnor' in the genealogical table.

[Findegil]

Okay, so Ereinion it seems to be. But do we have a Quenya equivalent? Or would we take Aratanáro fro that still? Of course it is not absolutly necessary for him to have a Quenya name, and it not necessary for us to have give one.

Respectfully
Findegil

[Aiwendil]

I think 'Rodnor' is just the Sindarin translation of 'Artanaro', 'high flame' or 'flame commander'. Cf. Feanaro -> Feanor and Findarato, Angarato -> Finrod, Angrod. So I suppose that if 'Rodnor' was superceded by 'Ereinion' then 'Artanaro' is obselete as well.

[Aran e-Godhellim]

That is correct. The only other possibility is that his name was "Artanaro [translated Rodnor] (his father-name) Ereinion (his mother name) Gil-galad (an epesse)."

Araniondo (or something to that effect) would probably be Quenya for Ereinion. My Quenya studies are slightly less fresh in my mind than my Sindarin ones, so you might want to check that before taking my word for it.

[Findegil]

I personally would jump at this last idea that Atanaro was his father-name natrually given in Quenya which would have yielded Rodnor in Sindarin. But Ereinion was his mother-name given in Sindarin, since his mother was a Sinda of Dorthonion. Later he got the epesse Gil-galad (natrually in Sindarin, since that was the dayly speech of the time).

Respectfully
Findegil

[Aran e-Godhellim]

I realized there's another change we didn't note: Bauglir < Baugron as per a note to the later versions of the Valaquenta.

[Aiwendil]

Good catch; however, there is an occurrence of 'Bauglir' in the first part of the Narn, and we know that this cannot have been an editorial change by CRT from 'Baugron' because he says in X that 'Baugron' occurs nowhere else. Vq 2 and the first portions of the 'Narn' both date from the late 1950s, so it's difficult to say which is the later occurrence.

This is a somewhat ambiguous case, but my inclination is to take 'Bauglir' as the more conservative choice, since 'Baugron' occurs only once and may have been a mere passing idea. Better, in my view, to be conservative and not accept a late name change than to inadvertantly accept a rejected one.