The creature Gothmog at the Siege of Minas Tirith

[Gordis]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

In English, yes. However, there seems to be no such thing as that little word in Sindarin, nor an inflected genitive like the English -'s-forms. Sindarin (like Welsh) expressed possession by word order only, the possessed following the possessor (cf Minas Tirith "Tower [of] Guard", the "of" merely implied). So Aran Morgûl does (or can) indeed mean "King of Black Sorcery".
I'm not sure how "King Morgûl" - Morgûl taken as a personal name - would be phrased correctly in Sindarin. (I have a hunch it might be Morgûl Aran - word order reversed, as in "Théoden King" - , but that's mere speculation.) Anyway, Aran Morgûl may well be ambiguous, especially for non-native speakers of Sindarin, and possibly translate as "King of Black Sorcery" or "King M.", depending on context.

Thank you for the excellent analysis of Sindarin word order.

I have checked HOME 9 where there is the draft of the rejected LOTR Epilogue with Aragorn's letter to Sam in Sindarin. It is signed:

Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornion Edhelharn, Aran Gondor ar Hir i Mbair Annui

King of Gondor is indeed "Aran Gondor" without any "of". I don't know how to translate "King Elessar", Elessar Aran or Aran Elessar, but I am no expert in Sindarin anyway.


Edit: I've found some cases of "Aran" in HOME 12:

For Orome a name had been made in Primitive Eldarin (recalling the sound of his great horn) of which Orome was the Quenya form, though in Sindarin it had become Araw, and by the Sindar he was later more often called (Aran) Tauron 'the (king) forester'. Manwe and Varda they knew only by the names 'Elder King' and 'Star-queen': Aran Einior and Elbereth.

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Do we actually know that Sauron's people called Minas Morgûl by this name? The Dark Tower was called Lugbúrz by the Orcs, not Barad-dûr. Likely they would have used a Black Speech name for Minas M. as well.

Well an Orc refers to Minas Morgul by its Sindarin name:

Snaga: I’ve fought for the Tower against those stinking Morgul-rats, but a nice mess you two precious captains have made of things, fighting over the swag. -LOTR , The Tower of Cirith Ungol

Barad-Dur is indeed called Lugburz by Orcs. It is interesting that in the LOTR drafts (HOME 8) there was the Black Speech name for Minas Morgul devised: "Dushgoi":

Yes, we, Shagrat. We, mark you. But why we're going to your miserable tower I don't know. We found the spy, my lot were there first. He should be ours. He should be taken back to Dushgoi.'(47)
'Yes, and I know them, for I was told 'em by Lugburz, see? Yagfil from Dushgoi will patrol until he meets your guard, or as far as Ungol top: be will report to you before returning to report to Dushgoi. Your report was nothing. Very useful. You can take it back to Dushgoi as soon as you like.'
This was rejected as soon as written, replaced by 'Orders to you. I'm in command of this Pass. So speak civil', and with it went the last appearance of the name Dushgoi of Minas Morghul.
47. Dushgoi: Orc name for Minas Morghul.

There must have been some considerations for Tolkien to remove the name "Dushgoi" and use the Sindarin word "Morgul". (Maybe because the WK's name "Aran Morgul" was not allowed to be translated into Orc speech ? - but the latter is pure speculation )