Question for the Sindarin experts: is Meril still valid? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

jallanite · 12-03-2014, 12:16 AM

Meril (no English translation given here) appears in the current (Post–Lord of the Rings) version of the Silmarillion as the wife of Felagund and mother of Gilgalad in The War of the Jewels (HoME 11), page 242. I don’t find her in The Shaping of Middle-earth (HoME 4) at all.

Christopher Tolkien notes:

Felagund’s wife Meril has not been named before, nor any child of his, and this is the first appearance of Gil-galad from The Lord of the Rings.

Meril was also the Sindarin name given to Rose Cotton in Tolkien’s Epilogue to The Lord of the Rings in Aragorn’s letter to Sam and his family. See Sauron Defeated (HoME 9) and a transcription of the English letter at http://theshirefellowship.net/index....topic&pid=9881 . In the first version of the letter Meril appears as Beril, but in later versions as Meril. In the Book of Lost Tales the name Meril seems to mean ‘Flower’ in general, not ‘Rose’ in particular.

I don’t see any reason to think that Tolkien ever rejected the meaning ‘rose’ for Sindiarin meril. But, as usual, one never knows. Phonetically I see no problem with Meril as a Sindarin name in Tolkien’s late conception.

12-03-2014, 12:16 AM	#4
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	Meril (no English translation given here) appears in the current (Post–Lord of the Rings) version of the Silmarillion as the wife of Felagund and mother of Gilgalad in The War of the Jewels (HoME 11), page 242. I don’t find her in The Shaping of Middle-earth (HoME 4) at all. Christopher Tolkien notes: Felagund’s wife Meril has not been named before, nor any child of his, and this is the first appearance of Gil-galad from The Lord of the Rings. Meril was also the Sindarin name given to Rose Cotton in Tolkien’s Epilogue to The Lord of the Rings in Aragorn’s letter to Sam and his family. See Sauron Defeated (HoME 9) and a transcription of the English letter at http://theshirefellowship.net/index....topic&pid=9881 . In the first version of the letter Meril appears as Beril, but in later versions as Meril. In the Book of Lost Tales the name Meril seems to mean ‘Flower’ in general, not ‘Rose’ in particular. I don’t see any reason to think that Tolkien ever rejected the meaning ‘rose’ for Sindiarin meril. But, as usual, one never knows. Phonetically I see no problem with Meril as a Sindarin name in Tolkien’s late conception.