# The Origin of Tolkien's LotR Names



## Firawyn (Sep 5, 2005)

Hello all. Last year I was in a Public Speaking class, and I had to prepare a five minute speech, not memorized, yada, yada. So I did it on 'The Origin of Tolkien's LotR Names'. It's in speech format, but it's interesting. Enjoy!

_I am going to be talking to you about how JRR Tolkien came up with all of the names he put into Lord of the Rings. Where did they all come from? Hundreds of names were put into these epic tales and not one name, neither good nor evil, was without meaning. This includes people, countries, river, creatures, and cultures. Before I go directly into the specific names I want to give you a little background on where Tolkien got his ideas. 
JRR Tolkien was a professor at Oxford University in England from the late 1920’s to the late 1960’s. He had been fascinated by languages from the time he was a boy and before the end of his life he was fluent in sixteen different languages which did not include the tongues he created for his beloved Middle Earth. These languages spanned from French to Norwegian to Ancient Greek. If it was out there, he spoke it. All of this knowledge was compiled to create some of the most complex languages the world knows today. This was the beginning of the names.
Where did Professor Tolkien start? He read books, including Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names, E.Ekwall’s English River Names, and P.H. Reaney’s Dictionary of British Surnames. If you were to spend ten minutes in any of those books you would know the origin of two dozen middle earth names. Tolkien also pulled out of history and legends from Europe’s past. Now I will give you some examples and explanations for a few of the better known Lord of the Rings names.
Let’s start with Frodo, the main character and hero of the story. Frodo’s name came from the epic Beowulf. The original form was Fródi, and he was a Norse king who desired peace. 
Now Frodo wouldn’t have gotten very far without Samwise the Brave, so let’s have a look at him. Sam Gamgee was named for Tolkien’s neighbor, Samson Gamgee. This is one of the few characters named for an actual person. 
Another great character is Gandalf. His name came out of an Old Norse poem along with quite a few Dwarves names that are seen in Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. His name means “sorcerer elf” in Old English.
It would be a shame to leave out a personal favorite of mine. What meaning does the name Aragorn have? Well, I was unable to come up with an answer to that, save an interesting fact about one of Aragorn’s other names, the name the hobbits were first given when they met him in Bree. Where did Strider come from? The name strider came out of Tolkien’s first name for this character, a mysterious hobbit called Trotter. It is hard to imaging that this King of Gondor started life out as a hobbit, but that is how it was. When writing the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien pretty much made it up as he went along. 
Up till this point, I’ve only looked at good characters. Let’s have a look at the dark lords Sauron and Saruman. Sauron, the Lord of the Black Land, got his name from the Norse language, the word meaning abominable or detestable. Saruman, the White Wizard, got his name from the Old English word “searu” meaning “tricky” or “cunning”. 
Now I’m going to move on to Creatures of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Let’s start with Shelob, the great spider. Her name came quite easily. The Old English word “lob” means spider, put together with “she”, creates a female spider. It was really that simple.
Another creature worth mentioning is the Nazgul. This name came after Tolkien created one of his own languages. In Black Speech, the tongue of Mordor, the work “Nazg” means ring, added to the word “ghoul” brings together “ring ghoul” of “ring wraith”. On a funnier note, the word “Nazg” also means ring in Gaelic, a fact that Tolkien forgot until after the books were published! 
So that now we’ve covered the people and creatures of Middle Earth, let’s have a look at the places. First we’ll look at Frodo’s home; Bag End. This was one of the other few, named for an actual person, or in this case, place. One of Tolkien’s aunts lived and the end of a cul-de-sac that locals referred to as Bag End 
Our Next stop will be the Misty Mountains. This title was borrowed from Norse Legends that refer to the Misty Mountains as “full of dangers and hidden in the half darkness.
Another name that was taken from Tolkien’s surroundings was Rohan. Rohan was the name of a wealthy family in France, though Tolkien only used it because he liked the word, not to make any kind of point. The Mark, which is the area surrounding Rohan also came from Tolkien’s surroundings. It came from the word Mercia, which was the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom that borders Birmingham and Oxford. 
I have now covered various spectrums of Tolkien’s Middle Earth names. My goal of this speech was to show you how great a scholar and writer JRR Tolkien was. There are many ways I could have gone about that, this is just an area I found interesting yet little known. I hope that each of you learned something new today, and that you now have more appreciation for the man who made Middle Earth. 
_ 



PS..I hate public speaking


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## e.Blackstar (Sep 20, 2005)

*bump!*

Wicked! That's really cool! What sources did you use for it?


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## Inderjit S (Sep 21, 2005)

There is a little-known essay entitled 'Guide to Names of LoTR' which may have been the source to some of her etymological ideas.


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## Firawyn (Sep 28, 2005)

Most of it came from a book I got called 'The Magical Worlds of Lord of the Rings - The Amazing Myths, Legends, and Facts Behind the Masterpiece'. It was written by David Colbert. A very good resource. 

It basicly answers some of the really popular Tolkien questions. (ie- 'Can Gandalf really die?' , 'How did Tolkien think up Gollum?' , and 'Is the War of the Ring based on World War II?', among others.)

Well, glad you all enjoyed it...acctaully I'm glad Blackstar enjoyed it, Inderjit only suggested what resource I might have used...  *wonders if Inderjit enjoyed Fir's speech*


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## AraCelebEarwen (Sep 28, 2005)

Ooooooh! That's cool Fir! Thanks for that and thanks B for bringing it back up!  I've been playing with names for a story lately and this is GREAT! You have given me something to go from!


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## Firawyn (Sep 29, 2005)

I wish you all the luck with your story, Ace!

Glad you liked it.


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## Barliman Butterbur (Sep 29, 2005)

By God m'dear, well done! Well-worded and entertaining! And you taught me a number of things I never knew! You must have done quite a deep research. (That Colbert book is next on my list. How did you come by it?) 

Had I been in your classroom, I would have jumped up, whistled, clapped, stamped, and thoroughly embarrassed you in my enthusiasm! 

Barley


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## Gothmog (Sep 29, 2005)

A good job Firawyn well done. However, I have to comment on one thing. Samwise Gamgee was not named for a neighbour of Tolkien. In fact, Tolkien took the name Gamgee from ‘Gamgee tissue’ which is what Cotton wool was called in the area where he lived as a child in Birmingham. Cotton wool was invented by a doctor Gamgee hence the name people knew it by. The name ‘Samwise’ is apparently Old English for ‘half-wit’.

The strange thing is that the inventor of Cotton wool was named S. Gamgee and it is likely that this is the Samson Gamgee you are referring to. But S. Gamgee was not a neighbour or even a contemporary of Tolkien as he died in 1886 while Tolkien was born 3 January 1892. 

It is only a strange coincidence that there seems to be a direct link between Samson Gamgee the inventor of Cotton wool and Sam Gamgee of Tolkien’s character. In another strange twist to this, Tolkien had a letter from a Sam Gamgee of London and in his reply Tolkien explained about how Sam’s name came to be.



> _From letter184 To Sam Gamgee_
> The reason of my use of the name is this. I lived near Birmingham as a child, and we used 'gamgee' as a word for 'cotton-wool'; so in my story the families of Cotton and Gamgee are connected. I did not know as a child, though I know now, that 'Gamgee' was shortened from 'gamgee-tissue', and that [it was] named after its inventor (a surgeon I think) who lived between 1828 and 1886. It was probably (I think) his son who died this year, on 1 March, aged 88, after being for many years Professor of Surgery at Birmingham University. Evidently 'Sam' or something like it, is associated with the family – though I never knew this until a few days ago, when I saw Professor Gamgee's obituary notice, and saw that he was son of Sampson Gamgee – and looked in a dictionary and found that the inventor was S. Gamgee (1828-86), &? probably the same.


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## Inderjit S (Sep 29, 2005)

It is indeed a very nice speech, thanks for posting it and sorry if I sounded rude before by not saying so.

The HoME volumes 6-9 are also useful for the origin of names and characters, esp HoME 6.


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## Barliman Butterbur (Sep 29, 2005)

Gothmog said:


> ...Samwise Gamgee was not named for a neighbour of Tolkien. In fact, Tolkien took the name Gamgee from ‘Gamgee tissue’ which is what Cotton wool was called in the area where he lived as a child in Birmingham. Cotton wool was invented by a doctor Gamgee hence the name people knew it by...



Somewhere in the circuitous catacombs and byzantine bowels of the TTF files is a collection of posts that I and others did (and I think you were there too) that really zeroed in on the whole "Gamgee" issue, including posts by an actual descendant of the real Gamgee. How do we dig that up for further perusal?

Barley


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## Gothmog (Sep 29, 2005)

I ran a site search on 'Sam Gamgee' and came up with this thread.
Will the Real Sam Gamgee Please Stand Up? 
Is this the one you mean?


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## Hammersmith (Sep 29, 2005)

Short and sweet, and very informative. Thanks a lot! What were the opinions of your class or teachers? Oh, and I may have to check into that book you mentioned...


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## Barliman Butterbur (Sep 29, 2005)

Gothmog said:


> I ran a site search on 'Sam Gamgee' and came up with this thread.
> Will the Real Sam Gamgee Please Stand Up?
> Is this the one you mean?



Yes! Thank you! I just went over it; it's a shame that the whole thing died a sudden death in December '04. It would have been fun if the young lady (registered as Ela Gamgee) had followed through, but evidently we scared her: she vanished, never to be heard from again after posting no more than twice! A meteoric career: brief but brilliant...  

And — how does one do an effective, telling "site search"?

Barley


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## Gothmog (Sep 29, 2005)

Just under the page header is a row of links starting with 'User CP'. Link No 6 from the left is 'Search' with an arrow. Click on that and then go to 'Advanced Search'. In that window you can put in 'Key Words', 'User Name' or other parameters to search either all 'Open fora' or just part of the site.

Hope that helps


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## Walter (Sep 30, 2005)

It is indeed a nice and informative, overall very welldone, speech.

Though, I am not sure I would consider the book you mention a reliable or accurate source, but I have to admit I haven't read it.

Gothmog already made some remarks about Samwise Gamgee's name, meaning something like "dimwit cotton-wool"...

The remarks about the origin of Frodo's name are another point I'd like to add a comment: The name is indeed mentioned once in _Beowulf_, but IIRC only indirectly as a reference to the royal line. But no information whatsoever about king Frodi/Froda/Frothi is given in _Beowulf_, rather this information can be found in Snorri's _Edda_ and Saxo's _History of the Danes_. There we learn not only about Froda's peace, where golden rings would be left hanging untouched by thieves, but also about giantesses in a gold-mill, why sea-water is salty and other interesting things... 

And this Froda is not only related to the Scyldings, parts of the legend regarding him can also be found in Tolkien's King Sceaf episode...

Gandalf - like most other names of the Dwarves in _The Hobbit_ - are from the Voluspa (there: _gand-alfr_) which represents a part of the _Old-_ or _Poetic-Edda_. Tolkien at some point came to the conclusion that this must mean something like "Elf of the Wand". 

Sauron seems to stem from Old Norse or Icelandic meaning foul, filthy, dirty and Tolkien used it for his Quenya _saura_: 'foul', 'evil-smelling'...


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## Firawyn (Oct 1, 2005)

Barliman Butterbur said:


> By God m'dear, well done! Well-worded and entertaining! And you taught me a number of things I never knew! You must have done quite a deep research. (That Colbert book is next on my list. How did you come by it?)
> 
> Had I been in your classroom, I would have jumped up, whistled, clapped, stamped, and thoroughly embarrassed you in my enthusiasm!
> 
> Barley



 Thanks Barley. It means alot coming from you. (btw, I knew you'd be back ) 


Okay, wow, this thread took off. To answer some of your comments.

First off, Interjit, I was not offended to the least when you did not comment on how you liked my speech. I'm just an overall logical person, and I was just being me when I said it. 

I got the book at Waldens' Book Store in the local mall, I'm sure it could be located else where. It's an extreamly easy read, and pact full of cool stuff. As far as accuracy, it would not surprise me if it was slightly off. There was a note on the front cover that said 'This book was not aproved by Tolkien's Family, New Line Cinima, etc. Blah, blah.' I got a kick out of that. The author also wrote a Harry Potter reference book that got pretty hot reviews.

My teacher was a brick wall but 'approved' and my class mates were overall interested. Two of them are LotR (not to confuse with overall Tolkien) addicts, and loved it.

So yeah....did I miss anything?


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