# Aragorn's Name.. .Significant Meaning



## HLGStrider (Nov 23, 2004)

I have been told that, for Tolkien, the name came first and then the story. 

Aragorn has many names, and of them Aragorn is probably the least significant. It is a family name. His grandfather carried it. In my Tyler Tolkien Companion it lists no meaning. My Foster's Guide, however, states it to be Royal Tree. (I could've figured that out myself. . .Fangorn. . .tree beard. . .Ara being royal and in front of all the cheif's names. His name was either royal tree or royal beard. . .)

So. . .meaning? Important or just chance?
Does it refer to the White Tree?
Or just any old tree?


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## Arvedui (Nov 23, 2004)

Concidering how Aragorn only came into the story at a relatively late stage, I would think that the name Aragorn itself doesn't have any particular significanse. I believe that it was just given to him to fit in with the other "Ar's" and so keep the line all the way from the Kings of Númenor.


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## Valandil (Nov 23, 2004)

Arvedui said:


> Concidering how Aragorn only came into the story at a relatively late stage, I would think that the name Aragorn itself doesn't have any particular significanse. I believe that it was just given to him to fit in with the other "Ar's" and so keep the line all the way from the Kings of Númenor.



Mmmm, yes. I wonder why not: *"Ar-thur"*   

I think in one of his letters Tolkien derides the 'royal tree' meaning that someone had asked him about (well... maybe denies is a better word). He didn't seem to have any real meaning for it. (Oh - and elgee, Aragorn I was a much more distant ancestor than his grandfather... he was one of the earlier chieftains. Nasty end that one had!  )


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## Eledhwen (Nov 23, 2004)

I don't think Tolkien ever threw a name together just so it would fit. It had to sound right for the language, dynasty and culture, and as he stated himself, the name was what dynamised the character's story (there is a radio interview with Tolkien available on the net where he states this). The 'ara' part (king) is listed in the Appendix to the Silmarillion. However, there is no element that adequately explains the 'gorn' part, as it seems mainly to be connected with horror and death. Maybe it is lenited; but if so, the root coron (mound, deriv.= Cerin Amroth) may be the source, but if so, I can't think where it would fit into his story.

Any improvements?

HERE IT IS! There's a transcript too, as it seems that downloading the audio might be a bit fiddly: http://www.daisy.freeserve.co.uk/jrrt_int.htm


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## Nirnaeth (Nov 23, 2004)

Although Noble Tree is an obvious guess, as Valandil said it is not the intended meaning. In some drafts to the LotR appendices, that were published in _The History of Middle-earth_, JRRT has the name interpreted as _Kingly Valour_. It is at least an idea he had in mind at one point.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 27, 2004)

Nirnaeth said:


> Although Noble Tree is an obvious guess, as Valandil said it is not the intended meaning. In some drafts to the LotR appendices, that were published in The History of Middle-earth, JRRT has the name interpreted as Kingly Valour. It is at least an idea he had in mind at one point.



I'd replace 'Tree' with 'Tall' so as to read 'Tall Nobility' or something like that. A similar thing is done with the name Celeborn in _Unfinished Tales_:



> The name Celeborn when first devised was intended to mean "Silver Tree"; it was the name of the Tree of Tol Eressëa (The Silmarillion p.59). Celeborn's close kin had "tree-names" (p.244): Galadhon his father, Galathil his brother, and Nimloth his niece, who bore the same name as the White Tree of Númenor. In my father's latest philological writings, however, the meaning "Silver Tree" was abandoned: the second element of Celeborn (as the name of a person) was derived from the ancient adjectival form ornā "uprising, tall," rather than from the related noun ornē "tree." (Ornê was originally applied to straighter and more slender trees such as birches, whereas stouter, more spreading trees such as oaks and beeches were called in the ancient language galada "great growth"; but this distinction was not always observed in Quenya and disappeared in Sindarin, where all trees came to be called galadh, and orn fell out of common use, surviving only in verse and songs and in many names both of persons and of trees.) That Celeborn was tall is mentioned in a note to the discussion of Númenórean Linear Measures, p.299.



Oh and welcome aboard Nirnaeth, you must be a First Age fan, eh?


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## Elthir (Nov 28, 2004)

As noted already, the name _Aragorn_ was translated in a text cited in the Foreword to "The Peoples of Middle-earth". 

'Preserved with other difficult and disjointed notes, it is very roughly written on a slip of paper torn from a rejected manuscript. That manuscript can be identified as the close predecessor of the Appendix A text concerning the choice of the Half-elven which I have given on pp. 256-7. The writing on the verso reads:

... and his father gave him the name Aragorn, a name used in the House of Chieftains. But Ivorwen at his naming stood by, and said 'Kingly Valour' (for so that name is interpreted): 'that he shall have, but I see on his breast a green stone, and from that his true name shall come and his chief renown: for he shall be a healer and a renewer. 

Above this is written: 'and they did not know what she meant, for there was no green stone to be seen by other eyes' (followed by illegible words); and beneath it: 'for the green Elfstone was given to him by Galadriel' A large X is also written, but it is not clear whether this relates to the whole page or only to a part of it.' 
(PM Foreword, Christopher Tolkien)


In 1972 Tolkien wrote:

"5. Aragorn etc. This cannot contain a 'tree' word (see note).* 'Tree-King' would have no special fitness for him, and it was already used by an ancestor. The names in the line of Arthedain are peculiar in several ways; and several, though S. in form, are not readily interpretable. But it would need more historical records and linguistic records of S. than exist (sc. than I have found time or need to invent!) to explain them. The system by which all names from Malvegil onwards are trisyllabic, and have only one 'signifcant' element [Footnote: If indeed all were so; some may have been merely coinages in the general style; or alterations of old names arising domestically. As in our Robert > Robin, Dobbin, Hob, Bob etc.] (ara being used where the final element was of one syllable; but ar in other cases) is peculiar to this line of names. The ara is prob. derived from cases where aran 'king' lost its n phonetically (as Arathorn), ara- then being used in other cases." 

JRRT (Letters)

*Galin*


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## Erestor Arcamen (Dec 5, 2004)

Read my signature poem thingy, it's a prophecy of Aragorn


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## Elthir (Oct 22, 2008)

There's a 'new' text here (_Words, Phrases and Passages_) which states that gorn (-ngorn-) is from a root ÑGOR- dread -- used in sense of reverence, majesty, and Ara(n)gorn means 'Revered king'.

However in the letter of 1972 already raised, which is relatively late of course, Tolkien seems to imply he doesn't have a full meaning for Aragorn, while noting that it cannot contain a tree word at least. And where in Words, Phrases and Passages Arathorn meant 'steadfast king', in the 1972 letter he said it contained an abbreviated form of thorono 'eagle'.


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