Tolkien on Names

[martasfic]

This Tumblr post has me smiling. Basically it's about all the silly linguist-humor-but-making-us-mere-mortals-reach-for-our-notecards things Tolkien does. A sample:

2. Characters who Have Way Too Many Names

Examples include Aragorn son of Arathorn son of Arador heir of Isildur Elendil’s son, descendant of Numenor, Thorongill, Eagle of the Star, Dúnadan, Strider, Wingfoot, Longshanks, Elessar, Edhelharn, Elfstone, Estel (”Hope,”) The Chieftain of the Dúnedain, King of the West, High King of Gondor and Arnor, and Envinyatar the Renewer of the House of Telcontar

Wait I’m sorry did I say “examples” plural

Cuz that was all one guy

Check out the whole thing, it's really quite hilarious if you've made it to the other side of the head-thunking stage we all seem to go through.

Then come back and answer me two simple questions:

1) What are your favorite examples of this?
2) What the heck was JRRT thinking with all this?

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Comments

[shirebound]

A lady named Elwing turns into a bird

I never thought of that before!

That post is a hoot. It reminds me of Bored of the Rings, which I read 40 years ago, where Arrowroot son of Arrowshirt keeps trying to tell people all his names but no one's interested.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

That's great! Of course, Aragorn and his many monikers never drove me as crazy as Feanor and his many sons and brothers. Even after all these years I still have to check the family tree to make sure I'm referencing the correct character. I sometimes have been heard to growl "Didn't Tolkien believe in any alphabetic letter aside from "F"?????"

- Erulisse (one L)