The Peoples of Middle-earth (11 page)

But not all the wild flowers of the Shire, and certainly not all the flowers cultivated in its gardens can be identified with flowers that are now familiar. In cases of doubt I have done the best that I could. For instance: I have translated Hamanullas (26) by Lobelia, because although I do not know precisely what flower is intended, hamanullas appears to have been usually small and blue and cultivated in gardens, and the word seems to have been a gardener's rather than a popular name.

$47. For the benefit of the curious in such matters I add here a few notes in supplement of what has been said above to illustrate my procedure.

(* The curious alternation between initial H and initial I in the names of the Old Took's many children represents an actual alternation between S and E.)

(+ Thus the perhaps to us rather ridiculous subnames or titles of the Brandybucks adopted by the heads of the family, Astyanax, Aureus, Magnificus, were originally half-jesting and were in fact drawn from traditions about the Kings at Norbury. [This note was later struck out.])

Family names.

Took. Hobbit Tuc, as noted above.(27)

Baggins. H. Labingi. It is by no means certain that this name is really connected with C.S. labin 'a bag'; but it was believed to be so, and one may compare Labin-nec 'Bag End' as the name of the residence of Bungo Baggins (Bunga Labingi). I have accordingly rendered the name Labingi by Baggins, which gives, I think, a very close equivalent in readily appreciable modern terms.

Brandybuck. Earlier Oldbuck. These are direct translations of H. Assargamba [> Brandugamba] and Zuragamba.(28)

[Added: Zaragamba is translated by sense, but since Zaragamba (Old-buck) was altered to Brandugamba by adoption of the first half of the river-name (Branduhim) I have used for it Brandybuck. For the treatment of the river-name Branduhim see (the note at the end of the text, $58).]

Bolger. Merely an anglicized form of H. Bolgra. By chance in C.S. bolg- has much the same significance as our 'bulge', so that if Bolger suggests to a modern reader a certain fatness and rotundity, so did Bolgra in its own time and place.

Boffin. Anglicized from H. Bophan. This was said (by members of the family) to mean 'one who laughs loud'. I thought at first, therefore, of rendering it by Loffin; but since, as in the case of Took, the family tradition is a mere guess, while in C.S. Bophan had in fact no suggestion of laughter, I have remained content with a slight anglicization.(29)

Gamgee. H. Galbassi. A difficult name. According to family tradition (in this case reliable) duly set out by Sam Gamgee at the end of the Red Book, this name was really derived from a place-name: Galb(b)as. That name I have closely rendered by Gamwich (to be pronounced Gammidge), comparing galb-=

Gam with C.S. galap, galab-= 'game'; and the ending bas in place-names with our -wick, -wich. Galbassi may thus be fairly represented by Gammidgee. In adopting the spelling Gamgee I have been led astray by Sam Gamgee's connexion with the family of Cotton into a jest which though Hobbitlike enough does not really reside in the suggestions of the names Galbassi and Lothran to people of the Shire.(30) Cotton. H. Lothran. A not uncommon village name in the Shire, corresponding closely to our Cotton (cot-tun), being derived from C.S. hlotho 'a two-roomed dwelling', and ran 'a village, a small group of dwellings on a hill-side'. But in this case the name may be an alteration of hloth-ram(a), 'cot-man, cottager'. Lothram, which I have rendered Cotman, was the name of Farmer Cotton's grandfather. It is notable that, though the resemblance is not so complete as between our Cotton and the noun cotton, in C.S. the words luthur, luthran meant 'down, fluff'. But unfortunately no such suggestions are associated with Galbas, and the village of that name was known only locally for rope-making, and no tissues were produced there of any fibre softer than hemp.

$48. Hobbit.

Hobbit. This, I confess, is my own invention; but not one devised at random. This is its origin. It is, for one thing, not wholly unlike the actual word in the Shire, which was cubuc (plural cubugin).* But this cubuc was not a word of general use in the Common Speech and required an equivalent that though natural enough in an English context did not actually occur in standard English. Some Hobbit-historians have held that cubuc was an ancient native word, perhaps the last survivor of their own forgotten language. I believe, however, that this is not the case. The word is, I think, a local reduction of an early C.S. name given to Hobbits, or adopted by them in self-description, when they came into contact with Men. It appears to be derived from an obsolete cubug 'hole-dweller', which elsewhere fell out of use. In support of this I would point to the fact that Meriadoc himself actually records that the King of Rohan used the word cugbagu 'hole-dweller' for cubuc or 'Hobbit'. Now the Rohirrim spoke a language that was in effect an archaic form of the Common Speech.+ The (* For another, I must admit that its faint suggestion of rabbit appealed to me. Not that hobbits at all resembled rabbits, unless it be in burrowing. Still, a jest is a jest as all cubugin will allow, and after all it does so happen that the coney (well-known in the Shire if not in ancient England) was called tapuc, a name recalling cubuc, if not so clearly as hobbit recalls rabbit. [This note was later struck out.]) (+ More accurately: the tongue of the Mark of Rohan was derived from a northern speech which, belonging at first to the Middle Anduin, had later moved north to the upper waters of that river, continued on page 50)

primitive form represented by Rohan cug-bagu would in the later C.S. have acquired the form cubug(u), and so Hobbit cubuc.(31) Since, as is explained below, I have represented C.S.

by modern English and have therefore turned the language of Rohan into archaic English terms also, I have converted the archaic cugbagu of Rohan into an ancient English hol-bytla

'hole-dweller'. Of this hol-bytla (with the common loss of l in English between a, o, u, and b, m, v) my fictitious hobbit would be a not impossible local 'corruption'.

$49. Personal names.

Bilbo. The actual H. name was Bilba, as explained above.(32) Frodo. On the other hand the H. name was Maura.(33) This was not a common name in the Shire, but I think it probably once had a meaning, even if that had long been forgotten. No word maur- can be found in the contemporary C.S., but again recourse to comparison with the language of Rohan is enlightening. In that language there was an adjective maur-, no longer current at this time, but familiar in verse or higher styles of speech; it meant 'wise, experienced'. I have, therefore, rendered Maura by Frodo, an old Germanic name, that appears to contain the word frod which in ancient English corresponded closely in meaning to Rohan maur.

Meriadoc (Merry). The real name was Chilimanzar [> Cilimanzar], a high-sounding and legendary name. I have chosen Meriadoc for the following reasons. Buckland in many ways occupied a position with regard to the Shire such as Wales does to England; and it is not wholly inappropriate, therefore, to represent its many very peculiar names by names of a Celtic or specifically Welsh character. Among such names I chose Meriadoc, mainly because it gives naturally a shortening 'Merry'; for the abbreviation of Chilimanzar

[> Cilimanzar] by which this character was usually known was Chilic [> Cilic], a C.S. word meaning exactly 'gay or merry'.(34)

before coming south in the days of Eorl. It was thus nearly akin to the language of the lower Anduin, the basis of the C.S., but isolated in the North it had changed far less and had remained little mingled with alien words.

Peregrin (Pippin). The H. name was Razanul [> Razanur].

This was the name of a legendary traveller, and probably contains the C.S. elements raza 'stranger', razan 'foreign'. I therefore chose Peregrin to represent it, though it does not fit quite so well. Of Peregrin, Pippin is I suppose a not impossible

'pet-form'; but it is not so close to its original, as is Razal

[> Razar] (a kind of small red apple) by which abbreviation Razanul Tuca [> Razanur Tuc] was almost inevitably known to his contemporaries.(35)

Sam. His real name was Ban, short for Banzir. In C.S. ba-, ban-occurred in many words with the meaning 'half-, almost', while zir(a) meant 'wise'. I have therefore translated his name by ancient English samwis of similar sense. This was convenient, since Samwise will yield an abbreviation Sam. Now Ban was a common short name in the Shire, but was usually then derived from the more elevated name Bannatha, as Sam is with us usually shortened from Samuel.(36)

The following passage ($$50-1) is a note (a part of the manuscript as originally written) to the name Samuel, but in appearance is a part of the main text, and is most conveniently given so.

$50. It will be observed that I have not [> rarely] used Scriptural names or names of Hebraic origin to represent Hobbit-names. There is nothing in Hobbit lore or history that corresponds [added: closely] to this element in our names.

Bildad, a name occurring among the Bolgers, is an accidental resemblance; it is a genuine Hobbit name which I have left unaltered. Other abbreviations like Tom and Mat I have also often left unchanged. Many such monosyllables were current in the Shire, but were the shortenings of genuine Hobbit names. For instance Tom of Tomacca, Tomburan; Mat of Mattalic; Bill (Bil) of Bildad (Bildat), Bilcuzal, or any of the numerous names ending in -bil, -mil, as Arambil. Farmer Cotton's full name was in fact Tomacca Lothran.(37) [Added: Tobias (Hornblower) is an exception. I have used this name because the resemblance of the real Hobbit-name Tobi was so close, and it seemed inevitable to translate Zara-tobi by 'Old Toby'; no other name could be found to fit so well. This was changed to: Tobias (Hornblower) is not an exception. Tobias was his real name, though accented Tobias. I have retained this name because the resemblance of the real Hobbit-name was so close, &c.]

$51. Barnabas is [added: not] an exception. Barnabas Butterbur was a Man of Bree, not a hobbit. I gave him this name for various reasons. First of all a personal one. On an old grey stone in a quiet churchyard in southern England I once saw in large letters the name Barnabas Butter. That was long ago and before I had seen the Red Book, but the name came back to me when the character of the stout innkeeper of Bree was presented to me in Frodo's record. The more so because his name, in agreement with the generally botanical type of name favoured in Bree, was actually Butterburr, or in the C.S. Zilbarapha

[> Zilbirapha]. Barnabas has unfortunately only a very slight phonetic similarity to the real first-name of the innkeeper: Barabatta (or Batti). This was the nickname of the landlord of 'The Pony' which he had borne so long that if he ever had another given-name it had been forgotten: it means 'quick-talker or babbler'. Still, in converting Batti Zilbarapha [> Zilbirapha]

into Barney Butterbur I do not think I have been unjust.(38) $52. A final consequence of the conversion of the Common Speech, and of all names formed in that language, into English terms has already been referred to above. It entailed translation of the related languages of Rohan and the North into terms that would correspond linguistically, as closely as possible, to the ancient situation.

$53 In the records of the Red Book there are in several places allusions to the fact that Hobbits hearing the tongue of the Riders of Rohan felt that it was akin to their own, and recognized some of the words used, though they could not understand the language as a whole. Since I had, necessarily, converted the C.S. of the Hobbits into English, it seemed to me that it would be absurd then to leave the related language of Rohan in its wholly alien form. Now the tongue of the Rohirrim was not only related to the C.S., but it had remained in a much more archaic state, and it was, even in its newer southern home, much less mingled with alien (Noldorin and Quenya) words; I therefore substituted for it a form of language resembling Old English, since this tongue, that was removed from its ancestral home to another, closely corresponds in its relation to modern English (especially in its freedom from accretions of French and Latin origin) with the relations of the tongues of the Shire and the Mark.

$54 This translation was not difficult, since the Rohirrim in fact used a very similar type of nomenclature to that of our own ancestors. I have usually considered the sense of their names rather than the form; except that I have chosen names in Old English of the same length, where possible, and have only used compound names, such as Freawine, Eomer, Eowyn, Hasufel, Halifirien, when the originals were also compounded. The element eo-, which so often appears (not unnaturally, being an old word meaning 'horse', among a people devoted to horses), represents an element loho-, lo- of the same sense. Thus Eotheod,