Isengard no!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Just ran across that dumb "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" music video again, and was suddenly reminded that the movies consistently pronounce Isengard wrong (as do many, many readers).

It's not EYE-sengard. It's about halfway between EE-sengard and IZ-engard.

[Atten1970]

Thanks for the pronunciation tip on Isengard. I was saying the wrong thing the whole time. Hopefully EYE-sengard is a little easier to say.

[kiricowell]

Wow, what a wonderful post. This was too much information for me

[Snowdog]

It's not EYE-sengard. It's about halfway between EE-sengard and IZ-engard.

Source?

According to the Encyclopedia of Arda, Isengard (Pronunciation
eye'sengard ('eye' represents the sound of the English word 'eye')) is pronounced as 'eye'sengard'. Maybe that was where PJ got the pronunciation?

Wikipedia has it as 'aɪzənɡɑːrd', and someone on Reddit says it's 'Ee-sen-gard'.

Here is a good discussion (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/151758/correct-pronounciation-of-isengard) I found on Boardgamegeek. There is listed 'EYE-zen-gard, 'Eisen-gard', and the one I like and tend to use is in Tolkien's reading the march of the Ents ("To Isengard with doom we come!"), he definitely pronounces it 'Eye'-zen-gard.

[Huinesoron]

I would guess the source is the first part of Appendix E, which states that the letter "i" represents the sound in "machine". The section's mostly about the Elvish languages, but there's a note that "in names drawn from other languages than Eldarin the same values for the letters are intended".

I should also note that S "is always voiceless, as in English 'so', 'geese'; the z-sound did not occur in contemporary Quenya or Sindarin." And for that matter, "e" should be as in "were", not a schwa. In a non-rhotic accent, I'd spell this pronunciation as "Eesserngard". (Edit: and the R from the original is thrilled! "Eesse(r)ngarrrd". The A at least is right, pronounced as in "father".)

But an actual recording of Tolkien definitely beats that!

EDIT2: Crikey, when you follow the Appendix E rules you get a very VERY specific accent. O is the sound in "for", so now pronounce "Rohan" and "Frodo" (remember to trill the R if you can!). I'm not even sure the text excludes "Samwise" from having three vowels: "father", "machine", and "were" respectively. Sahmweesseh.

I somehow don't think that's what Tolkien intended. :D

hS

[SoundingShores]

I'm not even sure the text excludes "Samwise" from having three vowels: "father", "machine", and "were" respectively. Sahmweesseh.

I somehow don't think that's what Tolkien intended. :D

I have no idea what Tolkien intended, but I think at the very least, it wouldn't have sounded as weird to him as it does to most people. Samwise comes from the Old English sām- +‎ wīs (half-wit). But he may have spelled it differently because he wanted it to be pronounced in the Modern English manner. There's the whole thing with him "translating" LotR into Modern English.

EDIT: The answer may be included in Appendix F. "I have therefore tried to preserve these features by using Samwise and Hamfast, modernizations of ancient English samwís and hámfæst which corresponded closely in meaning." Sounds like an argument for Modern English pronunciation.

[Huinesoron]

I have no idea what Tolkien intended, but I think at the very least, it wouldn't have sounded as weird to him as it does to most people. Samwise comes from the Old English sām- +‎ wīs (half-wit). But he may have spelled it differently because he wanted it to be pronounced in the Modern English manner. There's the whole thing with him "translating" LotR into Modern English.

EDIT: The answer may be included in Appendix F. "I have therefore tried to preserve these features by using Samwise and Hamfast, modernizations of ancient English samwís and hámfæst which corresponded closely in meaning." Sounds like an argument for Modern English pronunciation.

Thankfully you are correct; the first two sentences of Appendix E say "The Westron or Common Speech has been entirely translated into English equivalents. All Hobbit names and [Hobbit] special words are intended to be pronounced accordingly." Appendix E is devoted specifically to words transcribed from Third Age scripts. So Samwise is in the clear.

But not Isengard, because from the last paragraph of Appendix E part I: "The 'outer' or Mannish names of the Dwarves have been given Northern forms, but the letter-values are those described. So also in the case of the personal and place-names of Rohan (where they have not been modernized)... the modernized forms are easily recognised and are intended to be pronounced as in English... Dunharrow... Shadowfax... Wormtongue."

Isengard is not modernised, despite being "given Northern form", so has to follow the rules of Appendix E... except that Tolkien didn't. ^_^

Interestingly, all this means that "Bilbo" and "Bilba" have different initial vowels: "Bilbo" uses English pronunciation, as in "pill", while "Bilba" is a Third Age word which pronounces its "i" as in "machine" - "Beelbah".

... of course, as the footnote to the Vowels section makes clear, if you read the everything with English pronunciation, you "will err little more than Bilbo, Meriadoc, or Peregrin". So Tolkien was reading his poem with a Shire accent!

hS

[SoundingShores]

Perhaps Isengard is meant to be the Modern English translation of a Westron name. It was originally a Gondorian fortress. I guess at first, it had a Sindarin name, which was translated into Westron. And Westron is translated into Modern English, sometimes by using actual Modern English words (Cotton), sometimes by starting with an Old English word and making it sound more "modern" (sāmwīs to Samwise).

This may explain why Tolkien pronounced Isengard the way he did. The Appendix E pronunciation rules would have only applied to the Sindarin and maybe to the actual Westron name of the fortress, whatever it was.

Isengard may have had a name in the Rohanese language as well since it was close to them, but I think it wasn't part of the territory Cirion gave to Eorl. Rohanese is a bit complicated because it's supposed to be translated into Old English, but sometimes, the words are modernized anyway. When they aren't modernized, maybe we're meant to use Old English pronunciation, rather than Appendix E pronunciation. EDIT: But to be clear I think Isengard is the Modern English translation of a Westron word, the "take an Old English word and make it sound modern" variety.



... of course, as the footnote to the Vowels section makes clear, if you read the everything with English pronunciation, you "will err little more than Bilbo, Meriadoc, or Peregrin". So Tolkien was reading his poem with a Shire accent!



This reminds me of that funny little anecdote in Appendix F about Pippin naively and inappropriately using the familiar "you" (and he/she/they, apparently) when he was in Minas Tirith because the formal versions weren't used in the Shire.

[Galin]

As I'd agree that Appendix E is top-tier-Tolkien-published-canon, I'd also have to agree (with me) that so is The Road Goes Ever On (1967), in which the example given for Sindarin short i is "sick" . . . long i as in "see".

The intended pronunciation is given in Appendix E to volume III, but not perhaps with great clarity, so I offer a few notes (. . .) The short vowels may be rendered as in E. sick, bed, hot . . ."


Also, immediately following Tolkien's "irrespective of quantity" in the Appendix description, we have:

"In Sindarin long e, a, o had the same quality as the short vowels, being derived . . ."

So I wonder(ed), why does Tolkien note these vowels as having the same quality as the short vowels, but not long i for instance? Well, someone far more versed in the Tolkienian tongues than I am once answered my question thusly :

Because he contrasts this with Quenya, where long é, ó are more closed than short e, o. But yes, it [if?] any vowels are different, I expect í/i and ú/u to be the first. In the Tenguesta Quenderinwa Tolkien wrote that in Common Eldarin the long vowels “tended to be tenser and narrower that the short vowels” (PE18/83) and it wouldn’t be of [off?] the table that at least sometimes Tolkien imagined Sindarin/Noldorin to continue this for i and u."

Posted (elsewhere) by Gilruin Oct 3, 2022


Gilruin also warns against taking even Tolkien's own pronunciation over what he writes, but that's a fairly general statement, and as far as [i]Mithlond, Minas Tirith and Mithril are concerned, and even Tolkien's own pronunciation of linnathon and galadhremmin (to my ear at least), so far, for short i, I'm using i as in sick, rather than machine.

Konserning Quenya: i approximately as in English machine, regardless of quantity (thus short and long i only differ in duration) -- once again, according to Appendix E -- but in an early source, Tolkien himself quoted the word pit as an example of short "Qenya" i. Of course, in this case we have Tolkien-published text versus Tolkien-written text.

[side note: Appendix E also relates that ir -- "finally or before a consonant" (Boromir, for example) -- is intended to be pronounced as English "eer"]



The long and short of it (pun intended): I'm confused.

[Huinesoron]

EDIT: But to be clear I think Isengard is the Modern English translation of a Westron word, the "take an Old English word and make it sound modern" variety.

I think you're right? One of the bits I elided was Tolkien saying, of "modernized" forms (of "Northern" forms which are standing in for Rohirric; I think "Northern" means "Old English" in this case), "They are mostly place names". His example is "Dunharrow (for 'Dunharg')", and Tolkien Gateway says that -gard is from Old English -geard; so despite not being as obviously "modernised" as Wormtongue, it looks like Isengard is a "modernized form" and should be pronounced as it would be in England.

As I'd agree that Appendix E is top-tier-Tolkien-published-canon, I'd also have to agree (with me) that so is The Road Goes Ever On (1967), in which the example given for Sindarin short i is "sick" . . . long i as in "see".


Oh noooo... :(

Okay, so RGEO is specifically clarifying Appendix E. That's actually good, because it means there's no question of which has priority: RGEO does, it's a correction! I'm looking at the notes to "A Elbereth Gilthoniel", if anyone's having trouble finding it. Comparing the two, and looking at Sindarin:


A is as in "ah"/"father"; long A has the "same quality"
E is as in "were" (App.E) or "bed" (RGEO); long E has the "same quality".
I is as in "machine" (App.E) or "sick" (RGEO); long I is as in "see".
O is as in "for" (App.E) or "hot" (RGEO); long O has the "same quality".
U is as in "brute" (App.E) or "foot" (RGEO); Long U is not mentioned.


So... apart from A, all of those are different sounds in my own accent. :D I know that a Durham accent would move "foot" to match "brute", so it's possible that Tolkien's accent (what would that be, a Birmingham-altered RP?) could make all of these sound alike. Seems like a stretch, though.

On the other hand, at one point he claims that "eo" in "Theobald" is a diphthong (ie pronounced in one syllable), which I can't even come up with a possible sound for, so who even knows!

The long and short of it (pun intended): I'm confused.

Meeeeee too.

hS

[SoundingShores]

I think you're right? One of the bits I elided was Tolkien saying, of "modernized" forms (of "Northern" forms which are standing in for Rohirric; I think "Northern" means "Old English" in this case), "They are mostly place names". His example is "Dunharrow (for 'Dunharg')", and Tolkien Gateway says that -gard is from Old English -geard; so despite not being as obviously "modernised" as Wormtongue, it looks like Isengard is a "modernized form" and should be pronounced as it would be in England.
hS
It seems "Northern" was a euphemism used for Germanic languages/cultures during Tolkien's time, so it covers Old English. But in-universe, it could also refer to the languages of the Northmen... which Tolkien then translates into various Germanic languages (Old English, Old Norse), so same difference, I guess.

Re the personal and place names of Rohan, I think that since the "ancient scripts" were written by Westron-speakers, maybe they translated or transliterated the Rohanese words into Westron sometimes, and this is reflected in the English text as Dúnharg becoming Dunharrow and Wyrm-tunge becoming Wormtongue. The real-life equivalent would be Schwarzwald -> Black Forest; Friedrich der Große -> Frederick the Great; Den Haag -> The Hague.

But I actually think the word Isengard has nothing to do with the country of Rohan (probably even predates Rohan), and is just formed by modernizing an Old English word because Westron is an "evolved" version of the languages of the Northmen. Probably the English translation of any Westron place name could be formed like this, maybe even Adûnaic names for places in Númenor (if translated into English).
The long and short of it (pun intended): I'm confused.
I’m also confused... and pretty sure I couldn’t get the pronunciation right even if I understood the rules. I don’t have Frodo’s "skill with foreign sounds." :p

[Bingo]

It's about halfway between EE-sengard and IZ-engard.

This is what always sounded right to me

[AndyC]

I always figured that Isengard was Angrenost in the local language.
Angren : iron
Ost: Fortress, fortified place, guarded place
Iron-guard
Isen-gard

Thus Isen would be pronounced with the same I sound as Iron.

[Boromir88]

In FOTR, the scene where Gandalf goes to seek Saruman, Christopher Lee definitely pronounces it “Eye-zen-gard.” It sounds like the same pronunciation from Tolkien’s reading “The March of the Ents,” as Snowdog mentions.

I dislike that song “They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard,” and it’s been a while since I’ve watched TTT. I can’t remember how Orlando Bloom says it.

[Huinesoron]

In FOTR, the scene where Gandalf goes to seek Saruman, Christopher Lee definitely pronounces it “Eye-zen-gard.” It sounds like the same pronunciation from Tolkien’s reading “The March of the Ents,” as Snowdog mentions.

I dislike that song “They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard,” and it’s been a while since I’ve watched TTT. I can’t remember how Orlando Bloom says it.

We watched the entire trilogy a week ago; the movies are 100% consistent on "Eye-zen-guard" (to within the limits of people's accents). Presumably, since the previous LotR movie couldn't decide between "Saruman" and "Aruman", they made a point of telling everyone the approved pronunciations for everything. That doesn't mean they were right, obviously. :D

hS

[Boromir88]

We watched the entire trilogy a week ago; the movies are 100% consistent on "Eye-zen-guard" (to within the limits of people's accents). Presumably, since the previous LotR movie couldn't decide between "Saruman" and "Aruman", they made a point of telling everyone the approved pronunciations for everything. That doesn't mean they were right, obviously. :D

hS

To be honest, most of the way I pronounce names and places from Tolkien comes from either the movies or conversing with Formendacil over the years. :p

I have no idea if it's right, but in my own head, The Hobbit did get Dain wrong. I've always thought the pronunciation for Dain would be similar to Oin ("O-in") and Gloin ("Glo-in"). That would make Dain, "Da-in," and not "Dayne" as they say in The Hobbit movies.

[Formendacil]

...or conversing with Formendacil over the years. :p

To borrow a quote from HS:


That doesn't mean [he was] right, obviously.

:D

[Morthoron]

Stop. Just stop. Tolkien pronounces it "Eye-zen-gard". He utters Isengard several times starting at about 28:42...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=polMdXuwFw8

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I am not sure what Tolkien was thinking in that recording! Because - all discussions of Appendix E aside - Isengard is definitely not Sindarin, nor is it Westron. It's Rohirric, that is, Old English. (The Sindarin name is Angrenost, a literal translation; both mean Westron/English "iron fortress.")

But there is no question that in OE, I is the frontmost of fronted vowels; it has a long and a short form but those forms are and [ɪ], that is roughly "ee" and "ih." Doesn't matter that modern German would render its cognate [I]Eisen; German and English vowels drifted apart a long time ago.

[Snowdog]

I am not sure what Tolkien was thinking in that recording! Because - all discussions of Appendix E aside - Isengard is definitely not Sindarin, nor is it Westron. It's Rohirric, that is, Old English. (The Sindarin name is Angrenost, a literal translation; both mean Westron/English "iron fortress.")

But there is no question that in OE, I is the frontmost of fronted vowels; it has a long and a short form but those forms are and [ɪ], that is roughly "ee" and "ih." Doesn't matter that modern German would render its cognate [I]Eisen; German and English vowels drifted apart a long time ago.

:rolleyes: So you're saying J. R. R. Tolkien is wrong about his own works? :D

[Huinesoron]

Because - all discussions of Appendix E aside - Isengard is definitely not Sindarin, nor is it Westron. It's Rohirric, that is, Old English.

But going straight back to Appendix E, is it Old English or modernised Old English? The note at the end of part II starts:

So also in the case of the personal and place-names of Rohan (where they have not been modernised), except that here éa and éo are diphthongs...

The sounds he names are from the Old English "translated" forms: Éomer's Rohirric name does not begin éo. So he's distinguishing here between Old English forms and modernised Old English.

The modernized forms are easily recognised and are intended to be pronounced as in English. They are mostly place-names: as Dunharrow (for Dúnharg), except Shadowfax and Wormrongue.

Appendix F calls out Snowbourn as a fourth word where he "modernised the forms and spelling", and cites Edoras as one he didn't. It also explains the rationale:

... I have followed the Hobbits. They altered the names they heard in the same way, if they were made of elements that they recognised, or if they resembled place-names in the Shire; but many they left alone.

I would argue that "Isen", specifically, counts as an "element that they recognised", because it appears in the name of Pippin's direct ancestor: Thain Isengrim II. Pippin, Merry, and Frodo actually share two great-uncles whose names use "Isen-": Thain Isengrim III, and his youngest brother, Isengar, who went to Sea in his youth.

On the basis of Appendix F, "Isengard" is a perfect example of a name Merry and/or Pippin would have "modernised", which - per Appendix E - means it would be pronounced as if it were modern English.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

But going straight back to Appendix E, is it Old English or modernised Old English? The note at the end of part II starts:



The sounds he names are from the Old English "translated" forms: Éomer's Rohirric name does not begin éo. So he's distinguishing here between Old English forms and modernised Old English.



Appendix F calls out Snowbourn as a fourth word where he "modernised the forms and spelling", and cites Edoras as one he didn't. It also explains the rationale:



I would argue that "Isen", specifically, counts as an "element that they recognised", because it appears in the name of Pippin's direct ancestor: Thain Isengrim II. Pippin, Merry, and Frodo actually share two great-uncles whose names use "Isen-": Thain Isengrim III, and his youngest brother, Isengar, who went to Sea in his youth.

On the basis of Appendix F, "Isengard" is a perfect example of a name Merry and/or Pippin would have "modernised", which - per Appendix E - means it would be pronounced as if it were modern English.

hS

Ah, but I would submit that Isengard is not modernized at all; you could show it to Alfred the Great and he would recognize it immediately, or at least its compound meaning (since it isn't an attested OE word). This would put it in the same categort as Orthanc, Meduseld and Firienholt (this last was altered from Firgenholt, but for the purpose of preserving the original pronunciation) As to the Hobbits and their familiarity: Isengrim is borrowed from Old Flemish and thus Frankish which had the same I-sounds as Anglo-Saxon (A-S, Old Saxon and Frankish were very closely related). Isengar seems to be an invened name based on it.

[Morthoron]

*Shrugs*

I will go with the author on this one. Repeating the word numerous times. Each time with the same pronunciation. No variation. Whether he was not thinking or in his cups, he seemed lucid enough to navigate the ponderous poetic patterns of enraged Ents.