{=== This symbol

[Garen LiLorian]

I found out recently that the Tolkien symbol is almost identical to the Chinese character for "East." Is this purely coincidental, or intentional? And, if it also means something in an Arda-language, what?

Thanks for your help smilies/smile.gif

[Estelyn Telcontar]

The Tolkien symbol consists of Tolkien's initials, JRRT. In the middle, going down, is the J, the two Rs are back to back, and the T is at the top. If I remember rightly, the additional dots have to do with the vowels, but I'm not sure of that. As far as I know, there is no Middle-earth meaning to that symbol. Any connection with Chinese is very likely coincidental, since Tolkien was not familiar with that language.

[eleanor_niphredil]

Interesting point. Perhaps it was a link without intention? He may have seen the symbol somewhere, and thought it was rather cool that his initials where to be found in it.

[Iarwain]

I think its funny that the connection is there. If you think about it, this would put Tolkien in the East, which in Middle-Earth is not the best place to be. It would have been quite ironic if he did something like that. Sort of stupid though. smilies/wink.gif

Chuckling and Frowning,
Iarwain

[Nevvasaiel]

I am bilingual in English and Chinese, and Tolkien's symbol DOES appear to be similar to the chinese character for 'east' - it's funny, i never noticed it before.
However, one chinese character which would be identical to the Tolkien symbol (especially if written in the ancient chinese way), would be the word for 'binds', or 'restraints/constraints'. It has a dual meaning, and thus could also be interpreted as 'bundle' or 'bunch', as in 'a bunch of flowers'.

What do you think about this? This is an interesting topic, although i do doubt that there is any connection between Tolkien's symbol and chinese characters, as it is highly unlikely.