Talking of animal tributes, Professor Tolkien was very kind to Mrs. Meriel Thurston, who wrote asking if she could name her herd of cattle Rivendell. (Letters 342, 345)
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I am honoured by your letter, and quite willing that you should use the name of Rivendell as a herd prefix, though in my ignorance I don't think the actual valley of Rivendell would have been suitable for herd breeding.
I should be interested to hear what names you eventually choose for your bulls ... The elvish word for 'bull' doesn't appear in any published work; it was MUNDO ...
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After gently discouraging her from naming her bulls Elrond or Glorfindel, he continued
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I recently played with the notion of using the word for bull I gave you, ... and adding a few Elvish prefixes, producing names like Aramund ('Kingly bull'), Tarmund ('Noble bull'), Rasmund ('Horned bull') Turcomund ('Cief of bulls') ... I wonder what you think of these?
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Trying to talk her out of naming her cows Arwen, Galadriel, Celebrian or Nimrodel, he goes on
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But I shouldn't really like these names to be given to heifers or cows. ... I could invent a few female names. But though it is made on classical models rather than elvish, wouldn't the name of Farmer Giles' favourite cow - Galathea (in Farmer Giles of Ham) -be useful? which as it stands might be interpreted 'Goddess of milk'.
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