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Old 03-26-2009, 09:55 AM   #29
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
Findegil wrote:
Quote:
Gelmir son of Guilin and Gelmir companion of Arminas is for sure a no go.
I’m not sure of this. Aren’t both named ‘Gelmir’ in the ‘Narn’ material? It would appear that Tolkien felt the repetition of the name was not a problem. I suppose one could argue that he decided it was a problem and the name ‘Faramir’ was intended to resolve it. But there is no indication that the ‘Faramir’ note is later or more authoritative than the text that uses ‘Gelmir’. On the contrary, UT (though I admit it’s not the most reliable source) seems to suggest that the ‘final’ version (such as it was) uses ‘Gelmir’.

A word about the repetition of Elvish names in general – I’ve been rather convinced for some time now that Tolkien’s statement that this did not happen should be interpreted to mean that Elves did not honour ancestors or historical figures by giving their names to their children (whereas Men did). Names could however be repeated ‘accidentally’. Thus Galdor of the Grey Havens was not named after Galdor of Gondolin; he was merely given the name ‘Galdor’ which happened also to have been the name of one of Gondolin’s captains. The same applies to Rumil and to Legolas (though I know Findegil has other ideas about the latter). ‘Glorfindel’ was different because, as Tolkien says, it was 1. a striking and slightly unusual name and 2. the name of a very famous hero of the First Age. Similarly, we would not expect another Elf to be named ‘Feanor’, for example. Another situation in which Elvish names are repeated (perhaps more pertinent here) is within a family. Thus, unless my memory fails me, all of Finwe’s sons and all of Feanor’s sons were given the father-name ‘Finwe’ and distinguishing prefixes were adopted later. And then there’s the name ‘Ambarussa’ that Nerdanel gave to both of the twins.

The upshot of all this is that I feel it’s often not a problem for an Elvish name to be repeated. The two Gelmirs may have been named alike accidentally, by parents who were each unaware of the other. Or they could be related and Gelmir could be a repeated family name like ‘Finwe’. Add to this the fact that either name could be either a father-name, a mother-name, or an after-name.

I agree that ‘Falathar’ and ‘Aerandir’ sound like epessi. They could also be prophetic mother-names, with ‘Gelmir/Faramir’ and ‘Arminas’ being the father-names. But then, ‘Erellont’ could be an epesse as well (I’m not sure what it means either, though the ‘er’ might mean ‘one’, ‘alone’, as in ‘Eru’ and ‘Eriol’). Further, we have no way of telling whether Falathar is Gelmir/Faramir and Aerandir Arminas or vice versa. And finally, one could potentially interpret the note as altering the story so that Earendil had five companions rather than three. With all this uncertainty, I’m a little hesitant about introducing the names (though I’d like to).
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