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Old 06-18-2001, 06:50 PM   #36
jallanite
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
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Re: A project ~~~~Revising the Fall of Gondolin

On Rog

In &quot;The Etymologies&quot; under RUK- the N ( = Sindarin) form is rhaug, not rog. That is significant. If the form is thought to exist in Sindarin it is probably not from RUK-. Of course for rhaug or * raug the au diphthong will and does resolve to o in compounds such as Balrog, and will fall together with rog, which would encourage the disappearance of rog words whatever stem they come from. (If it meant &quot;strong&quot; and mreged with RUK- it would increasingly be understood as brutish strength, as monstrous strength, and then as simply a variant of rhaug).

Admittedly there is no obvious stem choice in &quot;The Etymologies&quot;. (Maybe RAW- 'lion'?) But &quot;The Etymologies&quot; does not contain every stem.

I would certainly change Rog if an obvious choice came up, but am bothered at the idea of substituting any names or forms without solid justification for that form.

For example, on the basis of Bronweg to Bronwë we could change Rog to (with lengthening of vowel to compensate for loss of final consonant in a monosyllable). This would assume that Noldorin/Sindarin rog does not derive from an earler form * rok in which case the final g would probably remain.

But to change Rog to is just as arbitrary as to change Rog to Poldon or to Polwë. I am sure there are many other possible forms we could postulate. Unforunately many would be equally acceptable. This becomes linguistic fan fiction.

We know Rog is probably wrong, that Tolkien would probably have changed it, but can we change it?


On the Tuor's Harp

I was assuming the harp was rough in shape because made by himself after his escape from thralldom.


On the House of the Swan

I may not have been clear that I edited and placed this and the other two additions into my original post with extra comments on this particularly. Tolkien has actually rather cleverly kept the swan motif by giving it to Annael's people, who then might be called the House of the Swan. At the moment I am leaning toward the &quot;fosterling of the House of the Swan&quot; interpretation rather than House of Hador. But, as usual, no decision is right.

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