Prisoner of Númenor Planning/Discussion Thread

[littlemanpoet]

Looks like I'm approaching this in the Tolkienian manner - by accident, I assure you! I decided to start with the name, and chose a series of possible English language meanings that appealed to me, then looked up the Adûnaic cognates, and finally the Sindarin, and decided which combination in all three languages most appealed in terms of the character.

Adûnaic to English

abâr "strength, endurance, fidelity" (431). Evidently related to bâr "lord".

pâ "hand" (< *pa3a), pl. pâi (416, 426)

naru "man, male" (434, fully inflected in 437, that also gives an alternative form narû)

*magân *"wright", isolated from Ar-Balkumagân, q.v.

karab "horse" (pl. karîb) (434). Masculine karbû "stallion" (434, 435), feminine karbî "mare" (434).

ZIR "love", desire" (423), cf. -zîr "lover" in Nimruzîr.

zadan "house", fully inflected in 430.

Adûnaic - English - Sindarin

Karíbzîr - Lover of horses - Melethroch

Abârpâ - Strong/True Hand - Mabalar

Zadanmagân - Housewright - Cardhán

My choice

Abârpânaru Karíbzîr - Strong Handed Man Lover of Horses; Mabalar Melethroch

The first name is the character's personal name, the second is the name of his House. Now to build the physical, and find out how the Melethroch family relates to the line of Elros!

[Child of the 7th Age]

Please excuse me for dipping into this thread.... Sophia had asked me several days ago if I knew whether daily speech, names etc. would have used Sindarin or Quenyan . I managed to find some information just today, so am going ahead and putting the information here, since I believe her question pertained to this game.

There is a lengthy discussion of this question in the footnotes of UT, pp. 215-216. Tolkien's answer was long and complex, but it basically boiled down to this in terms of Quenyan:

Quenyan was not a spoken tongue in Numenor. It was known only to the learned and to the families of high descent, to whom it was taught in their early youth. It was used in official documents intended for preservation, such as the Laws, and the Scroll and Annals of the Kings..., and often in more recondite works of lore. It was also largely used in nomenclature: the official names of all places, regions, and geographical features of the land were of Quenya form (though they usually had local names also, generally of the same meaning, in Sindarin or Adunaic). The personal names, and especially the official and public names, of all members of the royal house, and of the Line of Elros in general, were given in Quenya form.

The last line would obviously apply only to the earlier period when the royal house was sympathetic to the Elves. Kind of sounds like Quenyan was almost like Latin -- reserved for ceremony and the like and even names for high born folk, but not a spoken tonuge.

Earlier in the text and also in the appendix of LotR, Tolkien clearly stated that the Elvish spoken in Numenor was Sindarin.

Pio's earlier link to the "Adunaic language" in Ardalambion that appears in her post above also contains a useful discussion on the place of Sindarin and Quenyan in Numenor.

Clear as mud, right? Hope this helps!

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Very nice indeed. Would Kâthaanî then, as his daughter, be Kâthaanî Karíbzîr? It goes nicely.

Since my character bio isn't quite complete (I'm waiting for Abârpânaru's history), I'll post here for the record that Kâthaanî's name (Kâtha- all, anî- feminine name suffix) is roughly translatable to Sindarin "Adaneth" (one of the people, woman of the people); but she is more frequently called Cerveth (Sindarin "July") a pet name derived from the month of her birth.

"Abârpânaru", wow, what a mouthful.

As for our plotline: the quote above *glances up at "historical information"* mentions that Ar-Gimilzor moved all the Faithful that he could find to Rómenna to be watched. If we want to preserve the West => East journey, it would be possible that we were a group of still underground Faithful located near, or in Andunië.

I'll come back later and post more, but I'm too busy to do it now.

Sophia

In light of my cross-posting with Child, I've looked up possible translations for 'Kâthaanî' in Quenya. Best candidates are probably "Nerwen" or "Nerwendë".

[mark12_30]

I'm here. Hello, Dunedain.

[Regin Hardhammer]

Hello all,

Just checking in. Looks like it will be a good game. I am excited to be playing in a game with so many experienced writers.

[Himaran]

Hello everyone!

Great to be in an RPG again. Currently thinking up a bio/first post...

-- Himaran

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Earlier:

As for our plotline: the quote above *glances up at "historical information"* mentions that Ar-Gimilzor moved all the Faithful that he could find to Rómenna to be watched. If we want to preserve the West => East journey, it would be possible that we were a group of still underground Faithful located near, or in Andunië.

As I now have a lot more time for lengthy posting (rather than flipping frantically back and forth between the downs and homework), I thought I'd elaborate on this a little more. I really like the idea of having the rescue party and some of the Faithful travelling cross country in a desparate hurry to reach Elendil and the ships, if for no other reason than that Numenor is having some spectacularly interesting weather around this time. But that idea has a few downsides, most noticeably that the majority of the Faithful have been rounded up and shipped to Romenna. It's a little difficult to have a somewhat organized group of the Faithful at Andunie or Almaida that has remained unknown. Perhaps Ar-Gimilzor's intelligence network isn't too bright?

Upside to long journey: it gives Abarpanaru (I promise I will use all the accent marks in the actual game) a feasible reason to be in the vicinity of Armenelos at the time of his capture. He could be communicating with Elendil at Romenna and be caught on his way back through... the major road between Andunie and Romenna makes it necessary to at least go near Armenelos. The rider that brings the news of Abarpanaru's capture could have been accompanying him and could also bring the Faithful at Andunie the news that Elendil is prepared to depart...? It also supplies a feasible reason for our particular group to be so late in arriving?

littlemanpoet: since it's your character in question, what you think is the most important .

Everybody else, what you think is important too.

Sophia

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Sophia the Thunder Mistress

It's a little difficult to have a somewhat organized group of the Faithful at Andunie or Almaida that has remained unknown. Perhaps Ar-Gimilzor's intelligence network isn't too bright?

Or-- maybe they don't know about each other at first. They could learn about each other, either from rescuers (?) or because they are fleeing in the same direction, or by messages from Elendil such as "meet up with so-and-so if you can." Passwords...? The name of Elbereth or any of the valar...