Name Changes? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Aiwendil · 03-16-2004, 10:29 AM

That is an excellent point that I never would have caught.

One could argue that the presence of the name "Orodreth" in LotR makes the change to "Arothir" a violation of principle 1 - that the texts published in Tolkien's lifetime are given first priority. That argument relies on the claim that there is a contradiction between the "Arothir" change and the name "Orodreth" in LotR.

So we must decide whether there is such a contradiction.

One could argue that "Orodreth" is a perfectly valid name for a steward of Gondor whether or not there was a First Age Orodreth. But clearly when the Appendix was written, Orodreth the Steward was intended to be named after Orodreth of Nargothrond.

I'm not yet sure what to make of all this.

03-16-2004, 10:29 AM	#21
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	That is an excellent point that I never would have caught. One could argue that the presence of the name "Orodreth" in LotR makes the change to "Arothir" a violation of principle 1 - that the texts published in Tolkien's lifetime are given first priority. That argument relies on the claim that there is a contradiction between the "Arothir" change and the name "Orodreth" in LotR. So we must decide whether there is such a contradiction. One could argue that "Orodreth" is a perfectly valid name for a steward of Gondor whether or not there was a First Age Orodreth. But clearly when the Appendix was written, Orodreth the Steward was intended to be named after Orodreth of Nargothrond. I'm not yet sure what to make of all this.