Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

From The Etymologies (The Lost Road and Other Writings).

Thōn- Ilk. thôn pine-tree. N. thaun pl. thuin is probably an early loan-word, with Ilk. ō treated as ON ō < ã*. Ilk. Dor-thonion 'Land of Pines', name of mountainous forest. N. of Doriath and afterwards becoming Taur-na-Fuin, a punning alteration of Dor-na-thuin (Noldorin translation of Ilk. Dor-thonion)

* I have used ã here to represent an 'a' with macron, which I couldn't seem to replicate on my machine. Squatter's note.

[Rilwen Gamgee]

"Incánus", as Gandalf was known to the South, reminds me of "incantation":

n. Ritual recitation of verbal charms or spells to produce a magical effect.

Obviously, very self-explanatory.

[Ardamir the Blessed]

Beorn is the most obvious example of Tolkien's wordplay that I can think of. It means "man, noble, hero, warrior ..." in Old English, but originally meant "bear" according to Christopher Tolkien. Modern Swedish and Norwegian björn means "bear".



I found this myself in 'Description of the Island of Númenor' which I thought was a bit suspicious:

Vëantur, venturer?

In a way Vëantur was the first 'venturer' of Númenor:

When six hundred years had passed from the beginning of the Second Age Vëantur, Captain of King's Ships under Tar-Elendil, first achieved the voyage to Middle-earth. He brought his ship Entulessë (which signifies "Return") into Mithlond on the spring winds blowing from the west; and he returned in the autumn of the following year. Thereafter seafaring became the chief enterprise for daring and hardihood among the men of Númenor; and Aldarion son of Meneldur, whose wife was Vëantur's daughter, formed the Guild of Venturers, in which were joined all the tried mariners of Númenor

Vëantur probably means something entirely different translated, though.



PM, 'The Problem of ros':

It is also unfortunate that the first [the -ros in 'Elros'] appears too reminiscent of Latin rōs ['dew'] or Greek drosos, and the latter [the -ros in 'Maedhros' and 'Amros'] too close to well-known modern European 'red' words: as Latin russus, Italian rosso, English russet, rust, etc. However, the Elvish languages are inevitably full of such reminiscences, so that this is the lesser difficulty.

That sounds as if almost all of such reminiscences exist by accident; that Tolkien could not help that many words ended up similar to modern words or he did not care, or perhaps he used modern words as inspiration for some of his invented words and therefore they are similar.

[Ardamir the Blessed]

Neithan, Túrin's name among the Gaurwaith, sounds like English 'Nathan'.

[littlemanpoet]

I thought Nathan was short for Nathaniel, which I thought was a Hebrew word (one of Jesus' twelves disciples, for example). Or is it an English name that was used to represent a Hebrew name? That would be the same kind of thing as has occurred with the names, James and Jacob (for example, the Jacobite rebellion which supported the claim of James to the throne of England). Not much to do with LotR in this post, I'm afraid, but I was hoping someone could clarify this for me.

[Elianna]

littlemanpoet:
Nathan can be short for Nathaniel 'gift of God', or by itself meaning 'gift'. It is a Hebrew name. Nathaniel was one of Jesus' diciples, and Nathan was a prophet during King David's reign. I think what Ardamir meant was that Nathan was a normal name in English-speaking countries.

Anyway, back to LotR:

As I read RotK, I noticed a translation of a name that Tolkien had actually worked into the text when Éowyn/Dernhelm was fighting the Witch-King.

But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her...

Dernhelm means literally 'secret-helm' or 'helm of secrecy'. I love it! It's not funny per se, but it gets a "ha! isn't that interesting?" from me. It's more like a riddle, not as easy as "the White Mountains of Ered Nimrais."

Have any of you found hidden translations like this?