Staff

[Rumil]

Hi Eomer,

sounds great!

What would the Norwegian be for 'Telcontar'?

Also remember Frodo and Sam's staffs, given by Faramir, made from Lebethron.

[skip spence]

I believe the Norwegian translation for Strider is Vidvandre.

In Swedish it's Vidstige.

Perhaps you would consider a name more straight to the point: Norwegian Wood?

Isn't it good?

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by skip spence

I believe the Norwegian translation for Strider is Vidvandre.

In Swedish it's Vidstige.

Perhaps you would consider a name more straight to the point: Norwegian Wood?

Isn't it good?

I wanted to rep you for that, but I was not allowed to. . .funny stuff.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

All immature jokes have already been made, by me.

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Also, do any other Downers utilise a staff in day-to-day life? Got many stares in town today, and people at work seem to think it's very amusing.

I think they fear the magic.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

What about Gungnir, after Odin's spear? True, it's not a staff, exactly: but Gungnir with its runes also embodied Odin's mastery of magic and law.

Best of all, it was made by the dwarf Dvalin.

[Galin]

I looked through a few threads on Gandalf's staff and I noticed a couple of references to the linguistic roots of Tolkien's names. Any related to staffs or wandering?

Noting Silmarllion, we have 'ran- 'wander, stray' Rána (a name of the Moon), or in Mithrandir with -randir meaning 'wander-man, pilgrim' (incidentally note Tolkien on the name Gandalf: '... to contain gandr, a staff, especially one used in magic' from UT, the Istari).

For 'staff' early Qenya has vandl, if you wanted to accept such a word anyway. It is Tolkien-made Qenya at least (some have simply taken this word and 'updated' it, so to speak, as *vandil, but this is not attested as far as I know).

I haven't checked PE17 as to whether or not there is something attested for 'staff' in any Quenya stage dating from the 1950s or later.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

For 'staff' early Qenya has vandl, if you wanted to accept such a word anyway.

So once again Tolkien gets caught borrowing words! Vandl is pretty clearly English wand, cognate with Norse gandr (by g > w mutation).

One also wonders about Ger. wenden (to proceed, go), OE wandan (to turn, meander), still found in English wend, wander, and the borrowed past-tense went. Both words apparently descend from the Pr. Germ. root *wend- (the old sense was bending, suppleness, thus a supple stick- hence the use of such in wattlework gave rise to Mod. Ger. Wand "wall.")