Obscure Tolkien Characters

[Arvegil145]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Most likely Tolkien simply replaced the early collective-plural ending -thlim with -rim, -drim (*rimbe, 'host, folk'). The latter of course is very familiar: Rohirrim, Onodrim, Haradrim etc etc.

Yes, indeed, -(d)rim was a relatively late change in the context of a group of people.

I'm not sure when did he introduce that change, but in any case the Lays are from the twenties (later than BoLT). It might be that at that time he introduce the change, though I have to look on the texts to be sure.