Bad Uthwen vote - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Aiwendil · 11-06-2002, 08:17 PM

We have four options that I know of with regard to the replacement of the name Bad Uthwen.

1. Leave it as it is. This has the advantage of involving the least change (actually, no change) to Tolkien's actual words. The disadvantage is that Bad Uthwen may not be valid Sindarin.

2. Add a circumflex to the "a". This is a very minor change that updates Bad to the form found in the Etymologies. It is virtually certain that this word in the Etymologies supercedes the word found in BoLT. The main disadvantage is that the Uthwen situation has not been improved. I'm not sure if there is any direct evidence that Uthwen would have been dropped, though. There is also some possibility that circumflexed Bad becomes invalid between Noldorin and Sindarin.

3. Use a Quenya form. This has the advantage of not being outdated Gnomish or Noldorin. It has the disadvantage of being fairly arbitrary - there are innumerable possible Quenya names that have roughly the same meaning as Bad Uthwen, but none is particularly valid. Also, we do not have convincing evidence that places in Gondolin were given Quenya names.

4. Drop it. This avoids the possibility of poor Elvish altogether. The only disadvantage is that we lose a bit of detail.

I am strongly opposed to option 3. I also think that option 2 is in every way superior to option 1. Therefore I am for either 2 or 4. I withold my final vote until I've given it a bit more thought.

11-06-2002, 08:17 PM	#1
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	Bad Uthwen vote We have four options that I know of with regard to the replacement of the name Bad Uthwen. 1. Leave it as it is. This has the advantage of involving the least change (actually, no change) to Tolkien's actual words. The disadvantage is that Bad Uthwen may not be valid Sindarin. 2. Add a circumflex to the "a". This is a very minor change that updates Bad to the form found in the Etymologies. It is virtually certain that this word in the Etymologies supercedes the word found in BoLT. The main disadvantage is that the Uthwen situation has not been improved. I'm not sure if there is any direct evidence that Uthwen would have been dropped, though. There is also some possibility that circumflexed Bad becomes invalid between Noldorin and Sindarin. 3. Use a Quenya form. This has the advantage of not being outdated Gnomish or Noldorin. It has the disadvantage of being fairly arbitrary - there are innumerable possible Quenya names that have roughly the same meaning as Bad Uthwen, but none is particularly valid. Also, we do not have convincing evidence that places in Gondolin were given Quenya names. 4. Drop it. This avoids the possibility of poor Elvish altogether. The only disadvantage is that we lose a bit of detail. I am strongly opposed to option 3. I also think that option 2 is in every way superior to option 1. Therefore I am for either 2 or 4. I withold my final vote until I've given it a bit more thought.