To attempt to use later materials for the elucidation of the linguistic ideas of the earliest period would in this book be quite impractical. But the perusal of these two vocabularies shows in the clearest possible way how deeply involved were the developments in the mythology and in the languages, and it would be seriously misleading to publish the Lost Tales without some attempt to show the etymological connections of the names that appear in them. I give therefore as much information, derived from these books, as is possible, but without any speculation beyond them. It is evident, for instance, that a prime element in the etymological constructions was slight variation in ancient ‘roots’ (caused especially by differences in the formation of consonants) that in the course of ages yielded very complex semantic situations; or again, that an old vocalic ‘ablaut’ (variation, in length or quality, of vowels in series) was present; but I have thought it best merely to try to present the content of the dictionaries as clearly as I can.

It is noteworthy that my father introduced a kind of ‘historical punning’ here and there: so for instance the root SAHA ‘be hot’ yields (beside saiwa ‘hot’ or sбra ‘fiery’) Sahуra ‘the South’, and from NENE ‘flow’ come nen ‘river’, nйnu ‘yellow water-lily’, and nйnuvar ‘pool of lilies’—cf. nenuphar ‘water-lily’, modern French nйnufar. There are also several resemblances to early English that are obviously not fortuitous, as hфr ‘old’, HERE ‘rule’, rыm ‘secret (whisper)’.

It will be seen that a great many elements in the later languages, Quenya and Sindarin, as they are known from the published works, go back to the beginning; the languages, like the legends, were a continuous evolution, expansion, and refinement. But the historical status and relationship of the two languages as they were conceived at this time was radically changed later on: see p. 51.

The arrangement of the material has proved difficult, and indeed without a better understanding of relationships and their shifting formulations co1uld scarcely be made satisfactory. The system I have adopted is to give etymologically-connected groups of words, in both Qenya and Gnomish, under an important name that contains one of them; to this entry other occurrences of a word in the group are referred (e.g. glor- in Glorvent, Brбglorin is referred to the entry Laurelin, where the etymological associations of Qenya laurл ‘gold’ are given).* Every name in the Lost Tales of this volume is given—that is, if any contemporary etymological information is to be found concerning it: any name not found in the following list is either quite opaque to me, or at least cannot be identified with any certainty. Rejected names are also included, on the same basis, but are given under the names that replaced them (e.g. Dor Uswen under Dor Faidwen).

The list of secondary names of the Valar which is written out on blank facing pages in the tale of The Coming of the Valar (see p. 93) is referred to as ‘the Valar name-list’. The sign < is used only where it is used in the Gnomish dictionary, as alfa < alchwa, meaning that the one was historically derived from the other: it is not used in this Appendix to refer to alterations made by my father in the dictionaries themselves.

Ainur Among the original entries in QL are ainu ‘a pagan god’ and aini ‘a pagan goddess’, together with бye ‘hail!’ and Ainatar ‘Ilъvatar, God’. (Of course no one within the context of the mythology can call the Ainur ‘pagan’.) GL has Ain: ‘also with distinctive masc. and fem. forms Ainos and Ainil, a God, i.e. one of the Great Valar’.

Alalminуrл See Aldaron, Valinor. In QL Alalminуrл is glossed ‘Land of Elms, one of the provinces of Inwinуrл in which is situated Kortirion (Warwickshire)’ i.e. Alalminуrл="Warwickshire" (see p. 25). Gnornish words are laln or larm, also lalmir, ‘elm’.

Aldaron In QL is a root ALA ‘spread’, with derivatives alda ‘tree’, aldлa ‘tree-shadowed’, aldлon ‘avenue of trees’, and alalmл ‘elm’ (see Alalminуrл). In GL this name of Oromл appears as Aldor and Ormaldor (Oromл is Orma in Gnomish); ald ‘wood (material)’, later altered to вl.

Alqaluntл QL alqa ‘swan’ GL alcwi, with the corresponding word in Qenya here given as alqл, alcwi changed later to alfa < alchwa.

QL luntл ‘ship’ from root LUTU, with other derivatives lъto ‘flood’ and verb lutta-, lutu- ‘flow, float’ (cf. Ilsaluntл). GL has correspondingly lunta ‘ship’, lud- ‘flow, stream, float’.

Aluin See Lъmin.

Amillo This appears in QL but with no indication of meaning; A million is Amillo’s month, February (one of the most ‘primitive’ entries).

Angaino Together with angayassл ‘misery’, angaitya ‘torment’, Angaino is given in QL separately from the ‘iron’ words (see Angamandi) and was first defined as ‘a giant’, emended to ‘the great chain’. In GL Melko has a name Angainos, with a note: ‘Do not confuse Gnomish Angainos with Qenya Angaino (Gnomish Gainu), the great chain of tilkal.’ Under Ga1inu there is a later note: ‘popularly connected with ang “iron” but really = “tormentor”.’

Angamandi QL has anga ‘iron’ (which is the a of tilkal, p. 100), angaina ‘of iron’, Angaron(ti) ‘Mountains of Iron’, and Angamandu or Eremandu ‘Hells of Iron’ (added later: ‘or Angamandi, plural’). The Gnomish forms are ang ‘iron’ (as in Angol, see under Eriol), angrin ‘of iron’, Angband—which, strangely, is said in GL to be ‘Melko’s great fortress after the battle of Countless Lamentation down to the battle of the Twilit Pool’ (when Tulkas finally overthrew Melko). See Mandos.

Angol See Eriol.

Arvalin See Eruman.

Aryador This is said (p. 119) to be the name among Men of Hisilуmл but according to GL it was a word of Ilkorin origin, meaning ‘land or place of shadow’ QL Arлandor, Arлanor ‘name of a mountainous district, the abode of the Shadow Folk’ (see p. 237). See Eruman.

Asgon GL has Asgon ‘name of a lake in Dor Lуmin (Hisilуmл), Q. Aksanda’ QL has aksa ‘waterfall’, of which the Gnomish equivalent is given as acha of the same meaning. (No light is cast on the later name Mithrim in the dictionaries.)

Aulл A word aulл ‘shaggy’ is given in QL as a derivative from a root owo (whence also oa ‘wool’, uл ‘fleece’), but without any indication that this is to be connected with the name of the Vala. The Gnomish form of his name is уla, changed to уli, without further information. In the Valar name-list Aulл is called also Tamar or Tamildo. These are given in QL without translation under root TAMA ‘smelt, forge’, with tambл ‘copper’ (the t of tilkal, p. 100), tambina ‘of copper’, tamin ‘forge’ Gnomish words are tam ‘copper’, tambin ‘of copper’, tambos ‘cauldron’. For other names of Aulл see Talka Marda.