Tanaqui
Message:
41152
05 May 05 3:36 PM
Reply To:
41143
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Hi EdorasLass
While we don't know anything canonical, I can suggest a couple of avenues that may suggest the
kind of names Dunlendings had.
1) The original language of Bree-men is, apparently, related to Dunlendish.
"In the Dunland also the Dunlendings, a dwindling people, remnant of those who had dwelt in western Rohan before the coming of the Rohirrim, still clung to their own speech. [...] A similar and kindred language was probably once spoken in Bree" (
The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 2,
The Appendix on Languages: The Languages at the end of the Third Age).
It's possible the remnants of this former language would be retained in the
form of personal names — even if these have been translated to Common Speech — and we do know something about these names:
"The Men of Bree seemed all to have rather botanical (and to the Shire-folk rather odd) names, like Rushlight, Goatleaf, Heathertoes, Appledore, Thistlewool and Ferny (not to mention Butterbur). " (
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 9,
At the Sign of the Prancing Pony)
2) The Stoors also at one point spoke a form of Dunlendish:
"Though the Stoors, especially the southern branch that long dwelt in the valley of the Loudwater, by Tharbad and on the borders of Dunland, appear to have acquired a language akin to Dunlandish, before they came north and adopted in their turn the Common Speech.])" (
The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 2,
The Appendix on Languages: The Languages at the end of the Third Age).
So it's possible Hobbits from Stoor families may have names of the same form as Dunlendings.
To help you identify Stoors (or Stoor names), I can tell you that the Stoors apparently lived mostly in the Eastfarthing:
"The Hobbits of that quarter, the Eastfarthing, were rather large and heavy-legged, and they wore dwarf-boots in muddy weather. But they were well known to be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their chins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard. Indeed, the folk of the Marish, and of Buckland, east of the River, which they afterwards occupied, came for the most part later into the Shire up from south-away; and they still had many peculiar names and strange words not found elsewhere in the Shire." (
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Prologue,
Concerning Hobbits)
Also, Tolkien says in an earlier draft of Appendix F ("On Translation") :
"Also the relation of, say, Welsh or British to English was somewhat similar to that of the older language of the Stoors and Bree-men to the Westron." (
The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 2,
The Appendix on Languages: Commentary)
So you could have a justification for selecting Welsh or British names for Dunlendings.
HTH
Cheers, Liz
Even among the Wild Men and the Dunlendings who shunned other folk there were some that could speak it, though brokenly.
Well, that is going to make my maybe-some-day sequel to something as yet unfinished quite interesting...!
Amanda.
- Barbara
Allie
- Barbara
