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Tip-toe Through the Toponymy - Page 3

© Michael Martinez

Every word, name, and concept in Shire English (which Tolkien uses to represent Shire Westron, of which he provides only a very small number of words) is associated with a history that is unique to the Shire. You won't find that history in England no matter how deeply you dig. It never happened, except in Tolkien's history. We quickly learn that Tolkien created mythologies for his Elvish languages, but too seldom do we observe the mythologies he devised for his English dialects. A mythology explains things. It attempts to answer questions such as "how did we come to be here?", "why are trees covered with leaves?", and "why would anyone want to live in this place?" In Letter 131, Tolkien wrote: "...I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in [the telling of tales]". In Letter 180, Tolkien observed that "the Greek mythology depends far more on the marvellous aesthetic of its language and less on its content than people realize". But what did he mean by "the ... aesthetic of its language"? Was he referring to the way words are formed, or the way they sound, or both? Words, after all, were very important to Tolkien. History worked best for him when it enlightened him about words and names. Which finally brings us to the point. The Shire English we have consists in part of names: Hobbit names, most of which are "borrowed", and place-names. The place-names are more English than many of the Hobbit names. And it is the place-names which reveal something of the Shire's past and mythology. In looking at the map of the Shire, one must conclude there are many stories there, perhaps waiting to be told, perhaps having rushed through Tolkien's mind as he jotted down names (and in some cases changed them). Tolkien's place-names for Middle-earth, even the silly-Hobbited Shire, are always meaningful. They convey something of a forgotten past, or a past which began to take shape in Tolkien's mind though he had no time to document it. The Anglo-Saxon nomenclature of Rohan has been examined by Professor Tom Shippey in his books The Road to Middle-earth and J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Shippey notes that "emnet" is an actual place-name from Norfolk, and it means "steppe" or "plains". A quick glance at the map of Rohan tells us that both the East Emnet and the West Emnet are large, grassy, steppe lands. Another example Shippey cites is the Anglo-Saxon name for Rohan: the Mark, which is an ancient Germanic word for a borderland.

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