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Tip-toe Through the Toponymy - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

The Rohirrim had more than two grassy areas, though, and they named their southernmost one the Wolde, which, though derived from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) word for forest, weald, means "an unforested, rolling plain; a moor". Moors are (often high) open lands, poorly drained, covered with patches of heath, various evergreen shrubs found in Europe and South Africa. Whereas Rohan's place-names are (mostly) given in Anglo-Saxon form ("fords of Isen" is a notable hybridization), Shire nomenclature is given in modern English, although it's a very specialized form of modern English which Tolkien identifies as English toponymy -- the place-names of England itself (or names contrived to sound very much like, and possess meanings very similar to, modern English place-names). The linguistic fiction Tolkien utilizes is that modern English translates the Westron language, the Common Tongue of Middle-earth. Westron was descended from Adunaic, and ancient Northern language. Anglo-Saxon translates true Rohirric, which is related to but not derived directly from Westron. It broke off from Adunaic thousands of years previously. Hence, the modern English toponymy translates the Hobbit Westron toponymy of the "real" Shire. There are other languages in the book which are related to Westron (and Hobbit Westron), including the language of Dale and Laketown, represented by a few Norse names for Dwarves and Mannish kings, and the language of the Stoors of the Gladden Fields, represented by at least two names: Smeagol and Deagol (and perhaps a few words like "mathom"). Tolkien implies that their language was only a dialect of the same language spoken by the ancestors of the Rohirrim, and he represented that language by Anglo-Saxon (Mercian, or Midland, Anglo-Saxon at that, according to some people more knowledgeable than I in such matters). The Anglo-Saxon names are not very historical in context. They do not convey tales about themselves. They imply little or nothing about why people settled in those locations. For example, two villages, Upbourn and Underharrow, are mentioned in "The Muster of Rohan". These place-names only convey geographical significance ("Upbourn" referring to the river Snowbourn, beside which it lay, and "Underharrow", meaning "under the hill", "at the foot of Dunharrow" -- Tolkien translated "harrow" as "on the hillside" -- see below). Aldburg, found only in Unfinished Tales, is the name of the town or fortress where Eomer lived as Third Marshal of the Mark. It means "old fortress" or "old fortified town", and we are told that it served as Eorl's home. Edoras, the city where Theoden lived, was built after Eorl died. Was Aldburg an old outpost of Gondor, or was the name given after Edoras was built, implying that it was the first city established by the Eotheod in their new land? They had had a fortified city in the north, Framsburg, where (apparently) Eorl's forefathers had ruled their people. So the idea of building a fortified settlement was nothing new to the Eotheod when Eorl led them to Calenardhon.

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