28/04/2009

On the Names of the Kings of Gondor

When inventing and developing stories within Tolkien’s legendarium, I’ve always been conscious of the importance of language in it; it was indeed my natural tendency since my love for History and Linguistics was the reason why I approached and liked Tolkien’s work. And so, by inventing just a little, I have found myself with an amount of unlooked-for secret relationships, small jokes and curious coincidences in the intra-History of the peoples of Middle-earth. Since many of them belong to the Kings of Gondor, here they go:

Elendil
(“Friend of Elves”). The very name of the Dúnedain who remained faithful to the Valar and Elves and closest to the early mood of the Númenórean people. At first very common among all of them (there was e.g. Tar-Elendil), it was logically restricted to the Elf-friends when the majority of the people followed the rebellion of Tar-Atanamir and Tar-Ancalimon. In this time, Elendil, Xth Lord of Andúnie, bore this name with pride (see Ondoher).
Its use was further reduced because the Faithful Dúnedain of Middle-earth showed their respect for King Elendil never using it again after him, until King Elendil II, the last of the Reunited Kingdom, ending the Fourth Age. But it was kept by the growing blood-mixed Westron-speaking populace of Arnor and Gondor, and in the Fourth Age it was pronounced Lentel.

Isildur
(“Servant of the Moon”). A common name among Númenóreans, especially because its alternative “Isildil” was cacophonic and never given. In this case he was named after the VIIIth Lord of Andúnie, founder of the colony of Aryacalie, which would later be re-founded as Anarikê.
The name became after this King widely used by Westron-speakers, its form Siltor becoming popular too among neighboring peoples of Arnor and Gondor (e.g. the name of two of the elective Kings of Forodwaith was Isildurnil, but the second of them usually used the current version Siltornel).

Anárion
(“Solar”). After Tar-Anárion very used among Númenórean nobility, e.g. the IXth Lord of Andúnie after whom the son of Elendil was named. Also in this case the name plays with the duality Moon-Sun after his brother’s name.

Meneldil
(“Sky-friend” or “Astronomer”). Usual among Dúnedain, like Cemendil and Earendil and their -ndur alternatives.

Cemendur
(“Servant of the Earth”). Continuing the sky-earth-sea triad; see Meneldil.

Earendil
(“Sea-friend”). Continuing the triad; see Meneldil. A foresight amilessë of its first bearer, the son of Tuor and Idril, it became one of the most popular names among Dúnedain (see Earnil).

Anardil
(“Sun-friend”). Typical name, its alternative “Anardur” was cacophonic and not used. Named after Tar-Aldarion’s birthname.

Síryon Ostoher
(“Son of the River” and “Lord of the Fortress”). His birthname Síryon was popular in the old colony of Pelargir, born and developed near and thanks to River Anduin and its Ethir -though in the Second Age the haven was by the sea, the Ethir Anduin still being a large firth.
Ostoher was his name as King because he rebuilt Minas Anor. Osthir of Cardolan, a kingdom with strong ties to Gondor, was named after him.

Tarostar Rómendacil I
(“King of the Fortresses” and “East-victor”). Actually both names were titles, his birthname being unknown. Tarostar he supposedly took wanting to widen his father’s title of Ostoher. It was a daring name, for it reproduced the form of the official names of the Númenórean Kings (“Tar-”), but in the ambience of growing pride of the Gondor of that time it was not considered too pretentious for the Crown-prince.
Rómendacil he took after his victory over Easterlings, though ironically he would fall in battle against them later.

Turambar
(“Master of Doom”). After Túrin Turambar. A popular name because of Tar-Elendil’s works about Beleriand and its legends (like Siriondil), indeed the Quenya form was more used than Sindarin Turamarth. In Fourth Age Westron it was Trampar.

Atanatar I
(“Father of Men”). Another Beleriand-related name (see Turambar), it had been the generic title of the leaders of the Three Houses of the Edain of Beleriand and had later been applied poetically to the Númenórean Kings. Gondor’s pride kept growing together with its might, and in Tarostar’s household it was natural to give this grand name to the future heir of the Crown.

Siriondil
(“Friend of River Sirion”). Popular among inland Númenóreans from the time of Tar-Elendil on (see Turambar). Riontel in Fourth Age Westron.

Tarannon Falastur
(“King of the Gate” and “Lord of Coasts”). Another proud “Tar-” name (see Tarostar), the “-annon” was that of the haven of Pelargir.
Falastur was his title as King, since he had expanded the kingdom West and South of the Ethir Anduin. It became a popular name and in Fourth Age it was Flathor in Westron.

Earnil I
Contraction of Earendil (see). This most popular name is one of the two whose contracted vulgar form entered the circles of nobility, together with its alternative Earendur / Earnur. In Fourth Age Westron it was Yarnel.

Ciryandil
(“Ship-friend”). One of many Númenórean names related to ships.

Ciryaher Hyarmendacil I
(“Lord of Ships” and “South Victor”). His birthname was one that the list of the Ship-kings couldn’t miss.
Hyarmendacil paralleled already existing Rómendacil.

Atanatar II Alcarin
After Atanatar I. Alcarin, “the Glorious”, was often used as the actual King’s name. It was already a too self-important title in that time in which the decadence of the kingdom begun.

Narmacil I
(“Fire Sword”). After two Ûrzagars, Númenórean noblemen. See Calmacil.

Calmacil
(“Light Sword”). Tar-Calmacil, among the Númenórean Kings of the times of pride and rebellion, was nearest to the Elendili with the only exception of Tar-Palantir. He was educated in Umbar by a wiseman from Pelargir, and in his armies he treated Faithful and King’s Men equally. Tar-Calmacil was praised by the Elendili not less than by the King’s Men, to the point that Calmacil was the name that the Faithful colonists gave him after his first victories in the XXVIth century, that put an end to the Dark Years of Sauron’s dominion in the West.
Tar-Calmacil’s younger son Gimilzagar and his family were Elendili themselves. Gimilzagar, his firstborn Ûrzagar and Nîlûzagar his grandson were military men of renown; their names and that of their illustrious ancestor became of tradition among the Elendili noblemen of the military, engaged in the affairs of the colonies, together with their Quenya approximate equivalents: Belzagar / Calmacil, Gimilzagar / Elemmacil, Ûrzagar / Narmacil, and Nîlûzagar / Silmacil. Most used was Narmacil (Narmagel in the Fourth Age), after another Ûrzagar, grandson of the former one, who married Lindórië of Andúnie and was the father of Inzilbêth, Ar-Gimilzôr’s wife. Also, Calmacil became Kalmagel with time.
For more on Tar-Calmacil’s influence on names, see Castamir.

Minalcar Rómendacil II
(“Highest Glory”). Minalcar a typical name within the court of his great-grandfather Hyarmendacil I under whose reign this king was born. Rómendacil after Rómendacil I, having achieved similar victories, though his model was his admired Hyarmendacil I (see Castamir).

Valacar
(“Vala-looking”). A phonetic (not in meaning) modification of his father’s name, kept within Faithful tradition.

Vinitharya Eldacar
(“East-victor” and “Elda-looking”). Valacar named his son with a Northman version of his father’s title. [The actual Gothic name Winithaharjis means “Army of the Wends”, implying “victor of”, much like Roman generals end emperors added to their names those of the peoples they had conquered. The Wends were a people living east of the Goths when the latter still lived by the shores of the Baltic sea, and maybe Tolkien intended to give Eldacar that Northman name paralleling “Rómendacil”.]
Eldacar was a hasty solution forced by Minalcar when his son Valacar came back to Gondor trying to avoid scandalising the traditionalists. It simply continued the Faithful traditional conceptual duality of Vala / Elda, reflected in other couples of names: Valarion / Eldarion, Valandil / Elendil, Valandur / Elendur. Pronounced Eltagar in the Fourth Age.

Castamir (and his successors)
(“Munificent Jewel”), an usual merchant name in the times of the Ship-kings, later appreciated by the sea-lords of Pelargir.
His son was Castaher (“Munificent Lord”), modification of his father’s name. Castaher’s son was Castamaitë (“Munificent Hand”), first great corsair of Umbar; his was a name in the family tradition.
Another example showing the importance of Tar-Calmacil’s figure and his consideration by the Elendili was the name of Castamaitë’s children. Castamaitë named his first son with an old name Angamaitë, which had been Angrod’s second name, just to modify his own. But when his second son was born, he made use of a different rule, and remembering Angamaitë had been the name of Tar-Calmacil’s shield-gauntlet, gave him the name of that king’s legendary sword, Sangahyando.
This sword had passed to Queen Inzilbêth through Gimilzagar, and Ar-Gimilzôr had given it to his youngest son against the will of his wife, but Tar-Palantir had recovered it to the end of the Númenórean civil war and given it to his general Gallas. Gallas’s son was general Eldarion, who inherited the sword (together with Aldarion’s Helm, another sacred heritage from Númenor). Eldarion would at last become the first prince of the line of Belfalas, and in the time of the corsair brothers the original Sangahyando, the blade, was still wielded in battle -the old Angamaitë gauntlet had not been so powerful.

Aldamir
(“Jewel of the Trees”). Eldacar gave his two male sons innovative names related to the woods, linking them to their Northman heritage. Ornendil (“Tree-friend”) was the firstborn, and his cruel execution by Castamir made his name a popular one, becoming Nentel in the Fourth Age.

Vinyarion Hyarmendacil II
(“The New One”). Another innovative name. The nearest of Eldacar’s succesors’ names were all newly devised.

Minardil
(“Tower-friend”). A military innovative name. The alternative “Minasendil” would have been considered not as euphonic. Nartel in the Fourth Age.

Telemnar
(“Silver Flame”). Gimilzôr was the name of Elros in the Númenórean King’s Men’s adûnaic literature. In the court of fiercely nationalist Ar-Adûnakhôr, that name was given to his great-grandson, hoping he would lead Númenor to a new foundation, apart from the Valar. But when Gimilzôr had grown up he thought his own name too Elvish, and when he became King, inscribed his royal name in the Kings’ Scroll not as Tar-Elros, as should have been, but, making a quite poetic translation, as Tar-Telemnar. That was reason enough for the Elendili to adopt that renegade name as their own -to the anger of the King-, and became indeed one of the most popular: it was Lennar in the Fourth Age.

Minastir Tarondor
(“Tower-watcher” and “King of Gondor”, Ondor being the Quenya for Gondor, see Ondoher). Minastir was this accidental King’s first name, after the Númenorean King, who in turn had taken it as an allusion to his longing for the Undying Lands. In the person of the Gondorian prince, the name followed the family tradition (his father was Minastan, son of King Minardil).
Tarondor had been the name of a King of Arnor, trying to assert the Northern Kings’ claim to the High Kingship of the Dúnedain, but only getting scorn from the Gondorians. Minastir thought it a good name to affirm his rights as King of Gondor against any possible distant relative and especially the corsair descendants of Castamir.

Telumehtar Umbardacil
(“Swordsman of the Sky” and “Umbar Victor”). Telumehtar was the Quenya name of the terrible Maia warrior Tulukhatūn (“Golden Sphere”), servant of Tulkas, who placed himself in the sky as the constellation Menelmacar after helping Varda placing the Valacirca against Melkor, and only came down again to fight Angband in the War of Wrath. Telumehtar had been too the name of several Faithful Númenórean lords of Hyarnustar.
He took his title after the new conquest of Umbar and disbanding of the corsairs, but Telumehtar kept being the usual name of the King, becoming Tulmethar in the Fourth Age.

Narmacil II
See Narmacil I.

Calimehtar
(“Swordsman of Light”). Originally given to the second son of King Calmacil, it was a modification of the father’s name. That first Calimehtar was King Castamir’s grandfather, and so ancestor to the lines of the corsairs who still claimed the throne of Gondor. So Prince Telumehtar gave this grandson, who should inherit the crown, the name of that prince of old to somehow oppose any of the corsairs’ legitimacy. Also, Telumehtar wanted to emulate the Ship-kings, and the old Calimehtar had been renowned as more similar to those than his older brother Minalcar.

Ondoher
(“Lord of Gondor”, also “Lord of the Ondóre”). Ondóre, “Land of Stone”, was the northwestern rocky region of Númenor, from Andúnie to the Sorontil, whose main city was Ondosto. It was inhabited by Faithful Dúnedain, and when Tar-Ancalimon defined the internal fief boundaries of the Island, Elendil, Xth Lord of Andúnie, and Vildur of Ondosto, two of the Faithful lords, disputed for the Ondóre, and the King gave at last all Forostar to Ondosto and all Andustar to Andúnie. With that territorial gain, Elendil got the title Ondoher, but that quarrel had indeed been a farce -successful at last- to expand east the boundaries initially intended for the Elendili.
Many of the Faithful colonists of Pelargir came from the Ondóre and they found very appropriate for the native Elves to call their land “Gondor”, which was to become the name of the whole Dúnadan kingdom, rendered Ondor (“Stones” rather than “Land of Stone”) in Quenya. So the name Ondoher, though its relation to the kingdom was quite obvious and the plain intention behind it, had a more ancient history.

Earnil II
See Earnil I.

Earnur
See Earnil I.

© Breogán Rey, 2009.

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