came back to me when the character of the stout innkeeper of Bree was presented to me in Frodo's record. The more so because his name, in agreement with the generally botanical type of name favoured in Bree, was actually Butterburr, or in the C.S. Zilbarapha
[> Zilbirapha]. Barnabas has unfortunately only a very slight phonetic similarity to the real first-name of the innkeeper: Barabatta (or Batti). This was the nickname of the landlord of 'The Pony' which he had borne so long that if he ever had another given-name it had been forgotten: it means 'quick-talker or babbler'. Still, in converting Batti Zilbarapha [> Zilbirapha]
into Barney Butterbur I do not think I have been unjust.(38) $52. A final consequence of the conversion of the Common Speech, and of all names formed in that language, into English terms has already been referred to above. It entailed translation of the related languages of Rohan and the North into terms that would correspond linguistically, as closely as possible, to the ancient situation.
$53 In the records of the Red Book there are in several places allusions to the fact that Hobbits hearing the tongue of the Riders of Rohan felt that it was akin to their own, and recognized some of the words used, though they could not understand the language as a whole. Since I had, necessarily, converted the C.S. of the Hobbits into English, it seemed to me that it would be absurd then to leave the related language of Rohan in its wholly alien form. Now the tongue of the Rohirrim was not only related to the C.S., but it had remained in a much more archaic state, and it was, even in its newer southern home, much less mingled with alien (Noldorin and Quenya) words; I therefore substituted for it a form of language resembling Old English, since this tongue, that was removed from its ancestral home to another, closely corresponds in its relation to modern English (especially in its freedom from accretions of French and Latin origin) with the relations of the tongues of the Shire and the Mark.
$54 This translation was not difficult, since the Rohirrim in fact used a very similar type of nomenclature to that of our own ancestors. I have usually considered the sense of their names rather than the form; except that I have chosen names in Old English of the same length, where possible, and have only used compound names, such as Freawine, Eomer, Eowyn, Hasufel, Halifirien, when the originals were also compounded. The element eo-, which so often appears (not unnaturally, being an old word meaning 'horse', among a people devoted to horses), represents an element loho-, lo- of the same sense. Thus Eotheod,
'Horse-folk' or 'Horse-land', translates Lohtur. Theoden, as are many of the other royal names, is an old word for 'king', corresponding to Rohan turac-.(39)
$55. Note. In a few cases I have, not quite consistently, modified the words and names of the Mark, making them more like modern English, especially in spelling. Examples of this process in varying degrees are: Dunharrow (= Dun-harug
'hill-sanctuary'), Starkhorn, Entwash, Helm's Deep, Combe (= Cumb); Halifirien (= Halig-firgen 'holy-mountain'); Fen-march for Fenmerce; Shadowfax for Scadufax. In a similar way in 'The Hobbit' Oakenshield was anglicized from Eikinskialdi.
The name Rohan itself is of Noldorin origin, a translation of the native Lograd (sc. Eo-marc 'the Horse-maik' or 'Borderland of the Horsemen'). Its strictly correct form was Rochann, but the form Rohan represents the actual pronunciation of Gondor, in which medial ch was colloquially weakened to h.
$56. This translation had a disadvantage which I did not foresee. The 'linguistic notes' on the origin of peculiar Hobbit words had also to be 'translated'. I have already alluded to the translation of the actual relation of Rohan cugbagu and Shire cubuc into an imagined one of holbytla and hobbit. Other examples are these (cf. [$24]): Stoor in relation to a Northern word meaning 'big' (cf.
[> Zilbirapha]. Barnabas has unfortunately only a very slight phonetic similarity to the real first-name of the innkeeper: Barabatta (or Batti). This was the nickname of the landlord of 'The Pony' which he had borne so long that if he ever had another given-name it had been forgotten: it means 'quick-talker or babbler'. Still, in converting Batti Zilbarapha [> Zilbirapha]
into Barney Butterbur I do not think I have been unjust.(38) $52. A final consequence of the conversion of the Common Speech, and of all names formed in that language, into English terms has already been referred to above. It entailed translation of the related languages of Rohan and the North into terms that would correspond linguistically, as closely as possible, to the ancient situation.
$53 In the records of the Red Book there are in several places allusions to the fact that Hobbits hearing the tongue of the Riders of Rohan felt that it was akin to their own, and recognized some of the words used, though they could not understand the language as a whole. Since I had, necessarily, converted the C.S. of the Hobbits into English, it seemed to me that it would be absurd then to leave the related language of Rohan in its wholly alien form. Now the tongue of the Rohirrim was not only related to the C.S., but it had remained in a much more archaic state, and it was, even in its newer southern home, much less mingled with alien (Noldorin and Quenya) words; I therefore substituted for it a form of language resembling Old English, since this tongue, that was removed from its ancestral home to another, closely corresponds in its relation to modern English (especially in its freedom from accretions of French and Latin origin) with the relations of the tongues of the Shire and the Mark.
$54 This translation was not difficult, since the Rohirrim in fact used a very similar type of nomenclature to that of our own ancestors. I have usually considered the sense of their names rather than the form; except that I have chosen names in Old English of the same length, where possible, and have only used compound names, such as Freawine, Eomer, Eowyn, Hasufel, Halifirien, when the originals were also compounded. The element eo-, which so often appears (not unnaturally, being an old word meaning 'horse', among a people devoted to horses), represents an element loho-, lo- of the same sense. Thus Eotheod,
'Horse-folk' or 'Horse-land', translates Lohtur. Theoden, as are many of the other royal names, is an old word for 'king', corresponding to Rohan turac-.(39)
$55. Note. In a few cases I have, not quite consistently, modified the words and names of the Mark, making them more like modern English, especially in spelling. Examples of this process in varying degrees are: Dunharrow (= Dun-harug
'hill-sanctuary'), Starkhorn, Entwash, Helm's Deep, Combe (= Cumb); Halifirien (= Halig-firgen 'holy-mountain'); Fen-march for Fenmerce; Shadowfax for Scadufax. In a similar way in 'The Hobbit' Oakenshield was anglicized from Eikinskialdi.
The name Rohan itself is of Noldorin origin, a translation of the native Lograd (sc. Eo-marc 'the Horse-maik' or 'Borderland of the Horsemen'). Its strictly correct form was Rochann, but the form Rohan represents the actual pronunciation of Gondor, in which medial ch was colloquially weakened to h.
$56. This translation had a disadvantage which I did not foresee. The 'linguistic notes' on the origin of peculiar Hobbit words had also to be 'translated'. I have already alluded to the translation of the actual relation of Rohan cugbagu and Shire cubuc into an imagined one of holbytla and hobbit. Other examples are these (cf. [$24]): Stoor in relation to a Northern word meaning 'big' (cf.
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