Tolkien's "Perfect Names"

[tsdragon]

A mention in another thread about Tolkien and Lord of the Rings caused me to remember something I've always thought interesting. I believe that one of the reasons Tolkien's books are so effective is that he has a knack, or an ear, for picking names that just "sound right". This may be a cultural thing, but to me his place and person names help convey just the right "feel" about the person. For instance the "or" sound, especially repeated, does a good job of conveying the evil in Mordor (I suspect the similarity to "murder" doesn't hurt either). Other examples:

Galadriel - just sounds like a female elf's name
Frodo - does a lot to get across the shy nature of hobbits
Aragon - just sounds heroic, doesn't it?
Nazgul - sound pretty terrible
Gandalf - sounds like an inscrutable wizard
Gimli - a perfect name for a dwarf

What do you all think? Do the phonemes in a word, and it's cadence, "feel", etc. actually convey subtle information?


Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[sleipnir214]

You have a point. Tolkien was, by profession, a philologist.

For fun sometime, contrast the names Tolkien used in LOTR with the bowdlerized names the Harvard Lampoon used in their sendoff of LOTR, Bored of the Rings, in which the wizard GoodGulf leads Frito and Dildo Boggins, Arrowroot son of Arrowshirt and others in a quest to destroy a ring. Chased all the while by the Nozedrool.

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[Dimandja]

[i}Do the phonemes in a word, and it's cadence, "feel", etc. actually convey subtle information?[/i]

Absolutely. I think that's how language itself started and evolved. But, the most amazing thing about our language, in my opinion, is its ability to express abstract concepts.

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[tsdragon]

sleipnir214: Thanks for that! I'd almost forgotten about Bored of the Rings. I read it way back in high school (about 1974) and then loaned it to my English teacher. I never got it back. Now I'll have to run over to Amazon and see if I can find another copy.


Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.