The best names
Rare example of a saes who didn't want Welsh speaking punishable by death.
Short for Saesneg, the Welsh for English.
Some English have decided it's a slur that means outsider, but it's just an informal way of calling someone English.
that's rich, given that the etymology of "welsh" is "stranger, foreigner"...
Top comment:
Luthien and Arwen, both described as divinely beautiful, had long black hair, pale skin and grey eyes, just like his wife. This proves three things: 1.) Tolkien adored his wife 2.) He had a goth fetish before goth was a thing. 3.) He had taste.
motherfuckers in dune be named Vladimir Harkonnen or Muad'Dib or Leto Atreides II or BOBBY OHIO
Can't believe nobody mentioned the banger that is Teleporno yet.
Its the Quenya (old elvish) name of Celeborn (which is his Sindarin name), the dude who's most notable for being the husband of Galadriel.
Both names, btw, just mean 'silver-tall'. Because, you see, his hair is silver, and he is tall.
No kidding. There is not a single character name or place name that sounds dumb or made-up. Unlike most fantasy writers. Tolkien was a linguist. If you've ever read Beowulf, you read his translation. He was delighted to discover Finnish, a legendarily difficult language. To him, it was like a treasure box of vocabulary and grammar. The only one that came close was "Staddle", a suburb of Bree. That's it, though. Pages and pages and pages of excellent names that make sense. They even sound like their languages. Rohan names all sound like they're related, Elvish, Black Speech with its harsh, guttural consonants. Just outstanding all around.
I suppose his worst mistake was making Saruon and Saruman so similar-sounding. Too close to his own material, I guess he didn't realize readers could easily confuse the two.
Literally right below you is someone mentioning an elf named Teleporno just saying
ahh, but there were very serious linguistic reasons for naming him that. it's not funny. stop giggling. it's just a coincidence.
Stop tittering while we're discussing the deeds of the ancient elven king Sloppydiarrhea
I think overthinking names is a pretty common mistake. We generally just call things what they are, and language proceeds to turn those terms into names over the course of time.
I mean, look at the word "microwave". Imagine if a writer created a fictional device, a box that uses microwaves to heat things up, and then called the entire device "microwave". You'd look at them weird, probably, but that's how we do it.
When they came out, they were called a "radar range". As in, it uses radar (the same wavelengths) and it's a range, something you cook on.
🤓 he was working with very transparent, unambiguous languages. Mount Doom is a direct translation of Orodruin.
He's such a linguist nerd that most of those names and places have 3 or up to 5? versions depending on the fictional language used.
I love the Hobbit names, which are English translated versions of Westron names which themselves are corruptions of Elvish names.
Did you know that he revealed 10 years after the book was published that Bilbo was gay?
the Welsh language 
