At a first glance, one could say that peoples as different as Hobbits and the Rohirrim don’t bear much resemblance, if any. Yet, strange as it may seem, the roots of their languages are common. First let us take a brief look at the tale of their unfolding.
Rohirric, a language “rich and rolling in part, and else hard and stern as the mountains…laden with the sadness of Mortal Men.”
Given the fact that in Middle-earth context Rohirric bears a relationship with Westron similar to that existing between Old and Modern English, Tolkien decided to render the language of the Horse-lords using Old English (more precisely Mercian, or Midland Anglo-Saxon), just as he translated Westron into Modern English. This is the main reason why so few genuine Rohirric words came to us. However, this lineage-based analogy between Rohirric and Anglo-Saxon on one hand, and Westron and Modern English on the other, must stop here, as Rohirric was not the ancestor of Westron the way Anglo-Saxon was of Modern English.
Probably the best known example of genuine Rohirric can be found in the widespread element lô-/loh-, corresponding to Old English éo, horse. Horses were the basis of Rohan’s culture, therefore lô-/loh- appears in many derivates, such as Lôgrad (Éo-marc, the Horse-Mark) and Lohtûr (Éothéod, meaning Horse-people or Horse-land). In fact, all words beginning with Éo- (like Éored, Éowyn or Éomer) must have included the lô-/loh- element, but they are not given in their original form. What seems to be the only proper name given in genuine Rohirric – Tûrac (Théoden) – is an example of Elvish influence on the language, and in particular the use of the Sindarin element tur- (also present in names like Turgon), meaning power, mastery, or simply king, by extrapolation. Another interesting example of Elvish influence on Rohirric is revealed in the word róg pl. rógin (meaning “wose”, wild man). Here it is the plural ending – in – that bears resemblance with the old Sindarin dialects of North Sindarin and Doriath Sindarin, of which it was a common feature.
The first place of dwelling of the Rohirrim had been in northern Rhovanion, as they descended from the ‘Northmen’, which also included the Men of Dale and Esgaroth, as well as the woodsmen of Mirkwood. The Northmen were friendly to Gondor and, when Cirion the Steward of Gondor asked for help in the year 2510 of the Third Age, the Rohirrim led by Eorl the Young answered and helped their allies achieve victory over the wild men and the Orcs who had descended from the mountains. In token of the great friendship that existed between the two peoples, Cirion gave Calenardhon to the Rohirrim. So it was that the Éothéod came from the North and settled in Calenardhon, bringing with them their culture and traditions. Even though most of them came in time to learn Westron in the manner spoken by the Gondorians, they have never forsaken the Rohirric, but enriched it with new words and sonorities.
Westron
Westron “was in origin the language of those whom the Eldar called the Atani or Edain, ‘Fathers of Men’, being especially the people of the Three Houses of the Elf-friends who came west into Beleriand in the First Age”. During the Second Age, the Adûnaic of Númenor “mingled with many words of the languages of lesser men”, thus becoming the Common Speech. From its place of origin, the western coastlands of Middle-earth, it spread afterwards to most of the lands.
As has been said before, Westron or ‘Common Speech’ has been translated by Tolkien into Modern English. Its very name is an English rendering of the original Westron terms Adûni (meaning Westron) and Sôval Phârë (Common Speech). The Sindarin equivalents were Annúnaid (Westron) and Falathren (Shore-language).
Being such a widespread language caused it to take the form of numerous dialects, among which the one used by the Hobbits has a particular significance to the purpose of this article. Hobbits were a race related to Men, but their exact origin is unknown. They were first mentioned in records in the year 1050 of the Third Age, when the Harfoots came to Eriador. Their migration continued and it is believed that Hobbits adopted Westron as their language soon after settling in Eriador. Thus their former tongue, spoken in the Vales of Anduin, in Wilderland, was abandoned, more eagerly by the Harfoots and the Fallohides, who would long dwell under the rule of the Dúnedain. The Stoors, on the other hand, were more conservative, and they brought many strange words with them. “Hobbit” and “mathom” are two such terms, supposedly going way back to the Vales of Anduin. Little is now known of that Northern language, except for names as Trahald (Sméagol, ‘burrowing, worming in’) and Nahald (Déagol, ‘secret’). These two – Sméagol and Déagol – are made up from Old English elements to render the original names “in the Mannish language of the region near the Gladden”.
Strange terms were brought by the Stoors not only from the Vales of Anduin, but also from Dunland, where some of them had settled during TA 1150 – 1630, before coming to Buckland and the Marish. It is believed that the name Kalimac (rendered by the Celtic Meriadoc) probably has its origin in the mysterious tongue of the Dunlendings, of which few words remain, such as Forgoil – meaning “Strawheads”, or possibly Coombe in the Deeping Coombe compound.
Examples of the Westron dialect spoken in the Shire can be found in proper names, such as Kalimac Brandagamba, shortened to Kali (Meriadoc Brandybuck, shortened to Merry, meaning jolly, gay), Razanur Tûk, shortened to Razar (Peregrin Took, shortened to Pippin, meaning both traveller, stranger, but also a small red apple), Banazîr Galbassi, shortened to Ban Galpsi (Samwise, Half-wise Gamgee, shortened to Sam), Batti Zilbirâpha (Barney Butterburr – the initial name of Barliman Butterbur) or Bilba Labingi (Bilbo Baggins). More samples of Hobbit Westron appear in place names, such as Sûzat (the Shire), Karningul (Rivendell, “cloven valley”), Labin-nec (Bag End) or Phurunargian (Dwarrowdelf). Branda-nîn (border-water) was the Westron equivalent of the Sindarin Baranduin (golden-brown river), later renamed, in the true Hobbit spirit, Bralda-hîm, meaning “heady ale”.
Similarities, or why the Rohirrim and the Hobbits understand each other surprisingly well
‘The tongue of the Mark of Rohan was derived from a northern speech, which, belonging at first to the Middle Anduin, had later moved north to the upper waters of that river, before coming south in the days of Eorl. It was thus nearly akin to the language of the lower Anduin, the basis of the Common Speech, but isolated in the North it had changed far less and had remained little mingled with alien words.’
As mentioned earlier, the Stoors once had a close contact with the Dunlendings, which reflected afterwards in the Hobbit Westron. If we corroborate this with the fact that the “Dunland tongue once was spoken in many western valleys of the Mark”, we can find yet another possible connection between Rohirric and Hobbit-language.
Through the ages, Rohirric and Hobbit Westron became more and more estranged, yet not to such a degree as to forget all resemblance. Therefore, when the Hobbits heard Rohirric they recognised many words, and yet the language remained beyond their understanding. We are told that Merry was ‘trying to understand the slow sonorous speech of Rohan that he heard the men behind him using. It was a language in which there seemed to be many words that he knew, though spoken more richly and strongly than in the Shire, yet he could not piece the words together. At times some Rider would lift up his clear voice in stirring song, and Merry felt his heart leap, though he did not know what it was about.’
The large number of Old English roots might be explained by this distant relationship between Westron and Rohirric (Tindrock, Derndingle). Similarities and common roots also appear in many archaic Hobbit names. Thus, when attempting to translate the name Maura (Frodo), that bore no significance in contemporary Westron, Tolkien considered the element maur-, meaning “wise, experienced” in archaic Rohirric and so rendered it by a Germanic equivalent.
The term Hobbit itself is an English translation of the Hobbit Westron kuduk (the rest of the Westron speakers used the word banakil “halfling”). Kuduk was derived from the Rohirric kûd-dûkan (hole-dweller), itself rendered in Old English by holbytla (hole-builder).
The Hobbit word kast (mathom, máðm in Old English, meaning “precious thing, treasure”) corresponds closely to Rohirric kastu (máthum in Old English, meaning “treasure” or “rich gift” ). The common etymology left aside, one can clearly perceive the semantical difference between the two terms, since mathoms were items Hobbits had no use for, but could not bear to throw away, whereas máthum described a rich gift in Rohan.
Another interesting resemblance appears between the Hobbit word trân (smial) and Rohirric trahan (burrow). Since all Northern languages (those of the Kingdom of Rhovanion, Esgaroth, Dale, Rohirric and Hobbit Westron) were distantly related, it’s not entirely surprising that we find the trah- element of the Mark and the Shire in Smaug’s original Dale name – Trâgu – rendered by Tolkien as Smaug, a pseudo-Scandinavian name. These and many other related words were said to have been analysed by Meriadoc Brandybuck in his treatise ‘Old Words and Names in the Shire’.
To conclude, one can note a surprising fact : almost all the Mannish languages spoken in Middle-earth relate to each other, just like all the real-life languages mentioned in this article belong to the Germanic subfamily of languages.
Article by Nenyia, Handmaiden of Vairë
References :
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, Part One, Chapter II – The Appendix on Languages, Harper Collins Publishers, 2002
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendices E and F, Harper Collins Publishers, 2002
-The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, Harper Collins Publishers, 1995
-J.E.A. Tyler, The Complete Tolkien Companion, Pan Books, 2002
-Helge Fauskanger, ‘Various Mannish Tongues – the sadness of Mortal Men ?’ and ‘Westron – the Common Speech’
-Michael Martinez, ‘Tip-toe Through the Toponymy’, August 28, 2002
Images courtesy of British Library Museum, MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv (Gneuss 399) (1) and New Line Productions (2)
