Tolkien Gateway:Disambiguation

Disambiguation is the process of resolving ambiguity — meaning the conflict that occurs when a term is closely associated with two or more different topics.

See also: Category:Disambiguation

Multiple names

Throughout J.R.R. Tolkien's world, names have been used more than once.

• Some names of older tales have been reused for "external" reasons - names like Galdor and Legolas.
• Some have been used "internally" - the Númenóreans and Gondorians and even the Hobbits naming their offspring after heroes of the First Age: Húrin Thalion had four Gondorian noblemen named after him.
• Some chapters are named after people or events, that play an important role in it. Examples include Strider (chapter), Treebeard (chapter) and Minas Tirith (chapter).
• Some characters' names have been reused in adaptations - especially Peter Jackson's - though they do not represent the character in the book. Morwen of Rohan is one, and one could argue her son Éothain is another.

Disambiguation

Because of this reuse of names, it is important to disambiguate these multiple article titles. Some have numbers: Aragorn I and Aragorn II, for example. Some have epithets. In the worst case, a description goes between brackets: Beregond (soldier of Gondor) and Beregond (Steward of Gondor). The unmarked, naked term, Beregond, becomes the disambiguation page.

Use within the text

It may look tiresome to type the following:

[[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] promised [[Boromir (son of Denethor II)|Boromir]] he would go with him to [[Minas Tirith (Gondor)|Minas Tirith]]

Typing the following instead would be much simpler:

[[Aragorn]] promised [[Boromir]] he would go with him to [[Minas Tirith]]

But is important that proper disambiguation happens. The purpose of Tolkien Gateway is to service the reader over the editor. Though readers can, in general, deduce which of the offered options is the one they were sent to, correct linking is one of the Standards for Featured Articles at least. For all articles that need to be disambiguated, see: Category:Disambiguation.

Disambiguation page

There are no lower limits to the disambiguation page: generally, even two terms can be worthy of a disambiguation, though it may not have to be. Gimli redirects to the Gimli of the Third Age, not to the insignificant Noldo from early writings. Legolas leads to a redirect, because in those early writings, Legolas of Gondolin played a more important part.

Templates

• Disambiguation pages should be tagged with the {{disambig}} template at the bottom.
• If a page has two entries, use the {{youmay|subject this article|[[Article name|other article]]}} at the top of both those pages.
• In the case of three or more articles, {{otherchars|[[Name|Name (disambiguation)]]}} at the top of all those pages.

Exceptions

• Journals: Many Tolkien Societies have journals, which they name after items in Middle-earth. Some even name their entire Tolkien Society after an item or place in Middle-earth. In such a case, no disambiguation page is necessary. If the journal is named, for example, Amon Hen (journal), a simple {{youmay|the hill|[[Amon Hen (journal)]]}} at the top of Amon Hen would do.
• Adaptations: There is no need to make The Lord of the Rings a disambiguation page containing all adaptations of the book. Adaptations are usually disambiguated by having their director's name followed by the short name of the film.