Flies

From Tolkien Gateway

Flies are tiresome flying insects. When Frodo and Sam struggled northward through the glens of the Morgai in Mordor they encountered flies, dun or grey or black, which were marked like Orcs with a red eye-shaped blotch.[1]

Other names[edit | edit source]

The Quenya name for "small insect, fly" is .[2]

In Gnomish, one of Tolkien's early conceptions of an Elven language, the word for "fly" is sitha.[note 1][3] A Qenya name for a "small fly" is .[4] The Common Eldarin word for "large fly" was buzbō, with derivatives being Telerin buspo, Quenya puspo, pupso, and Sindarin buðu.[5]

External links[edit | edit source]

Notes

  1. While the English word fly also is a verb, the word sitha likely refers to the insect, as it also appears in sithagong, "dragonfly".

References

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Land of Shadow", p. 921
  2. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals and Related Writings — Part One" (edited by Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 47, February 2005, p. 35
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien, "I-Lam na-Ngoldathon: The Grammar and Lexicon of the Gnomish Tongue", in Parma Eldalamberon XI (edited by Christopher Gilson, Arden R. Smith, and Patrick H. Wynne), p. 68
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Qenya Noun Structure", in Parma Eldalamberon XXI (edited by Christopher Gilson, Patrick H. Wynne and Arden R. Smith), p. 40
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Quenya Phonology", in Parma Eldalamberon XIX (edited by Christopher Gilson), p. 101