Uin

From Tolkien Gateway
Uin
Right Whale
Alan Lee - Uin.jpg
"Uin" by Alan Lee as a humpback whale
Information
AffiliationUlmo
Notable fordragging Tol Eressëa to Valinor
Physical Description
RaceRight Whale
GenderMale
GalleryImages of Uin

Uin was a great whale according to the early version of the legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales. A host of great whales centering Uin was in the service of Ulmo, being used to drag Tol Eressëa towards Valinor. Uin also pulled Ulmo's fishy cart,[1] and he is said to be the "Primeval Whale"[2] or the "oldest of the Right Whales".[3]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

In the Gnomish Lexicon, the word uin means "whale". The original meaning of uin seems to have been "wave". Another Gnomish word for whale was uimoth ("sheep of the waves"), incorporating moth.[2][4] In Qenya, Uin is given as "a fish, the privemal whale".[5]

In other stories[edit | edit source]

Uin is a character in Tolkien's Roverandom. In the story, written down in 1927, the great whale Uin takes the enchanted dog Roverandom (formerly known as Rover) to and from the Deep Blue Sea to visit the wizard Artaxerxes.[6]:25 Whilst staying with the mer-people, Uin takes Roverandom on adventures through the seas: Uin takes Roverandom through the Shadowy Seas to the Bay of Fairyland beyond the Magic Isles where Rover saw the Mountains of Elvenhome and the light of Faery. Roverandom thought he could see the white glint of a city of Elves on a green hill far away in the distance.[6]:73-4

References

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "III. The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor", p. 85
  2. 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales – Part I, entries "Ónen", "Uin"
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien; Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond (eds.), Roverandom, [Chapter] 4
  4. 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. 74
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Qenyaqetsa: The Qenya Phonology and Lexicon", in Parma Eldalamberon XII (edited by Carl F. Hostetter, Christopher Gilson, Arden R. Smith, and Patrick H. Wynne), p. 97
  6. 6.0 6.1 J.R.R. Tolkien; Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond (eds.), Roverandom