Celtic refers either to the Celtic languages, including Breton, Cornish, Gaelic, and Welsh, or to the Celts, an historic group of people.[1]
Tolkien had noted the ambiguity of the word "Celtic" as an arbitrary catch-all term:
'Celtic' of any sort is, nonetheless, a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come.
Scholarly interest
Tolkien mentioned that Welsh names had a fascination for him since childhood.[3] He wrote that he loved Wales and especially the Welsh language,[4] that he found Welsh to be especially attractive, [5] and that he found in Welsh an abiding linguistic-aesthetic satisfaction[3]. He mentioned that he did not learn Welsh until he was an undergraduate,[3] that he knew a little Welsh, but that he had always been defeated by Old Irish or its modern descendants,[6] and that he knew Celtic things, many in their original languages Irish and Welsh[7]. He also wrote to his aunt who lived in Wales that he had used prize money (from the Skeat Prize for English) to buy a Welsh grammar written by Sir John Morris Jones.[8]
Tolkien was thanked for having helped "untiringly with problems of Celtic philology" in preparing the book Roman Britain and the English Settlements (1936).[9]
Celtic influences on the legendarium
Mythology
Tolkien claimed knowledge of Celtic languages and legends, but expressed a dislike in Celtic legends and denied that his legendarium is "Celtic".[10]
However, Celtic concepts are present in some views about the Elves (see Elves - Celtic influence).
Other names
While the Westron world displays Germanic and Old English elements, Tolkien mentioned that the survival of traces of the older language of the Stoors and the Bree-men in Eriador resembled the survival of Celtic elements in England, that the names of the Bucklanders had a vaguely 'Celtic' style and that Bree, Combe (Coomb), Archet and Chetwood are modelled on relics of British (i.e. Celtic) names that were chosen according to their sense.[11] Tolkien also told the Dutch Translator, Max Schuchart, that there were "'Celtic' elements in Buckland and East-farthing names."[12] [13] He stated in his guide for translators for the translation of names in The Lord of the Rings into other languages that he gave Hobbits from Buckland Welsh names or names of similar style and that Gorhendad meant "great-grandfather" in Welsh[14] as well as that Archet had a Celtic origin and was descended from Welsh argoed[15].
J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned that he gave names in Buckland – such as Meriadoc or Gorhendad – a "Celtic cast", and that the relation of Welsh or British to English was somewhat similar to the relation of the older language of the Stoors and Bree-men to Westron. He also noted that many of the actual Buckland and Bree names – such as Marroc, Madoc and Seredic – had something of a Celtic style and the often had -ac, -ic or -oc as their ending.[13]
These analogies are present mostly relating to Pre-Númenóreans and the Stoor hobbits, which is evident in place-names such as "Bree", and the personal names of the Bucklanders. According to Paula Marmor, the Celtic elements in Stoorish names represent an earlier language related to that of the Bree-landers.[16]
In The Lord of the Rings, the majority of genuine Celtic names is seen in the family trees of the Brandybucks. Names such as Rorimac, Dinodas, Gorbadoc, Meriadoc, and Marmadoc are Celtic.[17]
Other names having (or have been suggested as having) a Celtic influence include:
Edward Crankshaw, a reader for Allen & Unwin, was assigned to review the current draft of the "Quenta Silmarillion" in 1937. He had a mostly favourable attitude to it, but he said that the names were "eye-splitting Celtic names". Tolkien denied Celtic influences in his Elvish names, and he showed distaste for Celtic words.[7]
Sindarin
Tolkien explained that he deliberately gave the language Sindarin a linguistic character like, but not identical with British-Welsh,[18] and was constructed to resemble Welsh phonologically[19]. He also mentioned that the lenitions or 'mutations' of Sindarin were deliberately made to resemble those of Welsh in phonetic origin and grammatical use, but are not the same in either of those two aspects.[20]
External links
- “Mad” Elves and “Elusive Beauty”: Some Celtic Strands of Tolkien’s Mythology by Dimitra Fimi
- Tolkien influenced by Irish mythology? by Michael Martinez
References
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: II. Reader's Guide, pp. 148-52
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays, "English and Welsh"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 163, (dated 7 June 1955)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 213, (dated 25 October 1958)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 122, (dated 18 December 1949)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 19, (dated 16 December 1937)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 241, (dated 8-9 September 1962)
- ↑ "Other credits", TolkienBooks.net, accessed 15 February 2017
- ↑ Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, p. 26
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "On Translation", p. 1135
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 93
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", typescript F 4, text 'A' of the second section
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Oldbuck, p. 761
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Archet, p. 765
- ↑ Jim Allan (1978), An Introduction to Elvish, "An etymological excursion among the Shire folk"
- ↑ Jim Allan (1978), An Introduction to Elvish, "Giving of names"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 144, (dated 25 April 1954)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Note 44 to Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 347, (dated 17 December 1972)