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Dúnedain etymology

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:00 pm
by Kortoso
I was looking at the list of Tolkien copyrights here:
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Middle-e ... Copyrights
But I noticed that the word "Dúnedain" was missing. That stirred my curiosity. What's the "true" etymology?

Seems that Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is referred to as "Dùn Èideann" by the Scots Gaelic speakers. Interesting.

Re: Dúnedain etymology

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:33 pm
by Elleth
Hunh - that is a curious coincidence. It's possible the sound of the word struck the Professor pleasantly, to be sure.
I mean, it's no "cellar door" but it is a quite euphonic word. :)

.. unless that is he came up with the word for "West" first, in which case "Men of the West" is simple application of his own grammar.
I'm not enough of a Tolkien scholar to know which words entered his languages when.

Re: Dúnedain etymology

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:23 pm
by Kortoso
It has a nice "woody" sound to it, that's for sure. :D

I'm more of a REH scholar, though Howard was no linguist. Perhaps I am mistaken to assume such borrowings from the Professor.

On the other hand, the promontory that Edinburgh stands upon is called "Castle Rock", not too far from George RR Martin's Casterly Rock.

Re: Dúnedain etymology

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:49 pm
by Kortoso
Anyway, my original point was that words in the legendarium that are similar or identical to historical names, cannot be copyrighted.