Reply-To: elfling@egroups.com From: "Helge K. Fauskanger" To: elfling@egroups.com Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 17:58:42 +0200 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: Subject: Re: Elizabeth Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > Can anybody help me out with translating the name Elizabeth into Quenya? > > The name translates in English as "God's Oath." I think, since this is a Christian name, that the "God" it refers to would be the creator, Ilúvatar, and not one of the Valar. Yes, Hebrew _el_ is definitely best rendered as "Eru", not as "Vala". In Judeo-Christian terminology, the Valar must be called angels, though in Tolkien's mythos they have been granted wide powers and aren't just running errands for God (as in the Bible). I have also seen the Elizabeth interpreted as "God (or: my God) is Plenty", but let us work from your interpretation here. > I think that the genitive case of _Eru_ should be used, and so we have _Eruo_ for God's. For the oath part of it, Cirion's Oath gives us _vanda_ as an oath or a pledge. My problem comes in trying to put the two of these together into a feminine name. Help would be appreciated "God's oath" can be rendered _Eruo vanda_, no doubt. But as a name I would rather use a compound ("God-oath" = God's oath; cf. _Ainulindale_ "Ainu-music" = music of the Ainur). _Eruvanda_, then, but you may replace the final A with the feminine ending E to make it sound better as a fem. name: _Eruvande_. For such vowel-substitution, compare a name like _Sindicollo_ (also shortened _Singollo_) "Grey-cloak, Thingol". The final element is _colla_ "cloak", but the ending -a was replaced by the masculine ending -o when this word occurred at the end of a masculine name (see MR:385) .The feminine form could be *Sindicolle. - Helge Fauskanger