XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.inklings   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   Steve Morrison  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   > Troels Forchhammer wrote:   
   >>   
   >> I believe that he says something about the repetition of Elvish   
   >> names in the Glorfindel essays published in /The Peoples of   
   >> Middle-earth/, but as I recall it he doesn't say that Elvish   
   >> names are /never/ repeated, but that /Glorfindel/ is such an   
   >> unusual name that that particular name would never be repeated   
   >> (or words to that effect).   
   >>   
   >> Gelmir may be, in Tolkien's mind, a less unusual Elvish name that   
   >> he, if my memory is not faulty, would consider legitimate for   
   >> repetition.   
   >>   
   >> (I've got to get to a meeting, but I'll try to find the quotation   
   >> when I get back)   
   >   
   > I've looked it up, and here is the quote:   
      
   Thanks, Steve -- I knew there was something I wanted to return to, but   
   I couldn't find what it was ;)   
      
      
      
   > Perhaps then he didn't consider the Gelmirs to be sufficently   
   > important characters for the repetition of names to matter?   
      
   And / or the name _Gelmir_ to be less striking than _Glorfindel_ (at   
   least _I_ find _Glorfindel_ to be the more striking of the two names .   
   . . by a considerable margin).   
      
   > It sounds more plausible than the only other answer I've thought   
   > of, i.e. that "Gelmir" was presumably a Sindarin translation of   
   > an orginally Quenya name, and perhaps two distinct Quenya names   
   > might still have identical translations in another language.   
   >   
   > And I agree with Raven that it isn't too plausible that *no*   
   > two Elves ever had the same name, since that would require all   
   > Elvish parents to have access to some web site where all of the   
   > previously used names were listed! Although I still wonder how   
   > they were able to tell whether their newborns would grow up to be   
   > major characters or not.    
      
   As David points out, the Elves had several names in their lives. They   
   all received a mother-name and a father-name, and many of them chose a   
   self-name as well, or received some kind of by-name from their   
   environs. Some of these names were certainly repeated -- Fëanor used   
   his own father-name, Curufinwë, as the father-name of one of his sons,   
   possibly because he had himself become known by his mother-name   
   (originally Fëanáro). I think most of this is dealt with in the   
   Shibboleth of Fëanor (also from PoMe).   
      
   Most Eldar, however, were known primarily by one name (Finrod Felagund   
   being one of the exceptions), and it appears that this name is the   
   relevant one where Tolkien wouldn't repeat such a striking name as   
   Glorfindel.   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer    
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