b3b9c8f9   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message   
      
   Bill O'Meally  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   > On 2013-08-05 15:01:32 +0000, Steve Morrison said:   
   >>   
      
   The name used by "the Mouth of Sauron" of himself and thus of his   
   master   
      
   Insofar as the external explanation is concerned, I am inclined to   
   think that Raven is right (again), and Tolkien goofed (again). This,   
   however, doesn't necessarily make it any less fun to try to come up   
   with an internal explanation :-)   
      
   >> Presumably he would have called him Tar-Mairon, which according   
   >> to /Parma Eldalamberon/ XVII was what Sauron preferred to be   
   >> called; Mairon ("The Admirable") was his original name.   
   [...]   
      
   I like this explanation :)   
      
   Except of course that the PE17 (root SAWA, p.183) states that "he   
   continued to call himself _Mairon_ the Admirable, or _Tar-mairon_   
   'King Excellent' until after the downfall of _Númenor_", so we don't   
   really know what he called himself after the downfall ...   
      
   But still --   
      
   > But that still does not explain why his soldiers would have an "S"   
   > on their shields.   
      
   Since that was Gimli believing that his soldiers might have an 'S' on   
   their shields, we can forgive him for believing that Sauron didn't   
   have other names. A bit more puzzling is Aragorn's use of 'right   
   name' in a way that clearly implies that Sauron's 'right name' (in   
   the sense that Aragorn intends) is indeed 'Sauron'.   
      
   Treebeard seems to suggest that the use of 'right names' can give   
   others a power over the one so named, 'But you should not go telling   
   just anybody. You'll be letting out your own right names if you're   
   not careful.' and after Merry and Pippin have told him their right   
   names 'I am honoured by your confidence; but you should not be too   
   free all at once.'   
      
   This would surely not be the case with the name 'Sauron' in any case,   
   so that would not be his 'right name' in the sense that Treebeard   
   implies (sure, I could come up with an ad hoc explanation to handle   
   that problem, but I'd prefer not to ;-)   
      
   This leaves us with the option that Aragorn is implying that   
   _Sauron_, the Abhorrent, is the more appropriate name, the more   
   _correct_ name, for him than his original name or whatever other   
   self-aggrandizing and self-glorifying name he used to identify   
   himself with.   
      
      
   .... and now I'm afraid I'll be trying to find that _Mythlore_   
   article on name-magic in _LotR_ before I go to bed ...   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer   
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your   
       feeling of what reality "ought to be".   
    - Richard Feynman   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)