For fun I figured out Bliss-Friend and Elf-Friend in Hebrew

[jaredmith.livejournal.com]

On the subject of combining my Nerdiness with my love of Hebrew. Let's take a look at Tolkien's unfinished The Lost Road.

The premise involved several father-son pairs who's names all had the same meaning. The father being Bliss-Friend (though the word for Bliss often being a name for paradise) and the son being Elf-Friend. Culminating in Amandil and Elendil of the Akallabeth. The thought naturally entered my mind of what the Hebrew version of those would be.

For "friend" I could use Rea, strong number 7462, (or Reah, 7464, it's feminine form if I wanted to change the gender roles). Or Merea, strong number 4828, which comes from Rea. Reu is a Hebrew name that comes from Rea, he was the son of Peleg and ancestor of Abraham. And also the name Reuel/Raguel which means "friend of God", the equivalent to the Greek Theophilos.

For the father's name I'd use Eden, Eden does mean "delight" and "pleasure", and Tolkien clearly intended Aman to be the Eden of his cosmology in a sense. In fact I don't think it's a coincidence Aman has the same meaning as Eden, Tolkien probably knew what Eden meant.

Thing is there is no Hebrew word for Elf, of course Elf is transliterated rather then translated in all the names used in The Lost Road. But in Hebrew Elf will inevitably look like a theophoric name. But there are other words that begin with Aleph-Lamed, like the Hebrew words for Oak. Or you could begin it with Ayin rather then Aleph, like with Eden and Elown.

The precedent of Reuel also tells me which root goes first would be switched. Which would make Reueden for the father's name, and Reuelf, Reualf or Realf for the son.

For the sake of reference I'll state that the Greek names wold be Makarphilos (from Makaron Nesoi, the Isles of the Blessed in Hesiod) and Ælphilos, Alphilos or Elphilos.

http://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2016/03/pokemon-color-names-tolkien-and-hebrew.html

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Hm. Considering that in the original Lost Road, the "Bliss-friend" was Herendil and not Amandil (so, earthly bliss rather than heavenly bliss), I'd assume that Eden isn't the right choice in that context? It clearly fits for Amandil, though, of course!
I'm surprised that there's no Hebrew word for Elf - how did they translate The Lord of the Rings then? Did they just transliterate the word?

Re: Ælphilos etc. --- apparently Latin uses dryas for Elf (not Ent! I'm as shocked as you are!) in the LotR sense - for instance, Elrond is described as hemidryas. So I'd assume Dryaphilos or something of the sort would also be a legitimate choice for a Greek translation.

[jaredmith.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.....

The Hebrew word for Earth is the very similar Erets.

The Nymphs in general are very Elf like.