An Essay on the Sons of Fëanor by clotho123

Appendix I: Names and Appearance of the Sons of Fëanor

I’ve chosen to bracket these together as virtually everything Tolkien says about the appearance of the sons comes under discussions of their names. Names and their meanings were important to Tolkien, but he quite often came up with a name first and then tried to explain its meaning in his languages later (‘Maedhros’ seems to have given him particular trouble).

According to Tolkien the Elves (or at least the Elves of Valinor) commonly had at least two names, one given by the father and the other by the mother, they might also be given an epessë or nickname.  To complicate matters further the names of most principle Silmarillion characters are explained as Sindarin versions of names originally given in the Quenya, or High-elven, language, sometimes straightforward translations but sometimes not.  So Fëanor is a semi-Sindarised form of Fëanáro, ‘spirit of fire’, and Fëanáro is a mother name, Fëanor’s father name being Curufinwë, meaning ‘Skilled Finwë’.  Tolkien did not give both father and mother names for all of his principle characters, but he did do so for Fëanor’s sons, and the details may be found in PM 2 xi. Fëanor called all his sons ‘something-Finwë’, stressing their ancestry.  (The name ‘Finwë’ according to Tolkien had no remembered meaning.) Apparently this produced names which were rather a mouthful, for shortened forms of each are given by Tolkien in brackets.  However all the sons except Curufin preferred, and were generally called by, their mother names, and the usual forms of their names derived from these.

At a fairly early stage in his composition Tolkien produced a list of Anglo-Saxon names of most of his principal Elves.  This was part of an elaborate construction according to which the legendary stories of the Silmarillion had been brought back to England by an Anglo-Saxon mariner named Ælfwine who had accidentally found his way to Tol Eressëa. The Anglo-Saxon names of Fëanor’s sons seem mostly to be chosen for similarity of sound rather than meaning, although Dægred and Dægmund for Maedhros and Maglor are exceptions. The distinguishing epithets given to them, however, are rather more interesting and therefore names and epithets are listed here.  The details can be found in SM III.

For the sake of completeness one may note the Quenya form of the name Celebrimbor was given by Tolkien as Tyelpinquar (or Telperimpar in Telerin) and meant ‘silver-fist’.  No other name is given, and there is no clue as to whether it was father name or mother name.

Maedhros

Nelyafinwë (Nelyo), his father name, is translated by Tolkien as “‘Finwë third’ in succession”.  This sounds like Fëanor was attempting to claim the Noldor should practise strict father to eldest son primogeniture (although he would likely have expected it to be an academic question, but then as a language scholar Fëanor clearly had an academic side) and may also have been a retort to the father names of his half-brothers, Nolofinwë and Arafinwë, which we are told he was not pleased by.

His mother name was Maitimo meaning ‘well-shaped one’, “he was of beautiful bodily form”.   His Sindarin name is not a straight translation but translates as ‘well-shaped copper’ and combines elements of Maitimo with his nickname Russandol which means ‘copper-top’ and was given because he had “inherited the rare red-brown hair of Nerdanel’s kin.  Her father had the epessë of rusco ‘fox’.”  Tolkien further notes of Nerdanel’s father “He loved copper and set it above gold… He usually wore a band of copper about his head.  His hair was not as dark or black as was that of most of the Noldor, but brown and had glints of coppery-red in it.  Of Nerdanel’s seven children the oldest and the twins (a very rare thing among the Eldar) had hair of this kind.  The eldest [Maedhros] also wore a copper circlet.”

Maedhros is ‘the Tall’ in the list of Noldor princes and a few references elsewhere.  In the list of Anglo-Saxon names he is Dægred Winsterhand.  Dægred means ‘daybreak’ or ‘dawn’ and CT tentatively suggests it may be an early reference to Maedhros’s red hair.  An alternative explanation would be that at this time Tolkien was actually interpreting ‘Maidros’ to mean daybreak, or something loosely equivalent.  Tolkien certainly went through more than one interpretation of the name, in the etymologies given in The Lost Road the interpretation is ‘pale-glitter (of metal)’.  [LR 3 ]

Winsterhand means Left-hand which is also used as a nickname for Maedhros in annals made about this time.  As far as I know Tolkien always uses ‘Left-hand’ rather than ‘One-hand’, perhaps for no more profound reason than that he preferred to reserve ‘One-hand’ for Beren.

Maglor

Maglor’s mother name, Makalaurë, was said by Tolkien to be of uncertain meaning but usually interpreted as ‘forging gold’ and probably a prophetic reference to his musical skill as laurë was a word for golden light or colour, not metal.  Kanafinwë (Káno) was his father name, the first element meant “‘strong-voiced or ?commanding’ ”.

“Maglor the mighty singer, whose voice was heard far over land and sea” is how he is described in the list of princes and most other references stress his musical skill. However in Tolkien’s verse version of the tale of Húrin’s children he is ‘swift Maglor’, presumably meaning he was fast on his feet [LB I iii]. His Anglo-Saxon name is Dægmund Swinsere.  Dæg is ‘day’, mund  ‘hand’ or ‘protector’.  CT has no explanation, but I believe it was meant as a translation.  Lor in ‘Maglor’ was consistently interpreted as meaning ‘golden light’, whilst in the etymologies given in LR maЗ is ‘hand’ and ‘day-hand’ is near enough to ‘hand (of) golden-light’ to be a plausible translated name.  Swinsere means singer or music-maker.  Alone among the sons of Fëanor there seem to be no descriptions of Maglor’s appearance.

Celegorm

Tyelkormo was the mother name of Celegorm, and meant ‘hasty riser’. It is suggested that this was a reference to a quick temper, but only tentatively (so perhaps Celegorm was in the habit of getting up at the Valinor equivalent of five in the morning...) His father name was Turkafinwë (Turko) the first element  meaning “ ‘strong, powerful (in body)’”

The Anglo-Saxon name list calls him Cynegrim Fægerfeax.  Cynegrim seems to be chosen for the similarity of sound. Fægerfeax (the ancestor of the English surname ‘Fairfax’) means ‘fair-hair’. The meaning of Celegorm’s nickname has been much debated.  In modern English whilst ‘fair’ can mean a number of things ‘fair-haired’ invariably means blond or light-coloured; however it does not necessarily follow that Tolkien used the Anglo-Saxon Fægerfeax in this way.  Certainly Tolkien was well aware of the ambivalent meaning of fair, and comments on it in a note on the Vanyar.  “The name [Vanyar] referred to the hair…which was in nearly all members of the clan yellow or deep golden.  This was regarded as a beautiful feature by the Noldor… [there follows a linguistic note on the stem of ‘Vanyar’] Its primary sense seems to have been very similar to English (modern) use of ‘fair’ with reference to hair and complexion; though its actual development was the reverse of the English: it meant ‘pale, light-coloured…’ and its implication of beauty was secondary. In English the meaning ‘beautiful’ is primary.”  [WJ IV] (It is also rare in modern English: Tolkien’s habit of using ‘fair’ to mean beautiful is deliberately old-fashioned.)  So it seems not only is Celegorm’s nickname ambiguous in English it may have been so in Elvish as well!

However we do have proof that in Celegorm was originally intended by Tolkien to be blond.   A line in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, written in the 1930s, says of Celegorm “Then Celegorm arose amid the throng,golden was his long hair” [LR 2 vi, my emphasis], which is quite unambivalent.  (In the poetic version of the story his hair is ‘gleaming’ – LB III vi) This line was never rewritten by Tolkien but was removed from the published Silmarillion by CT since he felt it incompatible with his father’s later statements about Noldor colouring.  Celegorm, then, was Fair because he was blond, at least in Tolkien’s original conception, although he may also have been considered beautiful for the same reason.  It’s possible that Tolkien would have dropped the concept, along with the ‘fair’ nickname, if he had ever fully revised the legends, certainly it is a little difficult to see where Celegorm could have got blond hair from (although who knows whether elven genetics followed the same patterns as mortal ones).

Curufin

Curufin was the only one of Fëanor’s sons to use his father name, which was the same as Fëanor’s own, Kurufinwë or Curufinwë (Kurvo for short). His mother name also played on his resemblance to his father, said to be physical as well as showing in his tastes, it was Atarinkë, meaning ‘little father’.  Fëanor was “tall, and fair of face… his hair raven dark”, presumably this description fitted Curufin as well.  [S 6]

He is ‘Curufin the Crafty’ in the list of princes and Cyrefinn Fácensearo in the list of Anglo-Saxon names. Cyrefinn again seems to be chosen for sound.  On Fácensearo I can’t do better than quote CT’s note in full. “fácen deceit, guile, wickedness, (a word of wholly bad meaning); searu ‘skill, cunning, (also with bad meaning, ‘plot, snare, treachery’) [this is the first element of the name ‘Saruman’]; fácensearu ‘treachery’.”

It should be pointed out that the Anglo-Saxon translation was meant to be just that, a translation, made by the traveller Ælfwine, so Curufin’s nickname ‘the Crafty’ may not have had such a bad meaning in the original elvish as in Ælfwine’s version.  However it does demonstrate that the meaning was ‘wily’ rather than ‘skilful’, which would also have been appropriate, for although the element searu could be a reference to skill it seems that the name in full cannot.

Caranthir

His Quenya mother name was Carnistir meaning ‘red-face’ and we are told he had inherited “the ruddy complexion of his mother”.   Morifinwë (Moryo) his father name begins with the element ‘dark’ and he is also Caranthir ‘the Dark’ in the list of Noldor princes.  The reference is evidently to hair colour, Caranthir having either dark-brown or black hair (Tolkien uses both descriptions in the space of a few lines).  It is a little puzzling all the same since the Noldor were typically dark haired. Both Fëanor and Finwë had black hair, so why should Caranthir be singled out?  The Quenya element Mori could carry less than complimentary meanings, as in the term Moriquendi – Dark Elves.  Fëanor presumably did not intend any such meaning when naming his son, but it adds a certain irony that Caranthir should be the brother who insulted Thingol by calling him (inaccurately) ‘Dark-Elf’.

The reference to dark appearance crops up again in his Anglo-Saxon name ColÞegn Nihthelm.  The personal name once again seems merely a substitution of sound, although it’s worth noting col means ‘coal’.  Nihthelm would literally be ‘night-helm’ but could also be used as a poetic phrase meaning ‘cover of night’.  Either way it is plainly a translation of Caranthir’s nickname ‘the Dark’.

Amrod and Amras

Tolkien settled on these names for the twins at a fairly late stage, for a long time they were Damrod and Diriel (or Díriel).  The reason for the change is not clear.  In the etymologies published in The Lost Road Damrod is interpreted as ‘hammerer of copper’ and Diriel derived from ‘man’ and ‘joy, triumph’.  The Anglo-Saxon name list calls them Déormód  and Tirgeld  and brackets them together as huntan, ‘hunters’.

Their father names are given as Pityafinwë (Pityo) ‘Little Finwë’ and Telufinwë (Telvo) ‘Last Finwë’ (‘we’re not having more kids!’ perhaps).  Their mother names are more complicated, and tied up with Tolkien’s revision of the Losgar story.  The mother names were first given as Ambarto for Amrod (from amba ‘up’ or ‘top’ and arto ‘exalted, lofty’) and Ambarussa (‘top-russet’) for Amras. The last was meant to be again a hair reference, in Tolkien’s original conception “the first and the last of Nerdanel’s children [i.e. Maedhros and Amras] had the reddish hair of her kin”.

Almost at once however he changed his mind and decided that the twins were both red-haired, and Nerdanel called them both Ambarussa. Fëanor wanted distinct names though and “Nerdanel looked strange and…said: ‘Then let one be called Umbarto [Fated], but which time will decide.’”  Fëanor either misheard or disliked the name and changed it to Ambarto instead.  Tolkien however noted that that name was not actually used “The twins called each other Ambarussa…. [they] remained alike, but the elder grew darker in hair and was more dear to his father.”  In a note omitted from PM but published in the journal Vinyar Tengwar he added “Others called them Minyarussa and Atyarussa”, that is ‘First-russet’ (presumably Amras since he was the elder twin in this revision) and ‘Second-russet’. [VT 41]  This also suggests that if others wanted to refer to both twins they would probably have called them ‘the Russets’ (Russar).

Tolkien whilst writing this story reversed the names of the twins in the accompanying list, so that Amras (Ambarussa) who had been the younger twin became the elder, and the dead twin Amrod became the younger.  It was apparently only after the ship burning that the name Ambarto/Umbarto was permanently attached to the dead twin.  The Sindarin form of Umbarto was noted as Amarthan, ‘Fated One’, and Tolkien wrote out a list of the seven names ending ‘Amros [sic], Amarthan’, suggesting he may have considered replacing ‘Amrod’ with ‘Amarthan’ entirely.  [VT 41]

A slight oddity here is that in the same essay Tolkien gave Aegnor, the son of Finarfin, the father name Ambaráto, which was the Telerin form of Ambarto, without ever noting that this was the same name borne by one of Fëanor’s twins.  He actually stated that “The Sindarin form of this would have been Amrod; but to distinguish this from Angrod, and also because he [Aegnor] preferred it, he used his mother-name…”  One would have thought distinguishing himself from a cousin, even a dead one, who was also called Amrod would have been an even better reason for using a different name. It is also possible to wonder what Fëanor would have thought of his son sharing a name with his half-nephew (it is not known whether Aegnor was older or younger than Fëanor’s twins).