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Just a small musing on dwarf names.
Dwarf names tend to be clustered by sound, yes? There are four ending suffixes among the dwarves of the company: -in, -ur, -li and -ri. I'm just going to put the -ur ending aside for the moment, since it's from a different family, and focus on the other three, since they belong to the line of Durin.
Almost all the male dwarves of the royal line of Durin have names ending in the suffix -in. Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin. Also Frerin, Thrain, Fundin, Groin, Dain, Nain, Borin, Farin, all the way back to Durin. It seems to be the done thing that male dwarves of the line of Durin take the -in suffix.
There are two major exceptions. First, there's Thorin's grandfather and granduncles: Thror, Fror and Gror. And then, later, there are the children of the Company, all three of whom take the suffix -li instead: Fili, Kili, Gimli.
Now, I have no idea what's up with the sons of Dain I, but I wonder if the -li suffix for the children of the Company might not have something to do with the fact that they were all children born in exile? (I know the sons of Dain were also the generation that moved the line out of the Grey Mountains, also due to dragon attacks, but they were born before the move, so I don't think exile was the rationale, there).
It's slightly suggestive, too, that it's phonetically similar to the suffix -ri, which in filmverse canon at least, is used by a branch of the house of Durin with, ah, slightly seedy origins.
Does anyone know how dwarf outer names work? Do the suffixes actually mean anything? I'm curious, now. *grins faintly*
Dwarf names tend to be clustered by sound, yes? There are four ending suffixes among the dwarves of the company: -in, -ur, -li and -ri. I'm just going to put the -ur ending aside for the moment, since it's from a different family, and focus on the other three, since they belong to the line of Durin.
Almost all the male dwarves of the royal line of Durin have names ending in the suffix -in. Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin. Also Frerin, Thrain, Fundin, Groin, Dain, Nain, Borin, Farin, all the way back to Durin. It seems to be the done thing that male dwarves of the line of Durin take the -in suffix.
There are two major exceptions. First, there's Thorin's grandfather and granduncles: Thror, Fror and Gror. And then, later, there are the children of the Company, all three of whom take the suffix -li instead: Fili, Kili, Gimli.
Now, I have no idea what's up with the sons of Dain I, but I wonder if the -li suffix for the children of the Company might not have something to do with the fact that they were all children born in exile? (I know the sons of Dain were also the generation that moved the line out of the Grey Mountains, also due to dragon attacks, but they were born before the move, so I don't think exile was the rationale, there).
It's slightly suggestive, too, that it's phonetically similar to the suffix -ri, which in filmverse canon at least, is used by a branch of the house of Durin with, ah, slightly seedy origins.
Does anyone know how dwarf outer names work? Do the suffixes actually mean anything? I'm curious, now. *grins faintly*
