The Detranslation Project

Naming the Fellowship
If you're writing a fanfic set in Middle-earth, and particularly if you intend to drop someone from modern Earth into the story, you may well have need of 'genuine' names for the main characters. Calling Maura Labingi 'Frodo' would be equivalent to meeting Julius Caesar and talking about 'France' - it's a wildly anachronistic translation which will get you, at best, blank stares.

It is in part to address this issue that I began the Detranslation Project, and this page chronicles the results. In the lists below, names listed with an asterisk before them are attested by Tolkien; other names are my own reconstructions.

  • Frodo Baggins - *Maura Labingi
  • Samwise Gamgee - *Banazīr Galbasi, called *Ban. His surname was usually corrupted as *Galpsi
  • Gandalf - called *Mithrandir by the Elves
  • Aragorn - *Aragorn is a Sindarin name
  • Boromir - *Boromir is a Sindarin name, and he has no other
  • Legolas - again, *Legolas is an untranslated name (Silvan Elvish, rather than Sindarin)
  • Gimli - a Norse name meaning 'fire', translating a Dalish original. My suggested translation, based on the Adunaic word for 'star', is... Gimli.
  • Meriadoc Brandybuck - *Kalimac Brandagamba, called *Kali
  • Peregrin Took - *Razanur Tūk, called *Razar or even *Raz

Since the Fellowship aren't the only people in Middle-earth, I've also translated some other names. The following list excludes anyone already named in Sindarin, Quenya, Adunaic, or any other language not translated by Tolkien. It includes Westron, Dalish/Northern Mannish, and Rohirric.
  • Bilbo Baggins - *Bilba Labingi
  • Lobelia Sackville-Baggins - *Hamanullas apparently means 'Lobelia' (the flower)
  • Rosie Cotton - *Hlothran is the surname 'Cotton'. There is a generic Adunaic word inzil, 'flower', which could give Westron Inril. Alternately, Sindarin meril means 'rose'; it could lead to the full Westron name Mirīl Hlothran.

And one final list... places, and other things in need of names.
  • The Shire - *Sūzat
  • Bag-End - *Laban-neg
  • Brandywine (River) - *Branda-nīn, jokingly corrupted as *Bralda-hīm, 'heady ale'
  • Rivendell - in addition to the archaic Sindarin *Imladris, we also have Westron *Karningul
  • Westron (!) - *Adūni means 'Westron', and *Sōval Phārė means 'Common Speech'
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