Dwarf Names in The Hobbit: Manuscript Sources 

One of the oldest runic inscriptions ever found has just been announced in the Norwegian media. The basic facts about, and my first impressions of, the find at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X_m2xcoU9Q0.html

Tolkien named the Dwarves in the Hobbit using the Voluspa (and poached many other names in his books from other real world sources) on a whim that I think he later regretted. Most authors would be happy to leave it at that, but Tolkien was a different breed. He'd invested an enormous amount of time and effort into his Legendarium for many years before he wrote the Hobbit (and decided to loosely tie it in to his earlier work, basically just for kicks) and it had a full system of fictional languages - so it made no sense for characters to have names in Old English, Old Norse etc. He stressed that everything in the book was "translated" from its fictional language equivalent - the characters aren't really speaking English and similarly the names aren't really the "Anglicised" ones presented to the reader. He actually gave a few of the "untranslated" names, eg "Bilbo Baggins" was the Anglicised version of "Bilba Labingi", "Frodo Baggins" was "Maura Labingi", Pippin was "Razanur", Meriadoc/Merry was "Kalimac/Kali" etc. I think he chose these names for a suitable etymology, eg "Kali" simply meant "Merry", meanwhile "Razanur" was the name of a famous traveller thus "Peregrine/Pippin". But I don't think he gave an equivalent for all the names in his writings - so I don't know if he ever provided "untranslated" names for the Dwarves in the Hobbit. However a logical approach would be to take the meanings of the names from Voluspa (where known) and translate them into Khuzdul, which I think some devoted fans have attempted.

Back in 1967, I was living in Bournemouth - about half a mile from JRR Tolkien's home (unknown to me at the time). If I'd watched this video beforehand, I could have called in and asked him to clarify these dwarfish enigmas. Another missed opportunity.

There is a remarkable medievalist in Seattle, Robin Stacey. Her main focus is Celtic, but she had a wide range of unique history classes while teaching at the University of Washington. One was a full course on Tolkien (I believe it filled up on the first day of registration). She's retired but is currently doing a lecture series, "medieval made modern". The first was in dragons, the most recent was on the origins of King Arthur- Tolkien was mentioned in both. It's almost impossible to study medieval history or European folklore & not run into names & ideas Tolkien incorporated. He did it brilliantly, beautifully & with respect. He was a historian. He was a linguist. He brought otherwise obscure references to the forefront of popular culture in an original way people are constantly trying to copy. Unfortunately, they might look up names or read Wikipedia articles & miss the complex, subtle & contextual aspects Tolkien understood. He was truly a genius. He was writing our own old stories in a new way. I wish he'd seen the Jackson movies. I suspect he'd love them, but who knows. Usually someone with mainstream success is shredded by academia as if sharing information lessens it or that knowledge should be reserved for some elite group. There's a lot I love about it, but ego can be a problem. I believe in open access, open minds & sharing what you have to give. But I've seen even the most snobbish folklorist fighting with a linguist for the right to "claim" Tolkien as one of his own. Tolkien belongs to anyone who appreciates him, even if they have no awareness that any of it has a recorded basis from which he drew.

The first audio version of the Hobbit in danish was read by the actor Ove Sprogøe. He pronunces Gandalf as *Gand-Alf.* (Or *Gan' Alf* with a silent *d,* as we like it in danish) I've always found that interesting. Ove Sprogøe is a legend.

so basically many of the name are roughly along the lines of Happy, Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, and Sneezy

It’s worth noting that, in the earliest drafts of The Hobbit, “Gandalf” was used for the character who was later renamed Thorin. Gandalf’s original name in these drafts was “Bladorthin”.

Dval- in variations in Old Norse, Swedish and Danish can mean sleep as well as delay. So, Sleepy was the only one of the True Dwarves to be reflected in the Eddas. The rare English word dwale means a soporific drink or the Deadly Nightshade.

11:07 According to Tolkiengateway, Balin might be either an invented word from Norse bál "fire," or else taken from the Balyn of Arthurian myth.

There was a Balin in the Arthurian legends, Sir Balin Le Savage, the Knight of Two Swords

Calling a dwarf and elephant is like calling a tall friend “tiny”

Interesting that the word nór for a narrow inlet is extremely archaic and almost nonexistent in Icelandic when it is still well-known in Danish and very common in place names. I suppose our sedimentary coastlines simply make that landscape feature more common here.

Jackson "I'd do anything for a nice natureshot for my viewers" Crawford, does it again. :D

I suspect Tolkien lifted the name Balin from Arthurian legend, the story of the brothers Balin and Balan.

"Balin" comes from Arthurian Legend: Sir Balin, the Knight with Two Swords. He ends up fighting his brother, Sir Balan, and the two end up killing each other.

The Hobbit was a kid's book... perhaps some of the paired rhyming names were there as a genre-specific feature? (I suspect there is a required level of Cloying Cuteness in kidlit.)

"Fil" and "Kil" in modern Swedish are still very close to those Germanic words.

Your idea of the Game of Telephone through the Ages makes sense, and here are some thoughts that go with it: If people are inclined to pass along the name of any character, and if the meaning of the handed on name gets lost, and if it's important to assign a name meaning, then I think the storyteller tries to make sense of the name by relating it somehow to a contemporary, understood word. Or the later storyteller might associate a mysterious name with a foreign language, i.e. the language of the dwarves. Or it could just be that the storyteller plays with sounds and nonsense words when naming the characters, using rhyme and alliteration, possibly just for flow in telling the story, if not memorization for retelling. I hope this makes sense. It's difficult to write an essay answer in a RU-vid comment. All the best.

Setting aside the Tolkein aspect, if you asked me why there's a random list of dwarf names in Voluspa, I would draw a parallel to the names of Santa Claus' reindeer. Over time they have mutated a bit since they've been misheard (Donder -> Donner), and new ones have been added to the list (Rudolph)

Dwarf names are set to music in Edda-inspired oratorio, The Creation of the World, by Icelander Jón Leifs. Track 10 on the album, if anyone wants to hear.

The tool's shapes provide a clue to the characters body type and their contrasting personalities. The tool reference is strong as well.

I think Balin & Dwalin, as well as Ori & Dori had the other one just thrown in there by Tolkien, to make pairs (twins?). And in the case of Nori, triplets.

Excellent and entertaining video! And fitting that you're in the cave/overhang when talking about Dwarves. :-)

Tolkien did use þrainn to name a dwarf, specifically Thorin's father (dead by by time of the Hobbit). The common formula is "Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror"

Balin and Balan are brothers in Arthurian legend. "Balin the Savage." Perhaps JRRT added it for its rhymability with Dwalin.

You've found a beautiful place for this video, wow. I love and respect Tolkien and appreciate how you've brought this together for us. Watched your video on one of the oldest runic inscriptions last week, enjoyed that. Thanks!

A tiny footnote to this fascinating video: GKS 2367 was in Copenhagen from 1662 to 1985 (as per Wikipedia) so Tolkien would have needed to go only to Copenhagen to see it. But there was an edition as early as 1848.

Thank you so much for these videos!

I'm self learning Neo Khuzdul through The Dwarrow Scholar. I love your info so much, and I have indeed gone through the info you've shared! This video is a crown jewel for me! Many thanks!

Thanks for another great video! I watched this with RU-vid subtitles turned on. The translations of Vǫluspá was fun! *grin*

My (completely amateur) thought on Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Fili and Kili is that they sound much more akin to nonsense poetry than names with intended meaning. I don't really have evidence for this conclusion but I'll list my thoughts. - It stylisticly sounds like nonsense poetry to me, there's rhythem and rhyme to these names and they're fun to say. - They sort of sound like they have been made up on the spot like every DMs favourite goblin name, Boblin the Goblin, and his brother, Goblin the Goblin. - Nonsense names said with fun intonation would be memorable even if these characters names didn't come up repeatedly in a story.

That was an interesting video. Thanks.

Another cool video!

It's just a thing poets do... "Their names were Hammer and Tongs, FIle and Chisel, Forge-elf, Wind-elf and Staff-elf, Full Moon and New Moon, North, South, East and West, and Steve.

how likely is it that something like "Bifur, Bofur, Bombur" mai have come about just because it sounds playful on the tongue? Maybe it even sounded funny to the speakers at the time, maybe it amused younger listeners. I'm asking in the sense that it may not have its origins in a certain word with a certain meaning, it might just be the result of someone exploring the sounds of their language in a playful way. Like I might make up 3 dwarves named Pik, Pak and Puk because I need three whimsical characters for a story I want to tell, and their names obviously have no older meaning, they just sound funny. Is something like that a possibility?

Good stuff

According to Saxo, two sons of old Gandalf took part in the Bråvalla battle. Grundtvig translated "Gandalf the grey", but the original has "Gandalf sene".

"Dori" made me think of the substantive "dåre", which in Danish means "fool". According to Wiktionary it stems from middle low German "dore".

Nice cave brø Great video as well, as expected

Fili and Kili meaning a mason or smith's instruments make a lot of sense.

Thank you, mate, very interesting and sustained. I wonder what Tolkien Lore thinks...

Just bought your translation of the Poetic Edda. Because the fantasy I am writing dips its toes into the world of Saxon and Old Norse ( the conceit in the story is that my tale and peoples pre-date those the Scandinavians and those people of Jutland etc, and that these languages and cultures "inherited" from my peoples), I have been looking for a good translation of the Poetic Edda. I am looking forward to a good read! In my story, btw, I have chosen not to use the word "dwarf" but use dweorg and dweorgas. I wanted to remove that culture from the world of Disney, even Tolkien, and also a couple of actors I have worked with who were uncomfortable with the word used to describe them. Also, my dweorg are not especially short compared to humans, so stepping back a few centuries linguistically seemed sensible all round.!

Interesting that the Old Norse word for elephant is fíll. It's the same in Arabic. Wiktionary says it in fact borrowed it from Arabic. Does Old Norse have other Arabic loanwords?

Dwalin/Dvalin suggest dawdle more than delay to my ear, but I'm a musician (also UCLA), not an etymologist - I'm still unpacking all the implications of PIE per^1 (from whence per, pre, for, vor, ver, etc.)

From a cave even. Thanks Doc!

In Danish a file is "en fil" and a wedge is "en kile", so it close to Fíli og Kíli.

_No,_ Jackson, from beautiful My Couch, _I_ want to wish _YOU_ all the best

And Gandalf is possibly cognate with names that occur in the Frankish and Lombard worlds like Gandolfo or Wendell

Fil, kil, nål in Swedish.

Btw, in Tolkien's stories Gandalf was _not_ an elf. He was a demigod, as stated in The Silmarillion and subtly hinted to in The Lord of the Rings.

Have you looked to what we know of Gothic for some of these dwarf names? Tolkein is known to have studied Gothic as well

If Iam not mistaken, you did another video-cast on elf names?

when you said the 'wormianus prose edda' was a very divergent version i immediately thought of the cgp grey videos about the name tiffany, and theo hearne, who wrote a bad copy of the scotichronicon, was parodied by alexander pope into a character named wormius. i know it doesnt actually follow that hearne would have written a version of another text and called himself wormianus, but it was interesting how strongly the light bulb went off. is this how bad history happens lol

Are there any modern sagas/ Edda's being written using language from the Nordic past?

Wow, he knows who gun jesus is. Name dropping Ian McCollum 21:45.

Isn't there a sword named Balin somewhere in Gaelic mythology, interpretations or inclusions in semi- fictional representations. Possibly from The Green Knight but I may have that wrong. Possibly Irish.

Is there an unspoken competition between RU-vid linguists to film in the wildest locations?

👍

If “Ori” may be referred from anger or fury, then “Dóri” sound kinda near “dåre”, as in out of your mind or mad. Kinda related?

I saw all of the names when I read it in Swedish, I think.

Hi have you listen to Fredrik Ousbäck thoughts about Rökstenen and alot moore? Format historia on the youtube Thx Pekka

Alf being used as a catch-all for lesser supernatural creatures makes sense. Obviously, I will defer to Professor Crawford if I'm mistaken, but isn't "Svartalfar" another name for Dwarves? Black elves? In all fairness, I don't remember where I got this information, but it was probably from the small Norse section of Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" or a few other books on myths I have but can't remember at the moment.

Cool video, but strange hearing how you pronounce the ö in Völuspa, etc.

Sinks Canyon?

8:24 cf. nagl: 'nail'. Not quite a tool, but probably pertinent.

Old Norse borrowed quite a few loanwords from Middle Low German so maybe that would be a more likely source for the names Fíli and Kíli than Middle High German. I don't think it's all too implausible.

What if some of the names are just supposed to sound silly, whimsical, or such as to fit the poetic meter? I can't imagine there was ever any intense backstory to Ickle Me, Pickle Me, or Tickle Me per Shel Silverstein's work.

Do the words Borjornikka, Buratja, Zvorda, or Norgavaina mean anything to you? It's unlikely, but I was feeling curious.

Did the Gimli Glider Glóin the dark?

But the most salient question regarding dwarves and similar beings is, did/do they exist? It would seem odd that beliefs in such beings could be found across North European cultures (Germanic, Celtic, etc) without some basis in reality.

I think Balin might be elvish.

Bifur = trembler, Bofur in that case is probably connected with English buff so something like thudder, thumper, and bombur connected with, you guessed it, bomb, so something like boomer (not baby-boomer).

Dvalin sounds like Dylan

Microphone is fine

You must know that a FULL reaction to watching Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and LOTR would go down like a likesBOMB on your channel?

🤤

When talking about Fili and Kili you incorrectly equate German and (the unfortunately named) Middle Low German. Those are two distinct languages from different West Germanic branches. Most West Germanic loan words into Old Norse are from Middle Low German, not from German.

"elf is a category that includes dwarf"....... Well don't let an Elf or Dwarf hear you say that, them's fighting words

my understanding was Tolkien intended the Dwarvish language to be more semitic than Germanic

I wonder if some of the names are just nonsense words? There's really no way to prove or disprove this so it's a pretty useless idea academically, but for some of them, like Dori, they very clearly rhyme with another name that might have had a genuine origin&meaning, and I wonder if these were just in-the-moment creations of some longlost storyteller, pairing off those real names.

Maybe the names are listed because the kids in the audience kept asking for them. Make up a few names and keep the children quiet.

Nóri. Arnór? Arnþór?

Do you know that you kinda look like a cowboy Don Draper?

Only just realised that ǿrr is the origin of the Swedish words yr (dizzy) and yra (to rant and rave / frenzy, delirium)