Tolkien, translations: comparison of names and titles. magical characters. "Lord of the Rings" as a symbol of classic fiction

The British writer JRR Tolkien left an indelible mark on world literature. His most voluminous and famous novel, The Lord of the Rings, remains a classic to this day. As well as the large-scale film adaptation of the same name directed by Peter Jackson. This article will tell you how it all began, and help you deal with the key characters.

History of the creation of the legend

It is unlikely that the fantasy lover, philologist and university professor Tolkien could have imagined how successful his idea of ​​​​composing a fairy tale for his own children would turn out to be. They liked it so much that the author decided to transfer it to paper. The birth of the most popular book of the 20th century has undergone many obstacles, from a large volume, which did not compare with the shortage of paper in the post-war period, ending with the unwillingness of publishers to take on a multi-volume manuscript. Tolkien got so into the taste that, together with the children, he came up with a sketch of a fictional country. In the work, she was called Middle-earth. Then the main characters were born. “The Lord of the Rings” (not many people know about it) turned out to be a kind of continuation of the writer’s early novel. The Hobbit was published in 1937. The author did not plan to deal with it further and wanted to switch to his other works. However, the publisher offered to focus on this.

Returning to the continuation, Tolkien created an entire universe with its inherent centuries-old history and wondrous nature. (For reference: most of the scenes were filmed in the picturesque corners of New Zealand). He did painstaking work to create a special caste that lives on the pages of the work. Numerous characters have become such. "Lord of the Rings" has not just a few dozen characters. All of them differ in races, are individual and do not resemble each other.

global importance

The Lord of the Rings is recognized as an epic novel. Translated into several languages, published in many countries. The volume of the work forced to divide it into three parts. Often, many modern publishing houses print them in a single volume.

The book contributed to the difference between the spheres of society and art. For example, fantastic literature, games and cinema, as well as culture in general.

Filming for the trilogy began in 2001 and ended two years later. The total fees amounted to just under three billion dollars, which was a real sensation in world cinema. The three pictures are often compared to large-scale Hollywood projects like James Cameron's Titanic. By the time of its release, the trilogy had thousands of fans and entire fan clubs, and its characters became familiar to the global audience. "The Lord of the Rings" with its deafening recognition prompted Peter Jackson to return to the director's chair in 2012 to film the prequel - "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". For comparison: the profit of the first part amounted to more than one million dollars.

Who are hobbits

Getting acquainted with the work of Tolkien or its adaptation, we first meet with representatives of the peoples of Middle-earth. They are presented as undersized little men, similar to gnomes. They do not have a beard, they like bright colors in clothes and tend to be overweight. In addition, they are distinguished by a cheerful, cheerful laugh, the ability to move quickly and instantly disappear.

"Lord of the Rings": characters

The names of the key characters are widely known to the public. The main character of the novel, like the movie, is Bilbo. This is a kind, peaceful inhabitant, living with pleasure in his house (often they are called "hobby burrows"). Its story begins with the Lonely Mountain, towards which the dwarves are heading. Huge treasures become the goal of the journey, which Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarf squad, has his sights on. The mage Gandalf joins the campaign.

The adventure turns into many dangers awaiting. The team is captured by goblins and trolls are trying to eat it, and vile creatures - spiders and wolves-wargs are also chasing. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of Gandalf and Bilbo, everyone manages to escape. Thus, Bilbo appears at first as an insecure hobbit, and then discovering new possibilities in himself, serving in the name of salvation.

Bilbo's nephew is Frodo. He got the estate and the magic Ring. Together with his friends, he was declared a hero, often taking part in wars and uprisings of hobbits. He was writing the chronicle of the War of the Ring in the Scarlet Book, started by his uncle. Frodo was often subjected to soul-tormenting thoughts about the Ring, as a result, he decided to go to the West with Bilbo.

The so-called Mayar race can be attributed to the spirits from the universe of Ea. Some characters are represented by the natives of this group. “The Lord of the Rings” in its entire trilogy includes one of the central characters, who always follows along and helps Bilbo, the wizard Gandalf. The Third Age was marked for him by the fact that he was sent to Middle-earth to fight against Sauron. Often visited the Shire. A kind character, not chasing glory. Lover of travel, owner of one of the three elven rings.

This article contains a non-standard approach to understanding the legacy of JRRT, in terms of the lifetime published work “The Lord of the Rings”, which is fundamentally new in comparison with the accepted versions about the roots of The Lord of the Rings in European folklore and is a personal and original development of the author of the article. Reprinting, quoting and reposting are allowed freely, provided that a link to my site is provided. The article contains only text with minimal illustrations: if you want to see rich graphic material, then at the bottom of the article there is a link to my video on it on my YouTube channel Excellentricks: the art of analytics.

I have been offering parts of this material for publication in various journals of pseudo-scientific and more or less decent topics since the late 90s of the XX century, but they either did not arouse the interest of the editors or could not be published due to funding difficulties. With the advent of YouTube (and my desire to experiment with it) - I had the opportunity to present the results of my research on Tolkien's work in a format convenient for perception and distribution. Happy reading!

Tolkien's Mysteries: Secrets of The Lord of the Rings

You will learn the secrets of the creation of The Lord of the Rings:
What inspired Tolkien to create VK and why did it take him so long to write it?

Where are the real prototypes of VK?

Where did the list of the kings of Gondor come from in the 19th century photograph?

What is the connection between Tolkien, Clive Lewis and the "occultist" Aleister Crowley?

What riddles Tolkien encoded in the names of the characters?

On the role of Jews, Nazis, Africans and Indians in Tolkien's work.

And also little-known facts about VK, who is Tom Bombadil, and, finally, whether Aragorn wore pants!

Let's start with a riddle: Isildur and Anarion: What are these words? Any fan of The Lord of the Rings will immediately remember the two sons of the founder of the United Kingdom and the first High King of the Men of the West, Elendil the High. Isildur and Anarion were co-rulers of the Southern Kingdom, one of two kingdoms founded in Middle-earth by refugees from Numenor. The more attentive fan will remember that Isildur inherited the throne of the High King, who was in the Northern Kingdom and for some time single-handedly ruled the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom lasted about 2,000 years and died in the war with Angmar, and part of its surviving population became a closed wandering people, the Dúnedain of the North, "Pathfinders of the North", ruled by the descendants of the renunciate kings. The Southern Kingdom lasted one and a half times longer, about 3,000 years, and only miraculously was not captured by Sauron. And the reader, who was interested in Tolkien's linguistic heritage, will point out the origin of the names from the words "Moon" and "Sun", and add that the coat of arms of the House of Elendil depicts the White Tree, the Seven Stars and a high crown above them.

All this is true, but ... What if isildur and anarion, of course in Latin spelling, is it an anagram? For example, like this: " israil nor iudan" which is very similar to "Israel nor Judah" ( Israel is not a Jew). And if among the readers of The Lord of the Rings there are lovers of ancient history, or at least people who have read the Bible, they will immediately remember Saul, the first King of the people of Israel, who is a head taller than his fellow tribesmen, the founder of the united Kingdom of Israel. The ancient biblical Kingdom of Israel broke up into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judea). At the same time, according to the Bible, the Northern Kingdom, although it inherited the name of the United Kingdom, lasted only 200 years and was completely destroyed in the war with Assyria, and its population dispersed, giving rise to legends about the “lost tribes of Israel”. The southern kingdom lasted one and a half times longer - about 300 years until the capture by Babylon. And now, if we consider the symbolism of the refugees from Numenor: the Tree and the Seven Light Stars above it, depicted on the Coat of Arms of the House of Elendil (see, for example, the picture on the authoritative Tolkien resource Wikipalantir (http://ru.lotr.wikia.com/)) and on the Menorah (menorah) on the Coat of Arms of modern Israel, then the conclusion that such coincidences are not accidental suggests itself.

This is far from the most interesting or important part of my research. But if I managed to interest you, then I will prefer to present my observations in a natural direction without spectacular jumps ahead and I will gradually lay out trump cards on the table, gradually reaching the trump ace - the correspondence of events in the considered fantasy world of Middle-earth that I discovered to the data of Tolkien's modern historical science .

I guarantee to break the pattern of perception of Tolkien's work and "brain removal", and in return you will receive answers to many seemingly insoluble mysteries discovered by numerous researchers of Tolkien's legacy, admire the skill with which he placed clues for us in the universe of "Lord of the Rings" and, most importantly, get a chance to understand the true essence of Tolkien's works.

Tolkien's main literary legacy consists of three independent, diverse works: Silmarillion», « hobbit" and " Lord of the Rings which we now perceive as a whole. As you know, Tolkien rather accidentally hyped up with the unpretentious children's book The Hobbit, the text of which, apart from a few names, has nothing to do with the other two and contains many inconsistencies. For example, in the first edition of The Hobbit, the elf Elrond calls the ancient swords found in the trolls' lair "gnomes", meaning not dwarf dwarves, but ancient blacksmith elves (as if the Professor was inspired by Russian translations, where dwarves are always "gnomes" ). And The Silmarillion, a highly fragmented collection that grew out of his teenage fantasies, was more or less systematic and published only by his son, after the death of the Professor, and, strictly speaking, should be considered fan fiction based on Tolkien's drafts.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Internet had not yet been invented, and many teenagers within the framework of European culture invented fantastic countries, drew maps. Thus, since the beginning of the 1930s, the inhabitants of the Soviet Union have been able to travel to the fantasy country "Shvambraniya" - a product of children's fantasies of the writer Lev Kassil on the theme of Jules Verne and Fenimore Cooper, described in not the most, in my opinion, fascinating story "Konduit and Shvambraniya" - and how many such fantasies have not been framed in the form of books! As an illustration of the mechanics of fantasy story formation, Kassil's book provides a lot to understand Tolkien. Kassil dreamed of "Steam houses" and "Pioneers of the Wild West", and Tolkien "fairies (fairy) of the West" and "Old Testament", weaving the events of the surrounding world into his stories. “The Lord of the Rings” is a multifaceted work and reflects, in a sense, not only Tolkien’s conscious intentions, but also many elements that may have ended up in VK without special intent, secretly leaked from his childhood fantasies or accidentally coincided with the events of a real measure (although, according to In my opinion, despite the Professor's subsequent comments, Tolkien has no coincidences in The Lord of the Rings: everything is meticulously placed in its place).

Therefore, despite our desire, Tolkien's three books are fundamentally different and completely independent in time, geography (even in the direct Tolkien sense) and the format of the work, and it is completely naive to consider them as a single whole. In addition, figuratively speaking, VK is a unique diamond, during the cutting of which not only debris and diamond dust were removed, but also many small but valuable diamonds, however, Tolkienists are trying to understand the beauty of a diamond by attaching chipped fragments to it and fumbling in production waste, i.e. they are looking for some new truth in some comments of the Professor after the fact, fragments of drafts and draft versions, letters, memoirs of his relatives and colleagues. Tolkien, judging by the published documents, tried to unite all his works into one universe, but he did not advance further than making some edits during reprints and writing multi-variant and ambiguous drafts. It is a real pleasure for fans to get acquainted with such fragments of stories and variants of names, but, obviously, all these pieces are more of a waste of writer's labor, and in no way part of some kind of writer's intention to create a multivariant history of Middle-earth in the spirit of alternative realities of science fiction works like "The Coming of Quantum cats” (The Coming of the Quantum Cats) by Frederick Pohl. Thus, everything that Tolkien did not publish, let alone complete, although he had both the time and the opportunity, despite our common desire to know a little more, is not part of the VC universe and, by and large, should be ignored.

We usually perceive the world of Middle-earth as a place inhabited by the literary relatives of the heroes of the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian epics, identical to the European Middle Ages. Numerous fans, followers and imitators of Tolkien (largely at his suggestion) have developed and consolidated in the public mind the image of high representatives of the white race, heirs of the ancient tradition of the West, who, in the armor of European knights, are fighting Absolute Evil and its minions from the East. For these ideas, many researchers reproach Tolkien with anti-intellectual conservatism, up to the hidden propaganda of German racism and other "isms". But this pseudo-medieval European world has practically nothing to do with the world described in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkienists have a well-known meme "Aragorn's pants" which means that Tolkien did not have the opportunity to describe all the elements of his universe (he did not write anywhere that Aragorn wore pants), but since the action takes place in the "medieval European world" that is how Tolkienists are convinced the pants he wore. And they are wrong. Most likely, Aragorn went without pants. For, if you carefully analyze the novel based on the text, and not from illustrations and conjectures, then the actions took place not in conditional Europe, but ... in Africa!

Now the reader's head will most likely flash through a set of titles and names from the VC, which are taken by Tolkien from the European epic and, according to a common misconception, are proof of the medieval Europeanness of the VC. These words are patches of a European camouflage net thrown over an African elephant. Indeed, Tolkien regretted the absence of his epic in England and, it seems, sought to recreate the "lost stories". At the same time, he was a very devout Catholic, that is, an adherent of a monotheistic religion that has its roots in ancient Judaism, and in fact the corresponding religious worldview is almost the opposite of Scandinavian and German polytheistic ideas. And Tolkien treats the epic without reverence, like medieval Christians with pagan temples: for example, in the "Elder Edda", in the "Speech of the High" Dain and Dwalin are not just names, but the names of the "supreme god" among various mythical peoples, or, at least the names of deer from the center of the universe in the "Speech of Grimnir". And what about Tolkien? These are the names of dwarfs, translated in Russian fantasy as "gnomes" - sometimes described in Tolkien's works as an extremely unpleasant people of the second plan, although they are participating in the fight against Sauron.

This, if you mirror Tolkien's approach, in the Bible would sound like this: Jehovah and Sabaoth (the names of the "supreme god"), together with the Jerusalem crowd, shouted "Hosanna" to Jesus, riding a donkey into the city gates. However, Tolkien, despite his knowledge of the Northern European epic, used its elements in a completely utilitarian way, not caring about their "true essence" - approximately, as at the same time, the author of Conan, Robert Howard, just as arbitrarily took the names and names of different countries and eras and mixed them into a bizarre cocktail: so the Cimmerian barbarian he calmly fights with the Zaporizhian Cossacks.

By the way, under the walls of Minas Tirith, Tolkien's heroes are fighting with ... the Varangians (Variags of Khand) - The professor uses tracing paper from the Russian word "Varangian", instead of English - "Varangian". And in the drafts of The Hobbit, the werewolf-Beorn was generally called "Medved". No, Europeanized names and place names should not be misleading. Being a philologist and linguist, Tolkien reverently approached words and names, came up with whole languages ​​and meaningful names even for his minor characters, and if he made a mix of the sacred names of the northern tradition, then, obviously, this was within the framework of the implementation of the author's intention: to hide the secret of VK from ignorant crowd with a veil of Nordic names.

Interestingly, Tolkien indirectly confirmed the possibility of localizing Gondor in Africa. The fact is that from 1635 to 1855 the capital of Ethiopia was in the city ... Gonder! In this city, located on the northern coast of the island of Tana, there is an old stone fortress built with the help of skillful overseas architects (Portuguese, not Numenoreans), called by the name of the founder of the city - Fasil Ghebbi. As well as medieval Christian and Jewish places of worship, baths and a city wall with towers. Gondar was looted and burned by another Islamist group at the end of the 19th century. Tolkien, when asked about the Gondor/Gonder relationship, explained it as a completely coincidental, albeit interesting, coincidence. The coincidence, of course, can be attributed to fantasies of adventures leaked from childhood in Africa, or explained by the unconscious reflection of newspaper reports, since in 1941 Mussolini's high command of the troops was located there (this is not a joke, Italy twice ineptly invaded Ethiopia).

But I am confused not only by the coincidence of the names of Gondor / Gonder, but also by some parallelism: there are many stone buildings, the fortress is named after the founder, the name Fasil Ghebbi seems to me consonant with Minas Tirith, the ancient name Lalibela - Roha is easily audible Rohan, located on on the opposite shore of Lake Tana, the city of Bahar Dar in English spelling is similar to Barad-Dur, and where Barad-Dur is, there is Gorgorath ( Gorgoroth) - a peninsula on Lake Tana and the city of the same name Gorgora (Gorgora); the attack is not simple invaders, but the confrontation of "good" and "evil" in the form of Christians against Islamic fanatics. By the way, about the "Valley of Horror" Gorgorat covered with ashes - at the turn of the 1930s, the Ethiopian desert with the very Tolkien name Danakil was discovered for European science - the lowest place in all of Africa, suffocatingly hot and dry, with sparse vegetation and lakes of sulfuric acid and poisonous gases accompanying volcanic activity - if this is not a "valley of horror", then something very similar to it. Perhaps Tolkien consciously reflected Gonder in Gondor after all, I do not believe that a professor, in his full bloom, who himself fought in the First World War, was so immersed in inventing Gondor that he missed the information about Gondar. The name, I think, was chosen by Tolkien on purpose, in order to disguise, through distraction, the inverted map of Africa, which, as we will see below, underlies the structure of Middle-earth. No one in their right mind, having found Gondar lying on the surface and sounding in the news and comparing it with Gondor, will continue to dig in the African direction: well, what author will draw inspiration from the history of the Negroes of Ethiopia? So, it's just a coincidence, that's all. By the way, several articles of Russian-speaking travel bloggers about Ethiopia are easily googled: according to them, they seem to have made a "Journey to Middle-earth in Ethiopia" - the parallels with Tolkien are directly evident there: and I, therefore, am very sorry that their the authors were not familiar with my research: most likely, "on the spot" you can see something really new and unexpected, inaccessible from books and maps, if, of course, you know in advance what to look for.

And there are a couple of other little things. Remember how Saruman imprisoned Gandalf at the top, and not in the dungeon of the tower of Orthanc? So, perhaps, this was inspired by the events of Ethiopian history, when the founder of Gondar, Fasiledes, imprisoned his rebellious son ... on a mountain top! It was an exclusive way of imprisoning members of the Ethiopian imperial house. And yet, along with the remains of Fasilides, the mummified body of his 7-year-old son is buried in the monastery: why not the remains of Merry or Pippin, buried in the tomb of the Gondorian kings on Rath Dinen? Well, in addition, in Ethiopia, the negus emperors from the ancient Solomon dynasty, descended from the biblical Solomon, ruled, and on this basis they forcibly removed the dynasty of prince-rulers of Zagwe from power. In my opinion, this is very similar to the concept of "the return of King Elessar" to the throne of Gondor, by right of the "descendant of Isildur" with the removal of the dynasty of governor-rulers from power. In any case, this proves that at the stage of the development of the VC world, Tolkien could not play with the image of the expected return of King Arthur from the corresponding European legends generally accepted by the Tolkien community, but draw from Ethiopian history more pompous ideas of the accomplished return to the throne of the king from the line of Solomon. Tolkien is clearly not indifferent to Solomon: according to some researchers of Tolkien's heritage, Gollum asks Bilbo riddles about darkness and time from the text of a similar contest between the biblical Solomon and the ancient Roman Saturn, given in the old English poem Solomon and Saturn.

There is practically no Europe in the sense of country studies either: in fact, in The Lord of the Rings, places are more or less similar to Europe, these are only elements of the rural life of hobbits and the Prancing Pony inn. The climate is clearly non-European: Appendix A to the VC mentions a certain anomalously cold Forodwaith region with "bigfoot" and their polar-Eskimo paraphernalia - magically existing just a hundred hours walk (one hundred leagues) from the temperate climate of the Shire thanks to the remnants of Morgoth's magic (to this we'll be back to the people), there are small mentions of a natural disaster - a frozen river in the Shire and snow and blizzards in the mountains, that's all! Moreover, in February, the heroes sail boats and walk through the green forests. And 30 hours walk from the capital of Gondor, lives a tribe of tanned painted forest savages Druedain, dressed in grassy skirts and transmitting information over a distance with the help of drums and clearly not met with European winters. If you haven’t guessed yet, then Tolkien lives near the capital of the ancient and arrogant kingdom and corresponds to the stereotypes of the first half of the 20th century, the reference tribe of blacks in skirts made of grass and telegraphing on tom-toms. These savages do not carry any plot necessity, but they have a more valuable property - the author inserted them frankly alluding to Africa and the proximity of the heirs of Numenor and Africans.

Let's try to look in Africa for other peoples of Middle-earth: now we will talk about hobbits, there are many versions about the origin of their name, but who are they in essence? According to Tolkien, they are humanoid creatures, short but not dwarfs, highly skilled at throwing stones, archery, and disguise, live in round houses, and have furry feet that do not require shoes. Of all these signs, shaggy feet attract the most attention: and, according to a well-known trick of magicians, they distract from the rest of the signs. In the Russian translation, usually, the absurdity and obvious artificiality of shaggy feet is greatly smoothed out due to the traditional translation "shaggy legs" instead of "shaggy feet".

The most ingenuous part of readers takes Tolkien's words at face value, as he, being in a trance from the monotonous check of student papers and lack of money, unexpectedly wrote on an empty sheet about a hobbit sitting in a hole. More inquisitive, who do not believe in the story of "automatic writing", are satisfied with the versions about the rabbit man (HOmo raBBIT) or the brownie (Hobgoblin). By the way, I’m willing to bet that the well-known technique of “automatic writing”, popular with English mediums of the early 20th century to receive “messages from the spirits”, you have never previously associated with Tolkien’s story about the invention of the word “hobbit” and considered his story just a writer’s story about his creativity. Well, the most meticulous, by their hairiness, recognize the hero in the hobbit, perhaps the world's first fantasy cycle - Kipling's furry elf Puck from "Puck of Pook's Hill" (in the USSR, instead of the dissonant "Puck from Pook", fragments of this brilliant work were published as "Tales of the Old England"). And on this they calm down. And behind the shaggy feet they do not see the people who have the skills of primitive hunting, living in round houses and having a small stature, but not dwarfs - namely, African blacks - pygmies. The stereotypical dwelling of an African Negro for a European is a round house made of plant parts. And the growth of the pygmy is significantly inferior to the European, although not by half. It is interesting to note here that the Greek word "pygmies" itself means "people the size of a fist" and in some old fiction there are reports that pygmies are half the size of Europeans.

Speaking of fiction: it is appropriate to recall that Tolkien "transmitted" the universal language of Middle-earth, Westron, in English. Therefore, Anglicised Hobbit names, such as Frodo Baggins and Meriadoc Brandybuck on the "original" Westron, respectively, would be Maura Labingi and Kalimac Brandagamba. The words themselves - "Labingi" and "Brandagamba" - sound like a stylization of conditionally Negro, made by a teenager fantasizing over an adventure book: compare them, for example, with the names of Negroes from Haggard's novel "King Solomon's Mines": Ingozi, Gagula, Twala, Fulat, etc.

And why did Tolkien use hair on the feet far behind the ears, and not something else? Most likely, the matter is as follows: Tolkien with the hobbit Mr. Baggins, like his highly intelligent rival friend, Clive Lewis, with the faun Mr. Tumnus definitely makes a conditionally central character a creature with legs covered with wool to one degree or another, while Tolkien additionally refers to the practical absence of shoes among hobbits in winter, and Lewis was inspired to create Narnia by the image of a faun walking through a snowy forest that came to his mind. And the names of the characters are consonant. This is a clear consequence of some kind of joint discussion or exchange of ideas. Let me remind you that they were very close - to the point that Tolkien convinced Lewis to become a Christian again in 1930, and given, as is commonly believed, some, at times significant, envy of Tolkien towards Lewis, it is likely that competing firms included similar products in their product line. models with absolutely unimportant for the development of the plot characteristic signs of hair growth of the lower extremities, in a sense, declaring their rights to this obviously secondary image. Although the successes of Narnia and the Hobbit are not at all due to the hairy legs of their heroes. I have no desire to discuss this topic, especially since, in my opinion, there were rather mutual claims: given, as I will show below, based on a multidimensional encoded display of real world events and, as a result, Tolkien's very slow manner of work and high speed and the apparent ease of Lewis writing books, he was the generator of many ideas). Other similar Baggins / Tumnus parallels of VK (especially the first part) and the Chronicles of Narnia like: Aslan-Aragorn, 4 "little people" - a symbol of ordinary Englishmen, a weapon from a bearded wizard, a dwarf and a "forest witch", the return of the king and prophecy, etc. d. let's leave it behind the scenes - it is better to read about them from professional literary historians.

In general, "hairy feet" is a trick by which Tolkien on the one hand hid the pygmies, and on the other gave a hint to the thoughtful reader, thanks to its sheer absurdity. In this context, it is easiest to assume that the characters and plots of VK are largely inspired by the echoes of childhood fantasies of a typical child of the late 19th and early 20th centuries about African adventures: a pathfinder-ranger in the company of black porters and guides travels on the banks of the Limpopo in search of treasures. But in this case, easier does not mean more correct: although the "African trace", at least leading from childhood - Tolkien was born and lived in South Africa for the first three years - is obviously present in his work. Tolkien is a great writer: everything cannot be so banal with him: and monumental architecture and architecture will help us in further investigation.

To begin with, remember that a few years before the publication of The Hobbit, the English woman archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson (Caton-Thompson, Gertrude),

explored the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe - a stone city in South Africa, built by the ancestors of the Negro Shona people (she was the first to begin to prove that it was the ancestors of the Shona Negroes who were the builders of the stone city atypical for Negroes, and not at all an unknown departed ancient people). She published her work in 1931, later - in 1980, according to the name in the Shona language "stone houses" and the whole country of Zimbabwe got its name. Accordingly, the issue of ancient builders is highly politicized there.

A characteristic feature of the buildings of Great Zimbabwe that have come down to us are very small, no higher than one and a half meters, doorways, very narrow passages between the walls, the remains of mines in which only very short people could work and steps that only a child could climb, the general the roundness of the forms of buildings - all this served as the basis for the version of the existence in relative antiquity of a variety of pygmies who built stone houses and walls in Zimbabwe. In my opinion, this is the physical "Shir" and sooner or later corresponding excursion routes will appear there. And the mysterious Tower of Amon-Sul, perhaps, corresponds to the tower without windows and doors from Great Zimbabwe, incomprehensible to archaeologists (I remind you that I only prove the connection of the events of the VC with the historical data of Tolkien's time, and do not research the real world).

And so, in Tolkien's narrative, there are constantly abandoned ruins of ancient colossal buildings, the remains of towers and roads, monumental sculptures, and there is also a constant reference to the forgotten skill of ancient builders, for example, the Orthanc tower, built by the Numenoreans, could not even be slightly damaged by walking plants -Ents, who had previously razed to the ground the other fortifications of Saruman's fortress. Who, as Tolkien emphasized, was the chief sage, but even he, in his quest for perfection, could not surpass the building art of the ancients. Where in Europe will you find such majestic ruins and gigantic sculptures that Frodo meets even in Mordor? But in Africa there is Egypt! You must admit that the remains of ancient Roman aqueducts, statues and even the Colosseum cannot be compared with the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx and the Valley of the Kings! It can, of course, be considered that the remains of the ancient Roman civilization, coupled with medieval castles, quite fully correspond to the background of the VC. But, Tolkien, in his style, puts in front of everyone a huge confirmation of the Egyptian version: this is Argonath, which marks the ancient border of Gondor, that is, the Gates of Gondor and the Pillars of Kings (Gates of Gondor, The Pillars of Kings), two giant statues, near which the longest the river of Middle-earth, the Anduin, spills into Lake Nen Hithoel and forms the Rauros waterfall, which is impassable by boats, to bypass which the Northern Staircase was built on the western bank of the Anduin.

The whole complex is definitely an ancient Egyptian Elephantine- the city of the same name and the island near the first rapids of the Nile, on which the Egyptians had the fortress "Open Gates", marking the border of Egypt. On the right (eastern - please remember) bank of the Nile in Elephantine, goods were transported by land, bypassing the rapids. The prototype, in fact, of the giant statues of the Pillars of Argonat is, apparently, the Colossi of Memnon - two 18-meter statues, which, although they are not located at all in Elephantine, but due to the peculiarities of the construction, when the Nile floods, they appear, as it were, in a lake, which fully corresponds to image of the Pillars of Argonath with a lake at their base.

Tolkien, again, by deliberate absurdity in the description of the Pillars, at the same time distracts attention from the comparison with Egypt and confirms the Egyptian version: the kings of Gondor, Isildur and Anarion, depicted as giant statues in their right hands, have completely non-royal-Númenorean items - axes (and not swords or scepters) and they more than strangely "warn" with the open palms of the raised left hands. Tolkien describes the statues, emphasizing the natural wear of the statues from time to time, but points to raised hands - obviously not easy like this: raised hands will break off statues in the first place, axes are a sign of dwarves or Easterlings ("Easterlings with axes"), and not great kings - for sure, this is another riddle-hint of the author, pointing to Africa and Egypt.

The Nile, like Anduin, is the largest river flowing approximately along the meridian (from South to North - the Nile, and Anduin from North to South). This will serve as our benchmark. In my opinion, it is obvious that Tolkien mirrored Africa and got Middle-earth! South changed to North, and East to West. Then Mordor is located west of the Nile, in the Sahara, and Gondor is on the site of Ancient Egypt. The Shire ends up in Tolkien's homeland, South Africa (populated by Europeans, interspersed with blacks - hence the descriptions of European life in the Shire). The comparison of Argonat-Elephantine with this inversion receives additional confirmation - a little higher I asked you to remember that in Elephantine the rapids were bypassed along the right bank, as in Argonat, and after the mental inversion West / East these places coincide. The Congo Marshes and the Sudd Swamp are the Mediterranean Dead Marshes, the Blighted Marshes at the site of the ancient battle at Dagorlad, and the Anduin Wetlands are really dull and dead places. Do you still believe that Tolkien was sincere in his subsequent clarifications when he said that the image of these swamps was inspired by the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest pages of the First World War?

What about Mordor, where are the mountains, the volcano and the eye of Sauron? Is it in the Sahara? That's right: in ancient times, the Sahara was a fertile region, with green vegetation and rivers ... but everything disappeared and only sand and rare oases remained. Let's remember the Brown Plains ( Brown Lands - "brown lands") from Tolkien and is comparable with one of the versions of the origin of the name of the desert from the ancient Arabic "sahra" - "red-brown" (by the way, one of the versions of the appearance of the word "sugar" in Russian is a borrowing from Arabic in appearance of the original brown color of unrefined cane sugar ). According to Tolkien, after the destruction of the ring and the fall of Sauron, all his undertakings collapsed (in the famous film trilogy, the armies of Sauron banally fell into the ground), one might say, turned into dust and sand.

Tolkien rejected the comparison of the Ring of Omnipotence with an atomic bomb, but this only means that he was not satisfied with the simplification "they threw the ring into a volcano and everything exploded": he did not deny the possibility of some local apocalyptic phenomenon, much larger than the bombing of the paper houses of Hiroshima.

Now it will be very hot: in the Sahara there is a huge object visible from space, which until recently was considered an impact crater at the site of a large asteroid impact or the crater of an ancient supervolcano. This is the so-called "Rishat Structure" (Guel-er-Rishat), also known as " Eye of the Sahara»! Eye of Sauron! And the supervolcano version, isn't that the source of inspiration for Tolkien's creation of the Orodruin volcano?
Wikipedia regulars may, criticizing my research, refer to the fact that Tolkien could not have known about the "Eye of the Sahara", 50 km in diameter, since this object was discovered by NASA in photographs from space in 1965, becoming like the worst part of "alternative historians" in this ”, confident in the impossibility of compiling accurate geographical maps by our recent ancestors due to the lack of satellite photography and GPS. Do you still doubt my version that Middle-earth is Africa? Move on!

Let's look for some other objects of Gondor that stand out for their unnaturalness and try to find their prototype in Egypt. I don’t know about you, but even at the first reading of VK, it seemed to me completely useless for the plot of the island of Cair Andros, on which nothing directly happens, but only in telegraphic style Tolkien reports how at different times it was hardly occupied by the superior forces of the enemies of Gondor and how then they were always easily knocked out of there. Its name, translated from the language of the elves, Tolkien explains by the similarity of the island to a huge ship with a high prow.

I hope you have already tried to compare Cair Andros with the Egyptian capital city of Cairo? And the fact that the most expensive place in the center of Cairo is the island of Gezira, which has the shape of a ship with a sharp nose, I think you will not be able to surprise much.

And, for example, if you have ever vacationed in Egypt on the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea, you may have been served by the inhabitants of the city of Belqas - this is their traditional occupation, since the city is located in the Nile Delta, only 30 km. from the sea. And now the name of the coast of Gondor Belfalas (Belfalas), which means "big beach" - a little strange for the Elvish language - will not surprise you at all.

You can still look for correspondences between Egypt of different eras and Gondor for a long time, but, in my opinion, it does not make much sense to continue listing obvious comparisons like Stonewain Valley, Quarry Valley of Gondor, ancient Egyptian quarries after almost 100% coincidence of names and the relative location of the above objects.

But to complete the theme with the inversion of the map of Africa, I will point to the Umbar corsairs (The Corsairs of Umbar), consonant with the real Barbary corsairs, clearly sailing from Tolkien's childhood fantasies - hello to them from the pirates of Shvambrania. The locations of the Umbar corsairs exactly coincide with The Barbary Coast of North Africa when we inverted the map. I note that the term “Corsairs” used by Tolkien means a private trader who has officially acquired a license from a belligerent state to seize the ships of another state. Tolkien does not just use the term pirate pirate, but directly refers to sailors with letters of marque from the authorities, further confirming the coincidence Umbar/Barbar. And again, in the VC, only the ranger-Aragorn cares about the corsairs - either he incognito commands a victorious raid on Umbar, or he, in his “true appearance”, inclines the army of the dead to seize the ships of the corsairs - and although all this led to the defeat of the forces of Mordor from Minas Tirith, but for some reason it takes place “behind the scenes” of the main events of VK (because with a detailed description, most likely, it would become too noticeable how a tracker or traveler in Africa from childhood fantasies fights with Barbary corsairs).

Such multiple “coincidences” with the real world are generally the visiting card of Tolkien’s works: even in the unfinished and compiled Silmarillion, the coincidence of names does not seem to me to be accidental, for example:
Vanyar ( Vanyar) - the most important and noble of the clans of the elves, the first of the elves who appeared in Middle-earth, who came to Valinor (a country named after the gods Vala - « the forces of Arda- "Valar, Powers of Arda"), where most of the elves moved later, with the exception of a small number of little-known Avari(Avari, which means "refused"), who did not want to leave their homeland.
And Vanniyar- a large caste of the Tamil (indigenous) population living in the forests of South India, from the end of the 19th century, actively pursued a policy of recognition as kshatriyas, but officially consolidated their "noble" status of "warrior-rulers" only in 1931. According to their version, Vanniyar comes from the Dravidian " val» - « force(strength)" and their caste ruled South India until it was conquered by Aryan aliens. A small part (about 10%) of the Tamils ​​practice their own branch of Hinduism, called in English Ayyavazhi, which in Tamil sounds ... Ayyavazhi which means "way of the father".

For interest, you can compare the Tamil alphabet, as well as the Indian Devanagari alphabetic-syllabic script (attempts to introduce it instead of Tamil in the late 50s of the 20th century caused violent protests in the South of India) and the elven alphabet Tengwar, which is consonant with the last name.

In contrast to the Daeron alphabet similar to the North European runes, consonant Devanagari and Tengwar clearly have significant graphic similarities. Again, the years of PR of the Vanyar-Kshatriyas and the years of the creation of the Vanyar-Elves coincide here, there is “val” with the meaning of “strength” both there and there, there are secondary Avars who remained in their homeland and the secondary “path of the father” Ayyavazhi.

This is Tolkien's style of work: a reflection of the main elements of events from the ancient or modern history of the real world in the VK universe: he is a linguist and philologist, the Professor directed all his creativity to the creation of fictional languages, and he had to borrow the rest of the VK entourage from everywhere and painstakingly mask (which is not at all detracts from his merits as the author of one of the greatest works of literature).

But let's return to the world of VK and take a closer look at the name of the primitive people "snow people", who, mainly out of fear, help the King of Arnor. Tolkien calls them "a strange unfriendly people, the remnants of people from a distant past" and gives them a name as strange and incomprehensible, both from the standpoint of fictional languages ​​​​from his works, and for the English-speaking reader. Lossoth, consonant with the Russian name for salmon fish. And the forest savages who are hunted like animals, Tolkien calls in the language of the elves people, Druedain, which clearly hints at their proximity to the descendants of the Numenoreans, the Dunedain (I do not take into account the probable connection of these ethnic groups, as well as any consequence from the texts of The Silmarillion for the reasons given at the beginning).

I emphasize that Tolkien’s explicit blacks are “edain”, and not some kind of derivative, like the minions of Sauron Easterlings, this is not a random word! So maybe the Eskimo-like people, riding in sleds and living in snowy igloo houses, carry some kind of semantic load? Why does Tolkien give them a name not derived from the English salmon - salmon? For example, it would be quite in his spirit to call them some kind of "Salmonlings". If he strongly emphasizes their attributes of northern natives, why then use the name Lossoth, which is incomprehensible to an Englishman? Maybe this is not an analogue of the Eskimos - Tolkien offers us this primitive image very strongly. And why is it extremely important for him to use the word Lossoth - after all, this gives rise to a clear contradiction with the name of the “densely populated flowering valleys” of Southern Gondor - Lossarnach, from where reinforcements arrive to Minas Tirith? This is clearly not a random word - Tolkien describes both the warriors who arrived from there, and the reasons for their small number. Tolkienists usually leave this contradiction, referring to the fact that the name Lossarnach is pre-numenor and therefore obscure, and Lossoth comes from the Elvish lossyo - “snow” and in general Tolkien, for sure, described himself, losing the first letter, because “in the early drafts” the southern Tolkien called the lands Glossarnah. If we consider the average reader more attentively than the author of the VK - a professional linguist and pedant by nature, which Tolkien was, then the option with a coincidence and a typo can be accepted, but this, especially in the context of already found matches, would be clearly reckless. So Tolkien, obviously for some purpose, practically in one word called both the very harsh and cold northern lands, and the fertile blooming south. Is this just another clue?

For an answer, let's turn to one of the methods of historical linguistics of the 19th century - the linguist Tolkien, she, obviously, was professionally close - namely, the method of linguistic paleontology, which allows us to determine the ancestral home of peoples by comparing the names of animals and plants with their habitats. One of the most ingenious, though not shared by most modern scholars, finds was the "Salmon Argument", named for the distribution in the languages ​​of the Proto-Indo-European root for salmon. The corresponding words were found in the languages ​​of the peoples of the Baltic states, Germany, among the Eastern Slavs and in Iceland, but were not found among the southern Slavs, in Italy, Spain, etc. and therefore the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans was localized in Northern Europe.

And what, you ask? The fact is that Indo-Europeans is a modern politically correct term, in the 19th century German scientists who actively used the "Salmon Argument" - these peoples were called Indo-Germans. BUT " "At the time of the creation of VK, they were unambiguously called, you-know-whom," Nordic Aryans ". So the word "salmon", which is the foundation of the "Nordic theory", and not used in English to refer to the Salmon fish - is unequivocally used by Tolkien to indicate that "a strange unfriendly people, the remnants of people from a distant past", with a name consonant with salmon , these are not people, not the "edain" of the world of Middle-earth.

Africans: Negroes are Druedain and Dunedain Egyptians, these are “people” in the world of VK, and “Lossoth” Indo-Europeans dressed up in carnival Eskimo costumes are not “long accustomed to the cold of Morgoth”. And the residence of this people for thousands of years in extreme conditions on some cape in some hundred hours on foot from the blessed Shire is another Tolkien disguise by bringing it to the point of absurdity. Tolkien, in Aesopian language, through the people of Lossoth, denies the possibility of localizing Middle-earth in a European-like world. Now you understand that his disrespectful attitude to the names of the gods from the "Scandinavian-Germanic mythology", which in the 30s. pedaled ' Indo-Germans with an ancestral home in Northern Europe", is it not by chance?

As you remember, we started with the assumption that Isildur and Anarion is a slightly modified anagram " Israil or Judah". If, of course, in the last word, first add a small squiggle at the bottom to “i” and get “j”, and for “n” slightly lengthen the vertical stick and get “h”. This is a completely trivial typo / typo, constantly found in modern books, to say nothing of ancient manuscripts. Also, the transitions from “h” to “n” are also possible with distortions during translations and transcriptions: for example, in Russian (forgive me linguists) the word pharaoh (sounding like “farrow”) is skalked into “pharaoh” due to reading a non-sounding "h" like "n".

By the way, Tolkien, when translating the 14th century chivalric poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” from Middle English to modern English, definitely encountered a similar phenomenon and it is unlikely that the Professor, who sometimes conducted classes with students, dressed in armor, would deny himself the pleasure of using such a trick. As we remember, the VC is presented by Tolkien as an extract from the ancient handwritten books of Middle-earth, and there are no manuscripts without errors. (I remind you once again that we are talking about a fantasy, not a historical work).

The version of the presence of an anagram is confirmed by the very form of the word “isildur”, which contains obvious traces of fitting - it’s just that even very attentive readers do not see this fact lying on the surface point-blank. Let's look at the lunar/solar pairs of names Minas Itil/Minas Anor, Ithilien/Anorien, Isildur/Anarion. There is no difference in Russian spelling, but in English! Minas Ithil/Minas Anor, Ithilien/Anorien, Isildur/Anarion. Isildur is spelled with an "S" and not a "TH". Tolkien came up with two versions of this word - Moon / Ithil, and with “TH” there was an older (in the world of Middle-earth) form that turned into “S”. It turns out funny: the Numenorean king Isildur is written in the new version, and his fortress in the old one! And three thousand years after Isildur, called the "new" version, the heroes of the VK roam through Ithilien, the region with the ancient form of the name. Ithilien is not a one-time occurrence of the word in Tolkien, but an often mentioned place (unlike Anorien), important plot events take place there. Tolkien obviously took a long time and diligently choosing such a name and spelling - he needed to coordinate Isildur with other words of his languages, plot and toponymy. Tolkien sacrificed "TH" because it is impossible to make an anagram of the names of Isildur and Anarion - Israil nor Iudan - similar to "Israel and / or Judea" with him. As a result of such exaggerations, Isildur, the eldest son of Elendil and heir, is “dedicated to the Moon”, and his younger brother Anarion is “the son of the Sun” - although, according to logic and tradition, it should be the other way around (unless, of course, one looks for an Islamic trace in the form of a symbolic priority of the “flawed Moon" - Crescent above the Sun). Or is this departure from tradition the next indication of Tolkien's riddle-hint? Do you think Tolkien, who meticulously compiled tables of the phases of the moon in order to synchronize the description of the night sky in different parts of Middle-earth, could change the spelling of the name of the "dedicated to the Moon" of a key character without intent? By the way, for AnArion, these arguments are also true, although less spectacular: the original word Sun-Anor is written with an “O” and not an “A”, but the name of Isildur’s brother is written with an “A” because this is necessary for writing iudAn.

“Israil or Judan”: this anagram, I, based on the use of the form “nor” and not “no” - forgive me linguists and philologists for illiteracy - read how “a single state is divided and now neither Israel nor Judea are them separately. However, understanding the weaknesses of such an interpretation, I will immediately offer two more to choose from: this may not be an imitation of a typo, but a rebus - if you cut the “r” vertically, we get a stick for “n” and a squiggle for “i” - then “Israil NO Judah. Or cut the "n" and get "Israil OR Judah". And the most boring option, it is suitable for those who believe that the Professor received all the matches by accident and unconsciously: I will offer without any typos and rebuses “israil undirano”, which is in the Shona language (yes, those very ones from Zimbabwe, next with Tolkien's birthplace) this means "Israel interview", since the first Shona dictionaries were developed by English linguists in the 30s - 50s of the 20th century - that is, in the professional environment surrounding Tolkien, he could hear these words somewhere. I’ll also add: I know that in English the state of Israel is written through “e”, and through “i” - Israil - the Islamic angel of death Israel is written, but by the combination of signs, nevertheless, I tend to the version of the Hebrew state. When I wrote these lines, the interpretation of the "Israel interview" came to my mind, as a conversation with the angel of death, in a general hint of danger (of course, I do not consider it correct - just a funny moment). In any case, I suggest that you come up with other options for deciphering the anagram, it's quite exciting.

The idea to compare the biblical Northern and Southern Kingdoms, Tolkien's Northern and Southern Kingdoms (in English they are all written "Kindom") periodically arose among Tolkienists. Fortunately, the biblical story about the successor of the first king of Israel - the fair-haired handsome David, who defeated the descendant of the Rephaims (mestizos of fallen angels and people) and cut off the head of the defeated giant with his sword, is very similar to Isildur finishing off the fallen Mayar Sauron with someone else's sword. As far as Google told me, no one went further than the primitive comparison Israel=Arnor, Judea=Gondor and David=Isildur, either in Runet or on the English-speaking Internet. In general, everything from the juxtapositioners comes down to the fact that Tolkien may have taken the biblical story, but reworked it so that they no longer have anything in common. I found a few more matches, Saul=Elendil, tk. both the first rulers and the highest in their people. In the battle of the hero with the giant, in the Bible, it turns out that the brother appears in another place (which is funny, not David, but Goliath, named Lahmi - and he is also defeated), and there is another winner of the giant - a certain Elkhanan. Anarion died because of a stone from Barad-Dur, Goliath - because of a stone from a sling. In general, that in the Bible, that in the VC something collectively similar is happening around Goliath / Sauron. In the Bible, the Northern Kingdom was called by the same name as the United Kingdom of Israel (that is, verbally dominated), but completely perished. In VK, the throne of the king of the United Kingdom was also in the deceased Northern.

In the Bible, along with the Northern Kingdom, “10 tribes of Israel” completely disappeared, including some of the priests from the Tribe of Levi, distributed throughout the United Kingdom. The leaders of religious processes, the Levites, the main people in ancient Israel, were the only ones who, over the centuries, maintained the complete continuity of traditions, living scattered among other peoples. In the VC, along with the Northern Kingdom, most of the Dunedain disappeared, but some of them, having lived for centuries among other peoples, retained the identity and succession of leaders. And, we are gradually getting closer to the numbers: the lifetimes of kingdoms and kingdoms are highly correlated: each South existed exactly one and a half times longer than the North, and the lifetimes of states in the Bible and the VC differ exactly 10 times! 200 and 300 years in the Bible and 2000 and 3000 in VK. Of course, we take the life of Gondor at 3000 years, until the reunification of the Kingdom by King Elessar in the final of the VC.

Consider, perhaps, the most mysterious character of the VK "Tom Bombadil": again, although he is present in separate, even published, books of Tolkien, it is fundamentally incorrect to verify the text of the VK with third-party independent works of the Professor. According to him, many copies are broken - they usually agree that Tom is the embodiment of one of some higher spirits of the world of Middle-earth, whose image was originally inspired by the toy of Tolkien's children, the tales of the adventures of which he told them. The name itself and even part of the story about Tom existed in Tolkien long before the appearance of VK, but this does not mean that when creating VK, Tolkien did not rethink it: in his VK, consider that there are no other names similar to modern ones! So the Professor consciously left the modern form of the biblical name of one of the apostles of Christ - Thomas (Tom, Thomas), derived from the Aramaic "twin" (you suspect whose "twin" it is, before which the Ring of Omnipotence itself is powerless - or I'm digging too far, especially since Tolkien clearly denied the version that Tom is the supreme deity, "the One").

Now it would be appropriate to digress for a moment from Tom Bombadil, and talk about who the “One” is. In the VC, the highest entity is nameless, so Tolkienists draw information about it from the Silmarillion, which, I repeat, despite some intersections with the VC, is an independent universe. Tolkien tried to publish The Silmarillion along with VK, but, fortunately, he did not succeed. However, in The Silmarillion, there are "traces" of Semitic mythology: yes, this is exactly the "One", which has names - "Eru" and "Iluvator". Anyone who has been interested in Middle Eastern religions will recognize in his names the supreme god of the Semites. In West Semitic (Ugarit) mythology, he is known as the creator of the universe and all living things, the father of the gods from named El / El / Il / Ilu. On behalf of "El" many names of the highest gods of other religions are formed, for example, the original "god" from the Book of Genesis - "Elohim", or the well-known "Allah". It is fully consistent with the Phoenician El, with minor differences. Semitic Ilu does not directly rule the world, delegating authority to smaller gods fighting among themselves, but he himself sits on the throne and sometimes sends angels. Because of his passivity, he had few temples (by the way, in VK temples are vanishingly rare: they are mentioned only in the appendix and when the Elessar acquires a new White Tree with the help of the angel Gandalf (the words about the angel are from Tolkien's letters, I have nothing to do with it) In Bible translations, "Ilu" is simply translated "God."

Let's return to the mystery of Tom Bombadil. His official Sindarin name is Yarwain Ben-adar, which in "translation" into English means "oldest and fatherless". In the fictitious language of the elves, “adar” is “father”, and knowing Tolkien’s predilection for biblical subjects (besides, the Professor participated in the translation of fragments of the Bible from Hebrew), I think he used the traditional element of the Jewish religious name “ruf nomen” - “ ben", which means "son of the father", I think this is more than appropriate, given that Tom responds to a biblical name, wears a hat and beard, exactly like Orthodox Jews. Then Yarvain Ben-adar means exactly the opposite: "the eldest son of the Father", which, obviously, much more corresponds to a being who is older than everyone else and remembers "safe darkness, when the Dark Lord has not yet come from outside." “Iarwain Ben-adar, oldest and fatherless” - this is Elrond’s tongue twister, so that no one has time to think about “ruf nomen”: Tolkien once again switched the reader’s attention in a riddle-hint. I use the name "Ruf Nomen" in Yiddish, and not "Shem Kodesh" in Hebrew, since it is logical to compare the language of the Gray Edfs - Sindarin - Yiddish, and not Hebrew, which is more consistent with "Elvish Latin" - the Quenya language, as, in fact, more than once Tolkien himself emphasized. Now do you understand why Tolkien wrote VK for many years? All the key moments of VK with a "double bottom"!

For the sake of objectivity, I will offer a couple more options for supporters of the version according to which Tolkien used words he had previously heard or invented somewhere without special intent. For example, it is known that Tolkien used a code he invented to inform his wife about his movements in letters during his participation in the First World War, perhaps this is one of the messages: the first word Iarwain Ben-adar is an anagram of "I in a war" , and Adar is the 12 lunar month of the Jewish calendar (approximately from February 20 to March 24): that is, "I have been at war since March" - perhaps this phrase is from a letter to his wife from a military camp where he was trained before being sent in the early summer of 1915 To France.
But the version that Tom is “the eldest son of the Father” is finally confirmed by the fact that he also sings! Bombadil almost constantly either sings or speaks in verse - and with their help he works miracles, is this not Tolkien's obvious reference to the singing Ainur, the first children of the "One" Iluvator, who combined their voices into a single Ainur Music, which created the world of Middle-earth?

Right now, it would be appropriate to pay attention to Tolkien's religiosity and nationality, he was, "as everyone knows", a devout Catholic, a descendant of emigrants from Saxony on his father's side. Before the 2nd World War, he had the opportunity to publish The Hobbit in Hitler's Germany. Corresponding negotiations were held, but, in the end, stalled, including because the Professor's surname could be of Yiddish origin and the German authorities demanded confirmation of his "Aryan" from Tolkien. According to the widespread version, Tolkien prepared a long and evasive answer, in the sense that although he is most likely a "non-Jew", he considers the ridiculous requirement to confirm his "Aryan" unacceptable and, as he explained to his publisher, does not want, even at the cost of publishing of his book in Germany, so that at least one might think that Tolkien shares "an absolutely harmful and unscientific racial doctrine." In the context of the realities of that time (let me remind you that for many British people Hitler was not yet “absolute evil” and was popular in Great Britain, where the British Union of Fascists existed until 1940, which officially carried out anti-Semitic campaigns!) - this was a courageous act.

The fact is that the Professor was not a Catholic "by birth": he was left without parents early - his father died when he was 2 years old, and his mother - 12 years old, from her he learned Catholicism, which his mother, under the yoke of adversity, accepted a few years before his death in exchange for Anglicanism, and it is not clear whether he was actually a devout Catholic, whether this is how his longing for his early departed mother was transformed. In my opinion, Tolkien definitely had Jewish roots, although, probably, he was not halachic (i.e., professing Judaism and having a strictly continuous chain of ancestors along the female line, dating back to the ancient Jews), but a certain spirit of Jewish culture , again, in my opinion, coming from the family was present in it. In any case, Tolkien by profession and his interests is undeniably very close to the great translators and connoisseurs of the religious and philosophical works of Jewish culture.

It is interesting to note that in Russia, the surname "Tolkien" since the 70s of the Soviet Union, most likely due to consonance with Russified Jewish surnames, is constantly being changed into a more "foreign" one - "Tolkien". And "tracing paper" from the English spelling - "TolkiEn" - has nothing to do with it! By the way, although the analogy is not proof, I propose to pay attention to some similarities between Tolkien and another children's writer - Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (the illegitimate son of Emmanuel Solomonovich Levenson and his maid, Ekaterina Osipovna Korneichukova).

In this regard, it will also be interesting to pay attention to the following point: in the community of Russian tolkinists and role players there is a surprisingly large number of participants who are of Jewish origin or who identify themselves as carriers of Jewish culture, which is a little unexpected, given the "generally recognized" opinion, about "Northern European" and even "Aryan-Nordic" foundations of Tolkien's work. Within the framework of my version of the understanding of VC, the special attraction of his work for people to one degree or another involved in the spirit of Jewish culture becomes clear: VC is completely saturated not at all with Christian (New Testament), but with Jewish (Old Testament) plots and images. Those. Old Testament stories are still very appealing to many people at some deep level, but Tolkien's modernized version of Isildur Defeats Sauron is preferred to the game of David Defeats Goliath, as the Professor between the lines conveys a biblical spirit much more than a dry religious sermon. This mechanism can be verified by examples from the modern Russian Orthodox Church, when a large number of its clergy and parishioners are of Jewish origin and, despite their pronounced Semitic appearance and obvious initial communion with the original religion - Judaism - they prefer its simplified version - Christianity. Similarly, fantasy authors, a vivid example - Robert Howard, fill people's craving for ancient history by using the well-known names of ancient countries and peoples and filling the dry pages of history textbooks that are not interesting to the general reader with fascinating and emotional content (which usually does not correspond in any way to the facts of historical science). ).

This, by the way, is, in my opinion, the main reason for the emergence and success of fantasy as a literary movement: fantasy, retelling well-known images in a fascinating and original manner, has taken the place of dry dogmatic religious and historical works.

Finally, let's look carefully at the key figure of the VC - Aragorn, I think that no one has any special objections to the main plot of the VC, namely the process of returning the king to the throne (no miracles of elves and Istari magicians or hardships of hobbits on the way to Mordor pull on more than original decorations of the central plot: if we remove the return of the king and the revival of the kingdom, we get, although not a bad, but ordinary fairy tale: in which Frodo, in fact in the role of Pinocchio, without much harm to the overall plot, can carry with the same drama instead of Rings of Omnipotence Golden Key in the company of Piero-Legolas and Artemon-Boromir). As we have observed before, in Tolkien, in accordance with his profession as a linguist, riddles-clues are mainly hidden in names and titles - let's try to evaluate the names of Aragorn in this light. The main thing here is to arrange them in the correct order: after all, Aragorn has several names, nicknames and titles, although, basically, Aragorn appears in VK under this name.

Estel (Estel [ˈestel]) - "hope" - Aragorn's childhood name, under which he was "hidden" by the elves in Rivendell until the age of twenty - so that the enemies would not guess that he was Isildur's heir.

Actually, Aragorn (Aragorn) - many copies have been broken on its meaning, Tolkien even gave special explanations, but despite this, there is no unambiguous and consistent answer. In general, focusing on the next scraps of the Professor's drafts, the name "Aragorn" was usually translated as "Kingly Valor" until it was changed to "Revered King" in 2007, after the publication of the 1950s manuscript. . "Words, Phrases & Passages in The Lord of the Rings" - both options are quite worthy of being the official title of the hereditary leader of the rangers among his fellow northerners, rather than his personal name.

Sometimes Tolkien calls him by his first name and patronymic: Aragorn son of Arathorn (Arathorn). The name Arathorn means "royal eagle" or "king eagle". Those. another name for Aragorn can be considered "son of the royal eagle." In general, the Professor noted that the interpretation of the names of the Arthedain lineage was impossible (in the Professor's terms, this sounded like "difficult"), because he, according to him, did not come up with enough information in VK for this.

Strider - in terms of meaning, it is closest to the ignoble word "pedestrian" and therefore in Russian versions of the VK it sounds like "Kolobrod", "Stray" and even "Wanderer", etc.

Dunadan (Dúnadan) - "western man" i.e. a descendant of the "Faithful" Numenoreans who retained friendly relations with the elves.

Thorongil (Thorongil [θoˈroŋɡil]) - this name means "Star Eagle" or, literally, "Eagle Star", under this pseudonym Aragorn, hiding his origin, commanded a successful raid of the troops of Gondor against the corsairs of Umbar during the reign of Ecthelion - the penultimate Steward of Gondor.

Elessar (Elessar) - translated from "Elven Latin" - Quenya, as "Elven Stone". This name, under which Aragorn returned to the throne, he received from the mistress of Galadriel, along with the magic stone of the same name. Edhelharn is his Sindarin translation.

Envinyatar (Envinyatar) - "Renewer" - so in Elvish Aragorn called his name or title, speaking of the upcoming name change when ascending the throne. It is thought to signify the renewal of the Dúnedain's hope for "the unification of the kingdoms and the restoration of kingship" and apparently corresponds to his childhood name Estel.

Telcontar (Telcontar) is the nickname "Strider" translated into Elvish. Aragorn gave the name Telkontar to his royal house after the revival of the United Kingdom and the restoration of the monarchy.

If you remove nicknames, pseudonyms and synonyms, five names remain: Elessar Aragorn, son of Arathorn Envinyatar Telkontar.

The variant with five names is confirmed by the so-called. "Letter of the King" - Aragorn's letter to Sam, not included by Tolkien in the epilogue of the VC. There the names of the King of Gondor and all the West are recorded as "Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornion Edhelharn". Tolkien did not include the letter in the VK, so it is obviously not finalized: the list of names begins and ends with synonyms in two different Elvish languages: "Elven stone - Elessar" and "Elven stone - Edelkhan": here the latter is clearly superfluous.

It is incorrect to change the order of the "Letter of the King", therefore, most likely, the title will be something like this:

Elessar Telkontar Aragorn son of Arathorn Envinyatar, King of the Reunited Kingdom.

The five names of the king, taking into account the above-proven localization of Gondor in Ancient Egypt, it is logical to compare with the full name of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, consisting of five names-titles, reflecting the most important events of the reign of the pharaoh and his divine (and not only) qualities. The title names of the pharaoh could change depending on the significant events that took place. Here are the titles:

Horovo name - the most ancient part of the title, connected the pharaoh with the falcon-like god Horus. In it, the characteristic of the pharaoh was added to the name of Horus, illustrating that part of the god that was most manifested in the pharaoh.

The name according to nbty ("nebti") - "sanctified name" indicates the unifying functions of the pharaoh - the name includes the Two Ladies ("two ladies") of Upper and Lower Egypt, "who inherits or is loved by both Ladies";

Golden name - “Golden name by its own”, “Golden Choir”, “Golden Sun” was usually written, starting with the image of Chorus, riding on a hieroglyph meaning gold. Regarding the “golden name”, Egyptologists have many conflicting versions, of all the titles it is the most vague, it can symbolize immortality or the divine essence of the pharaoh;

The throne title, usually beginning with nsw-bity ("I carry-biti") "Ruler of the united Upper and Lower Egypt" - the name of the pharaoh following him, usually included a mention of the god Ra.

The personal name of the pharaoh, before which the sign of "divine" origin "Son of Ra" was usually indicated.

The choral name, the most ancient and associated with the divine falcon bird, is most likely Arathornion, the son of Arathorn, "the son of the royal eagle." The eagle is the divine bird of the main god-val Manwe from Tolkien's Legendarium, in status it corresponds to the status of the divine bird-falcon of Ancient Egypt. It should be noted that for the same reasons, instead of the “Son of the Royal Eagle”, you can use the “starry eagle” Thorongil, under this name Aragorn first appeared in Gondor long before the War of the Ring (literally the most “ancient” appearance) - although this option, in my opinion , is less convincing.

Associated with the Two Mistresses of the Nebti is "Elessar", the name-title of Aragorn, which he received from the "morning star of the elves" - the Lady Galadriel and under which he married the "evening star" Arwen. The name Arwen consists of ar - "royal" and wen - "maiden", which is often inaccurately translated as "queen" i.e. the wife of the king, although it is rather a "royal maiden, mistress", regardless of the presence of a marriage alliance with the monarch.

To the concept of the "throne name", in fact, and not in a literal translation, the word Telkontar ("wanderer") associated with royal power, the name of the ruling Royal House founded by Aragorn, is probably closest. In ancient Egypt, the god whose name translates as "wanderer" ("traveller") is the moon god Khonsu. And Strider Aragorn is the heir of the "dedicated to the Moon" Isildur.

The personal name is Envinyatar - "renewer", it is most likely Apis (Hapis), called the "renewer of life" in the cult of Ptah in Memphis. Apis was the symbol of the pharaoh. According to Plutarch and Strabo, it was considered a lunar bull - a symbol of Osiris or Osiris himself.

The name "Aragorn" remains the most obscure of the titles of the pharaohs "golden name".

The most powerful King of Numenor, Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, will help us here. Ar-Pharazôn is erroneously translated in Runet as “Son of Light”, although, I note, in Appendix E to the VK Tolkien directly indicates the origin of Ar-Pharazon from the ear-cutting Numenorean (Adunaik) “pharaz” - “gold” (“Noble Son of Light "This is a translation of his elvish name - Tar-Kalion). Such a distortion of the translation is quite natural, because the "Golden Son of Light" is much more logical than the ridiculous "royal golden golden", but, as we have repeatedly seen, Tolkien does not need to be corrected. it is no coincidence that he brings key points to the point of absurdity - and this gives us riddles-hints. In the context of our version of the ancient Egyptian trace in VK, Pharazon It is obvious, pharaoh- slightly modified (as in an anagram of Isildur and Anarion) the word "pharaoh", here Russian-speaking readers have an advantage in perception over Anglophones, for whom the pharaoh sounds like "farow". Gold is the metal of the pharaohs and the sun god Ra, the name Ra usually forms part of the title of the pharaohs, who were considered incarnations or sons of Ra.

The most famous Egyptian hieroglyph is the logogram “dot in a circle”, denoting, among other things, the Sun. (N5 according to the generally accepted method of classifying hieroglyphs, introduced after the publication in 1927 of the "Egyptian Grammar" by the English Oxford Egyptologist and linguist - Alan Gardiner). The Egyptians, as you know, wrote from right to left, that is, if you try to read the “circle with a dot” in a modern manner, from left to right, we get “ar”. Of course, with all the desire, it is impossible to read the “circle with a dot” in Egyptian in reverse order (if only because of its symmetry).

In general, the powerful Ar-Pharazon gives us the understanding that Tolkien's king is a pharaoh, and "ar" in the names of kings is "Ra" from the title of pharaohs. Tolkien in VK pointed to the prefix "ar / ara" as an attribute of supreme power, after the publication of the VK, he came up with the idea that "ar" is a form from the ancient "aran" - so that no one would definitely associate kings with pharaohs. The god Ra was depicted with the head of a falcon, and another god, Horus, was also depicted with the head of a falcon. In ancient Egypt, a syncretic cult of the god, who is both Ra and Horus, was widespread, his name was Ra-Gorakhti.

You will laugh, but the grotesque renaissance of this cult occurred in the first half of the 20th century, thanks to the famous poet, occultist and "black magician" Aleister Crowley, who included Ra-Horakhti in his teachings of Thelema.

Crowley's teachings are based on the "Book of the Law" (Liber AL vel Legis), written by him in 1904 in Egyptian Cairo in 3 days, as a revelation from a certain super-entity, but finally completed only in 1925. Crowley introduced the god Ra-Hoor-Khuit into his teaching of Thelema, based on images on the ancient Egyptian Stella of Revelation. By the way, Aleister Crowley, who positioned himself as an ardent anti-Christian and "the most immoral person" at one time studied at one of the best British boarding schools Malvern College, where he will study in two decades ... Clive Lewis, who also departed from Christianity and became interested in the occult (Lewis returned to the bosom of the church only 20 years later, thanks to the influence of Tolkien).

I note that some modern "Thelemites" (followers of the teachings of Aleister Crowley) have interpretations of the VC as an allegory regarding the well-known "magic" confrontation between the members of the occult Order of the "Golden Dawn" Crowley and Mathers (this very boring story of showdowns of freaks who unsuccessfully "sent" demons on each other, I have no desire to retell). For example, you can read about it in English at the link "Occultism in Tolkien and Lewis", just keep in mind that the specified and rather ambiguous, but quite interesting text is a compilation on the site about the "worldwide conspiracy of the Illuminati" and secret societies and may in at any time be supplemented by the owners of the site with even more controversial information (I have nothing to do with it, if someone else has not understood: besides, it is very difficult for me to perceive a site without laughter without laughing, on which modern "Illuminati" are seriously discussed in the 21st century , invented by the anti-clerical MEGAtroll of the 19th century Leo Taxil to mock Catholic obscurantists, for which, by the way, he was anathematized). The specified text is interesting ONLY as an objective evidence of some associations between the works of Tolkien, Lewis and Crowley among persons involved in European "occultism", which additionally confirms my conclusions.

In my opinion, the perception of Tolkien as an "occult writer" is incorrect, despite the decorative elements of the "Hermetic tradition" present in his work.

In general, in the presence of the most famous of the literary and discussion associations created by Tolkien - " Inklings"- the mystical writer Charles Williams, who was previously a member of the Golden Dawn who died in the Bose, one should not be surprised at the appearance in the work of the Inklings of the echoes of the works of the most famous ex-"Golden Dawn" Aleister Crowley. The question remains only in the nature of the interchange of ideas and the degree of their manifestation in the works of the "Inklings".

Looking for traces of secret societies in literature by outward signs, without plunging into the essence, we can "unravel" so many secrets that even the "Golden Key" from the door in the closet of Pope Carlo, we consider a Masonic symbol of the knowledge of the secrets of life in the hands of the initiation into "freemasons" "Pinocchio ... And here, by the way, is the Masonic "Golden Key" itself:

And the door behind the canvas in Papa Carlo's closet is obviously the "Royal Arch" mentioned above. I draw your attention to the strong intersection of the images of the Golden Key of Pinocchio, which opens the secret door and the "Gate of Moria", which opens after Gandalf solves the riddle - with the Elvish word "friend" - "Mellon", which is also ... "golden key"! Compare words Mell on("friend") and Mell yrn ("golden trees") - plural of Mallorn, derived from Sindarin mal (gold)! Both of these images, which appeared in books written by two writers at about the same time, are clearly inspired by the Masonic "Golden Key" to the mysteries of being and the "Royal Arch".

In connection with the questions that come to me, I additionally inform you: I do not consider "Pinocchio" a mystical coded work, and its author Alexei Tolstoy - an "occult" writer. Despite the fact that in the work of A. Tolstoy there are unambiguous traces of European mysticism: for example, theosophical ideas in "Aelita" and the adventures in the Russian outback of the famous mystic-adventurer in the story "Count of Cagliostro": the author uses fashionable or even, perhaps, exciting "esoteric" images at a very primitive-mass level of understanding, and in no way performing some kind of secret mission from some local "Golden Dawn", about the same as he describes interplanetary flights, not at all being a member of the "Society for the Study of Interplanetary Communications" or others the forerunner of GIRD (a group for the study of jet propulsion - "Soviet space" later grew out of it). Writers, even such brilliant ones as Alexei Tolstoy and John Tolkien, are not universal experts or participants in the events of their books: it is obvious that they borrow their ideas mainly from their own colleagues, including the "occult" genre. Once again: common images in different books do not prove the connection of their authors or the existence of any mystical relationships - this most likely indicates a source of inspiration in the form of some fairly widespread vulgar-mystical near-literary work accessible to both authors.

In the English tradition, the name of Horus is pronounced as Hores (Horus), and the spelling itself is taken from Latin (the name Hor + the ending indicating the masculine gender - us). Therefore, here the Russian-speaking readers of VK again have an advantage over the Anglophones: in Russian, this god is called Horus. In Russian, the sound “Гх” is now transmitted by voiced “Г”, and in European it sounds closer to “Х” (because of this, there is now even a tendency in Russian to replace “Г” with “Х”, as a more “correct” one). ” sound, although for our European partners the Russian versions of their names are equally cut to the ear, even through the “G”, even through the “X”). In general, such metamorphoses of sounds are daily bread for the linguist and philologist Tolkien. Why do you think there is a mention in Tolkien's legacy that the name Aragorn is formed from an older (of course, within the VK universe) and deaf-sounding form Aracorno? This is a clear reference to ancient Latin, in which "G" was formed from "C" by adding a stick at the bottom. up to 3 in BC "C" meant the sounds of both "K" and "G". For me personally, this is another confirmation that the names of the gods Ra and Horus are sitting in Aragorn. Moreover, in the general context, it is already obvious that "Aragorn" is the completely Egyptian name of the pharaoh "Ra Horus" (with a high probability that it appeared under the influence of the works of Aleister Crowley).

Additionally, there is one more small parallelism in favor of the Aragorn-Gor connection: according to the ancient Egyptian myth of Horus, after 80 years of litigation for recognition as the only eligible heir of Osiris, he receives his kingdom at the court of the gods, and Aragorn ascended the throne with approximately the same period - he From the moment of birth, he participated in the struggle for the throne and at the age of 87, as the only legitimate heir of Isildur, received his kingdom.

Accordingly, his Golden Choir name will be something like this: Golden Horus Ra.

To complete the picture, we dissect the name Elessar. Tolkien's interpretation of the "elven stone" is somehow not royal enough.

And indeed, let's look at Ancient Egypt again: Pharaoh Ramesses (in English Ramesses or Rameses), consonant with Elessar, has a name consisting of Ra-mes-es son of Ra. Then Elessar will fall apart by analogy to El-es-Ra: why “ar” is “ra” I showed above, but who is “The One” from VK, one of the names of which El I also showed. Such a reading of Elessar is absolutely correct, since in Egyptian mythology the Semitic El/Il corresponds to the god Ptah (Ptah). Short quote “Ptah is the transcendent Creator, his name is rarely found in the ritual texts of the pyramids (the god Ra appears in them), but is often used as part of the ancient Egyptian names. In one name (Ptah), the otherness of God to the world of people was revered, in the other (Ra) - oneness of nature, eclectically expressing the idea that a person is simultaneously involved in both divine and earthly existence. End of quote.

So, the title of Aragorn:

Elessar Telkontar Aragorn son of Arathorn Envinyatar, King of the Reunited Kingdom, translated into ancient Egyptian terms, in the order of the names of the pharaoh, sounds something like this:

Son of the Divine Falcon-Ra Consecrated by the Two Ladies of Ptah-Ra Golden Horus Ra Ruler of the United Two Kingdoms Khonsu Khapis .

It's time to move on to the most important and, which is very rare, irrefutable proof of the "Egyptian version".

To begin with, let's look at the charts of the reigns of the Kings of Arnor and Gondor: according to Arnor, the chart is clearly artificial, the bulk of the reigns are about 80 years, with separate bursts, obviously to coordinate with other events in the VC.

It is precisely such a schedule that can be expected from an excellent linguist and pedant, but, nevertheless, a person with humanitarian thinking: Tolkien worked out aspects of languages, names and names to the details and polysemy, but you should not expect him to imitate the natural-historical nature of the terms of government (compare, for example, with the schedule of the terms of the reign of the kings of Judah or Israel). But for Gondor, the picture is strikingly different: the graph contains almost no horizontal sections of equal height, although it also has anomalous spikes, indicating a fit similar to the Arnor graph. What could it be?

In Gondor, from the moment of the defeat of Sauron (and the end of the 2nd age) until the Return of King Elessar, there were 32 kings and 26 Stewards (of course, if we exclude from the calculations the re-emergence of the deposed King Eldacar and the Stewards who were in the time of kings).

Isildur was the first King of Gondor. his father Elendil was High King in Arnor, and Isildur and his brother were co-rulers in Gondor under their father. These 58 rulers ruled Gondor for almost the entire Third Age, for 3,000 years. These figures from the history of Egypt remind me of something ... Let's go back to the 30s. 20th century: in 1932, in the vicinity of Memphis, archaeologists discovered on the lid of a basalt sarcophagus a list of pharaohs of the VI dynasty, which was not particularly informative due to poor preservation, this find was called the “Stone from South Saqqara” (it is incorrectly called the “Saqqara list”), it revived interest regarding the general public to his "big brother". Namely, the list of pharaohs of several dynasties, found " somewhere near the Pyramid of Josser» in the tomb of the architect Ramesses II Tunari 70 years earlier.

This " Saqqara List”, is much better preserved, although it was assembled from eight pieces, while some of the information was lost. This list plays a big role for both Egyptologists and various kinds of "alternative researchers", by the way, if you want to troll the latter (and possibly some incompetent Egyptologists) ask to see an image of this list. I guarantee that you will be shown a revised reproduction of the 1864 drawing from the original “placed in the Cairo Museum under the number CG 34516”, and not a photograph. the only relatively accessible photograph of the artifact was taken 160 years ago and you will not find it in RuNet. I'll show it to you, of course.

By the way, if you look at the photo, at the drawing from the photo and at the reproduction of the very first drawing 1864 in comparison with the modern version of the drawing, you will understand that the latter clearly forms an incorrect idea in the non-specialist about the form and volume of this list. For example, the very first drawing made by an archaeological expedition, as part of a report on the discovery (which was generally made in 1860, but the official report was published only in 1864, along with this drawing), not to mention a photograph, does not contain in the right there is nothing readable in the upper corner of the list (and this cartouche, I note, is interpreted as Ramesses II), and on the middle fragment there are many other perfectly preserved hieroglyphs, and, generally speaking, it is not obvious how many cartouches with the names of the pharaohs were lost on the destroyed fragments.

By the way, I strongly do not recommend using Wikipedia in this matter, etc. In the Russian version of Wikipedia, some figures managed to confuse the numbering in the figure and the corresponding names of the pharaohs - when translating from the English wiki, for some reason they crookedly added hieroglyphs to the decoding of the names of the pharaohs (as they say, "a fool is dangerous with his initiative").

The English wiki at least warns that their drawing is "based" on original drawings and photos. As far as I remember, Egyptian artifacts usually need to be viewed from right to left and from bottom to top. And the "Saqqara List" is compiled in reverse chronological order and is read from right to left and from top to bottom. This is also why the Saqqara List has given rise to many scientific and pseudoscientific hypotheses. For example, the Russian scientist-encyclopedist of the early 20th century, Nikolai Morozov, who released the New Chronology gin from a bottle, considered it to be a lunar calendar. But traditional researchers agree on the version that it depicts the names of pharaohs, starting from 3000 BC: from the pharaoh of the first dynasty Ajib, who ruled Egypt, together with Ankhur, the ruler of northern Egypt, to the greatest (well, or at least , the most famous) of Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt 3000 years ago.

I think you have already guessed that in the "Saqqara List" 58 pharaohs, exactly like Tolkien's rulers in Gondor from Isildur to Denethor II? Modern science has almost doubled the list of pharaohs of the Saqqara List period, since the deeds of one pharaoh often turned out to be the results of the actions of several pharaohs with little preserved names. And vice versa, the existence of some pharaohs is called into question with all the consequences - in any case, scientific truth is not important to us, we only look at how much the list of rulers of Gondor corresponds to the level of knowledge about the “Saqqara List” at the time of writing the VK. The characteristics of the pharaohs and the rulers of Gondor do not literally coincide, but if you take almost any of the rulers, it turns out that one of the pharaohs, with a close serial number, has a significant similarity in name or events.

The non-literal correspondence, I think, is due to the fact that I used the modern level of knowledge about the pharaohs, some of whose deeds, since the time of Tolkien, have been clarified and redistributed among neighboring pharaohs. I have attached a table (with the next update, if possible, I will insert it into the text of the article - due to the large amount of data it is very tedious to adjust it to the site template) with the characteristics of rulers and pharaohs: based on comparisons of characteristics, they come in sequential groups with some offsets , most likely associated with filling in the lost fragments of the Saqqara List. Apparently, Tolkien used the work of an Egyptologist unknown to me, who studied the "Saqqara List" and filled in the gaps with "comparative analysis".

In the lists of rulers and pharaohs, the bands of peaceful and military periods, monumental construction (the most striking example is the Pillars of Argonath and Elephantine), unrest due to the marriage of the ruler with a woman from the "lower race", the invasion of "people on carts" and Hyksos on chariots, change of dynasties, next to Castamir the Usurper is Tamftis, who was considered a usurper in Egyptology at the beginning of the 20th century. etc. According to one version of the beginning of the 20th century, 58 pharaohs of the Saqqara List are the predecessors of Ramesses II, and he himself is not included in this list. This version seems plausible to me for a banal reason: in the photograph, in the place where, according to modern Egyptologists, the cartouche of Ramses II is located is an empty place, only a small piece has survived. In this sense, Tolkien then reflects the list of rulers of Gondor of the 3rd Age, down to King Elessar, "whose fame outlived his age", i.e. in importance, Elessar ideally corresponds to Ramesses II. And the list of the rulers of Gondor corresponds to the version that existed at the time of writing the VK about 59 (58 + Ramesses II) pharaohs in the Saqqara List.

But, since now Ramesses II is included in the last place in the list of 58 pharaohs, then, in order to avoid accusations of "alternative historicism", I shift the lists by 1 ruler, so that Ramesses II is compared with Aragorn II. By the way, at the same time, the sequences of names that are close in meaning, and the events fit each other much more accurately: the significance of Aragorn corresponds to the significance of Ramesses in Egyptian history (and El-ess-Ar is clearly consonant with Ra-Mess-es), and Isildur, who left the comparison, strictly speaking, was rather the king of the United Kingdom, and not one of Gondor: all this additionally testifies in favor of the logic of shifting the list "by 1". That is, through the coincidence of the list of rulers of Gondor with the "Saqqara List" of the pharaohs, the African-Egyptian-Biblical version is finally confirmed.

Finally, let's count the rings: their total number is puzzling: 3+7+9+1=20 - some kind of “non-magical” it, of course, for those who are minimally “in the know”, here are 21 or, in extreme cases, 19 ... What's the matter? Maybe because 4 gnome rings were destroyed by dragons? Although 3 + 3 + 9 + 1 = 16 is again “not that” ... Is it really some kind of riddle-hint again? Let's arrange the rings in the order of appearance in the title poem of the VK - it will turn out 3 7 9 1 - maybe this is a four-digit number? To understand what a humanist can encrypt in numbers, you need to think like a humanist: let's split it in pairs and rearrange it in places - and we will see ... 1937 This is the year when work on The Lord of the Rings began. Here is the answer why, in violation of all traditions, Tolkien has such an “ugly” number of magic rings interconnected.

Well, according to tradition, I will offer another couple of versions. From these figures, you can make 1397 BC. - this is the year when, obeying a prophetic dream, the ancient Egyptian prince ordered to clear the Sphinx from the sands and, as a reward, soon after that became pharaoh Thutmose IV.

But I am more impressed by the following version: by arranging the rings in ascending order, we get 1379 , this, if we talk about antiquities, can be compared with 1379 BC. - at times ... Ramesses the Second, who, according to modern data, ascended the throne in 1279 BC, on the 27th day of the third month of the Shemu season - this means: "in the last days of the third month, counting from the beginning of February", i.e. around the 1st of May - the day of the coronation of Aragorn. If this version is correct (as indicated by the coincidence of the dates of ascension to the throne), or the years of the reign of Ramesses have been corrected since the time of Tolkien (according to Egyptian dates, there used to be much more discrepancy), or Tolkien miscalculated, or in VK, only 2 rings were originally planned for the elves - and according to the fact was so: of the elves, only Elrond and Galadriel owned the rings, the third, for some reason, the elves gave the magician Gandalf (much more powerful than the elves, the creature - the wisest of the Maiars, in addition armed with a magic staff) then we have an exact hit in the year (and date) of the coronation of Ramesses the Great - late April-early May 1279 BC, and the total number of rings becomes "normal magic" - 19! The number 19 gives another hint of "circularity": it contains the numbers 1 and 9, according to the humanists, triple students and numerologists, the "first and last" digits (for mathematicians, this will be nonsense, because the number "zero" falls out). Although, perhaps, there is a more subtle double symbolism here, and not a "humanitarian" approach to arithmetic: since zero itself is a ring in shape and, moreover, zero was not used in ancient biblical and Egyptian times, because. has not yet been discovered by scientists (I say hello to modern numerologists, "heirs of the secrets of ancient predictors", who, "in the blue eye", fool the simpleton, using the number zero in their "calculations").

And what is the result? It turns out that, having brought the VC, in a sense, to the time of Pharaoh Ramses II, who is considered biblical, Tolkien allegorically restored the lost part of history, and not of England, but of the whole world! This is the true meaning of his work, which is why he did not write the sequels to VK, although he tried, probably for financial reasons, to write the book "The New Shadow", but gave up, according to him, not wanting to waste his energy on fiction. The Professor, as truly great writer, a sense of proportion was enough for this: and the world of Middle-earth only benefited from this. Although in a civilizational sense, the VC, of ​​course, played, precisely because of its grandeur, a very negative role in terms of progress. Success in the technical field (so hated by Tolkien) largely depends on the enthusiasm of future engineers, scientists and inventors for science fiction. And the opposite fantasy, I think no one will argue, will reorient children's romantic moods associated with the flights of scientists to the stars on spaceships, to the sailing of knights on elven ships under the starry sky.

Fine literature and art do not always lead to fine action: the horrors of the two world wars were the consequences of German imperialism and nationalism, which grew out of German romanticism in the 19th century. Tolkien, most likely, consciously without planning (but, obviously, passionately wishing), talentedly returned the disguised biblical-theological plots and ideas to the modern world, along with the strongest anti-technogenic message, which greatly influenced the direction of development of modern civilization.

The video version of this article is on my youtube channel

Smaller rings were only a test in the creation of more perfect ones, but they also carried a danger to mortals. The Great Rings were much more dangerous. A mortal who wielded one of the Great Rings did not die, but neither did he grow up or receive a longer lifespan. He just continued to live until every minute became a burden. And if he used the ring too often to become invisible, he "faded": became invisible all the time, wandering in the twilight under the supervision of the dark power that ruled the rings. If he was strong and well-intentioned, then this happened later. However, neither strength nor a good goal saved him from being swallowed up by dark power.

Rings of Power, except for the One, could melt in the breath of flying fire dragons. Apparently, not even the flames of Ancalagon could melt the One Ring. Nine, Seven and Three were decorated with various stones.

It was unadorned, like the smaller rings, a smooth gold ring. Sauron put much of his strength and will into him; and since the power of the Elven rings was great, the ruler of them must have been of exceptional power. While he wore the ring, all that was created with the lesser rings was revealed to him, and he could see the very thoughts of those who owned these rings and control them, and eventually completely and completely enslave them. It contained all the properties of all other rings.

This Ring could not be destroyed by any blacksmith, unless he was superior in skill to Sauron. The ring could not be melted in any fire, except for the unquenchable underground flame in which it was forged.

It could somehow change its weight and size: become either wider or narrower, heavier and lighter, and even slide off the finger, although before that it sat firmly. The ring had an evil power over the keeper, which was immediately put into action.

If the Ring was thrown into a fire, thin fire-filled lines could be seen running along the ring, inside and out. They shone dazzlingly bright, but from somewhere far away, as if from a great depth. These were Elvish letters of the old style, but words from the dialect of Mordor. It was an excerpt from an ancient verse:

Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul
Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Find them, collect them, deliver them to Him,

The full spell that Sauron cast when he created the One Ring was as follows:

Three rings - to the High Elves under the roof of the luminaries,
Seven - to the rulers of the Dwarves under the roof of the earth.
Nine - Mortals, whose lot is the silence of the graves,
And one thing - the Lord of the destructive forces
In the gloomy realm of Mordor, where the shadows lay.
Find them, collect them, deliver them to Him,
Forge them together and plunge into darkness
In the gloomy realm of Mordor, where the shadows lay. (translated by M. Kamenkovich and V. Carrick)

The one who put on the Ring became invisible, and only in bright sunlight could a very faint shadow be seen.

It is known that Isildur lacked the strength to bend the Ring to his will. In addition, it hurt him to touch it, because it burned him.

The Ring did not give immortality to mortals, it only stretched their lives. Bilbo, who looked fifty at the age of one hundred and eleven, likened the sensation to a lump of butter spread over an oversized slice of bread.

Anyone who used it fell under its power. No one would have the willpower (not even Sauron himself) to damage the ring, throw it away or neglect it (according to Sauron).

The one with the greater innate strength might not have been able to resist the lure of the Ring's power for as long as Frodo, and the weaker one could not have hoped to resist the Ring at the moment of the final decision.

No one could resist the action of the Ring at the last moment before Mount Doom, and even more so after he owned it for a long time, after many months of growing torment, being hungry and exhausted.

The One Ring had a will of its own and longed to return to Sauron. It decided to leave Gollum, because more could not be expected from him: he was too small and miserable; and while he had it, he would never leave his lake. Perhaps the Ring left a mark on him, opening him to the call of Mordor.

Of all the others, only Gandalf could supposedly defeat him: being the messenger of the Valar and a being of the same rank, an immortal spirit, clothed in a visible physical form. Perhaps the Elven Ringbearers (Elrond and Galadriel) could also wield the Ring and overthrow Sauron. However, this is probably only the hassle of the ring. In any case, Elrond or Galadriel would continue the policy pursued by Sauron: they would build an empire with powerful and completely dependent warlords, and armies, and war machines, and in time they would be able to challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. A one-on-one duel with Sauron, without any help whatsoever, was not even considered by them. However, Gandalf with the Ring had a chance to stand. Gandalf as Lord of the Ring would be far worse than Sauron. He would remain “righteous,” but overconfident in his own righteousness. He would continue to manage and dispose "for the good", in the name of the benefit of his subjects, according to his wisdom (which was and would remain great). If under Sauron it was possible to distinguish evil from good, then Gandalf would have put good in a repulsive form, likening it to evil.

Story

It was forged around 1600 of the Second Age in the flames of Mount Orodruin, to command the rest of the rings forged by the elves of Eregion.

With the help of the One Ring, the foundations of Barad-dur were fortified, so that in the War of the Last Alliance this fortress could not be completely destroyed.

The One Ring was cut from Sauron's hand by Isildur in 3441 of the Second Age during the War of the Last Alliance. He took it as viru for the death of his father Elendil and brother Anarion. When he took it, it was as hot as a hot coal and burned his hand. But over time, it cooled down and decreased. When Isildur and his warriors returned to Arnor (two years after the end of the war), mountain orcs attacked his company. Although Sauron was defeated, the Ring was filled with his evil will and sought to return to him, and called for the help of all his servants, who, without knowing why, wanted to destroy the Dunedain and capture their leader. Almost all of his comrades were killed, but Isildur put on the Ring and fled. He intended to swim across the river, but it slipped from his finger. Orcs saw him and shot him with bows, and the Ring disappeared into the waters of Anduin near the Gladden Hollow and rested at the bottom for many centuries.

It was discovered around the year 2463 of the Third Age by Deagol, a hobbit from the Stur clan, when he was carried into the water by a huge fish. But Sméagol (Gollum) desired the Ring and strangled his friend. Soon he was kicked out of his home and settled in a cave at the roots of the Misty Mountains around 2470 of the Third Age, and for many years he and the Ring were not heard from.

Gollum called him "my treasure" and talked to him. He kept it in a secret place on an island in an underground lake, and only took it when he hunted or tracked the mountain orcs.

Bilbo found the One Ring in 3rd Age 2941 when he fell behind the Dwarves and Gandalf on the run from the Orcs. Feeling his way through the caves, he came across the Ring lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was about him that Bilbo came up with the riddle, and it helped him escape from Gollum by slipping on his finger. He got out of the caves and returned to his travelers, dumbfounding them with his sudden appearance. In the future, Bilbo used the Ring several more times.

On October 25, 3018, a council was held by Elrond, at which it was decided to destroy the One Ring.

On December 25, 3018, the Guards Detachment left Rivendell, heading for Mordor to Mount Doom.

On March 25, 3019, the One Ring, along with Gollum, fell into the mouth of Orodruin and were destroyed in flames.

Three Elf Rings

They possessed the greatest power and beauty. Those who wielded them could avert the decay that time brings and delay the demise of the world. They were endowed with the power of preservation, but not of birth. Their creator was not looking for a source of power, dominance or wealth, but longed for understanding, creative power, healing, in order to keep everything clean.

Villa (other names - Sapphire Ring (The Ring of Sapphire), Blue Ring (The Blue Ring), Ring of Air (The Ring of Air)) -– a golden ring with a large blue stone (sapphire). It was the most powerful of the Three Rings. At first it was owned by Gil-galad, and after that by Elrond.

Nenya (other names - The Ring of Adamant, The White Ring, Galadriel's Ring, The Ring of Water) was a mithril ring with a white stone (adamant). It was the main of the Three Rings.It is also said that the Nazgul could not neglect the power of the White Ring and that a protective belt was formed around Lorien. Apparently, Nenya helped in the defense of Lorien during the three attacks from Dol Guldur in 3019 of the Third Age, since magical power is mentioned the land of Lorien, which only Sauron himself could handle.This ring was owned by Galadriel from the very beginning.

Narya (Ruby Ring (The Ring of Ruby), Red Ring (The Red Ring), Ring of Fire (The Ring of Fire), Narya the Red (Narya the Red), Third Ring), Great) was with a stone (ruby) red, like fire. Gandalf's fireworks are part of the creative power of the Ring of Fire, the Kindler. This ring kept its bearer weary and could kindle hearts with ancient prowess. The Istari says that the spirit of Gandalf was hot and ardent, and the ring of Narya strengthened this inner fire. At first Gil-galad had this ring, then he gave it to Cirdan, and he gave it to Gandalf.

Story

When Sauron with his army broke into the main city of Eregion, Ost-in-Edhil, in 1697 of the Second Age and sacked the house of Mirdain, he captured the Nine Rings there, but could not find Three and Seven. Then Celebrimbor was tortured, and Sauron became aware of where the Seven Rings were kept. This Celebrimbor had revealed to him, because he valued the Nine and the Seven less than the Three. Sauron did not learn anything about the Three Rings and ordered to kill Celebrimbor. But Sauron suspected that they were at Galadriel and Gil-galad, and therefore sent his troops to Lindon, where he intended to find at least one of the Three. However, Sauron's troops, supported by the troops of Numenor, were defeated, and he himself managed to escape with difficulty. After it was decided that Imladris would become the stronghold in the east of Eriador, Gil-galad gave Vilya to Elrond in 1701 of the Second Age.

While Sauron wore the Ruling Ring, the elves did not use their rings.

When Sauron was defeated, the rings worked tirelessly, and where they were, joy reigned and nothing was marked by the sorrowful seal of time. They supported the enchanted islands of the world, where Time seemed to be frozen and decay was curbed - a kind of prosperity of the True West.

In the Third Age, where the Three Rings were kept, few even among the Eldar knew. But before the end of the Age, it became known that the Sapphire Ring is kept by Elrond, and the Adamant Ring by Galadriel. But about the Ruby Ring until the very end was not known to anyone except Elrond, Galadriel, Cirdan and Saruman. The latter, skilled in solving riddles, found out about it himself.

When Gandalf appeared in Middle-earth, Cirdan, seeing in him the wisest and greatest spirit, gave him Narya, because he knew that great trials were coming to the magician, and the ring was supposed to support him in fatigue and help kindle hearts with ancient valor in the cooling world. It was entrusted to Cirdan only to keep it secret, and on the western shores it was idle.

After the destruction of the One Ring, the power of the Three Rings disappeared. In September 3021, the Three Rings left Middle-earth.

Seven Rings of the Dwarves

They were forged between 1500 and 1590. Second Epoch. Sauron took part in their manufacture. In 1697 of the Second Age, Sauron seized these rings, corrupted them, and they became cursed. Then he distributed them to the dwarfs.

After the destruction of the One, they were destroyed.

Nine Rings of People

They were forged by the elves of Eregion between 1500 and 1590. Second Age with the assistance of Sauron.

Three of the Nine Rings were given to the great lords of Numenoreans.

The rings were corrupted by Sauron and became cursed, eventually betraying those who used them. Their owners gained power, became kings, sorcerers and warriors. They seemed to have gained endless life, but it became unbearable to them. They could wander about unseen and see things that mortals could not, but all too often they saw only the ghosts and illusions of Sauron. One by one they fell under the power of the One Ring and became the Nazgul, the Ringwraiths.

The Nine Rings were kept by Sauron. After the destruction of the One, they were destroyed.

Other versions

The History of Galadriel and Celeborn states that Gil-galad gave Narya to Cirdan only when he went to the War of the Last Alliance.

The drafts of the appendices to the VC say that thanks to the action of the Eldar rings, no more changed in a thousand years than people in 10 years, and their language too.

In an early version in the drafts for the VK, the ring did not pose much danger if used for good purposes. However, there was one catch: its wearer would lose either the ring or himself. But Bilbo could not lose himself, so he gave the ring to Bingo (Frodo).

Also in the early versions there were several versions of verses that spoke about how many rings each of the peoples was endowed with. Initially, the first version of the completed verse about the Rings was as follows:

Nine - to the elves-kings under the roof of the moon and stars,
Seven to the dwarven lords in their stone palaces,
Three - To Mortal People wandering far.
…

Then it was changed to:

Twelve - Mortal People, doomed to die,
Nine to the Dwarven Lords, in their stone palaces,
Three - to the Elven Kings of earth, sea and sky.
…

In the drafts of VK there are several versions of the origin of the rings and their number.

In one version, the Lord created many rings and sent them around the world to enslave the peoples. He sent them to many peoples: elves who owned many rings and therefore there were many ghost elves in the world, but the Lord of the Rings could not control them; the goblins also received many rings, and the invisible goblins were very vicious and obeyed the Sovereign; the dwarves probably did not have rings; they were too resistant to their action; people had few rings, but they were the easiest to break, and ghost people served the Sovereign; in addition, other creatures received the rings.

In the next version, the elves also had many rings and there were many ghost elves in the world; the goblins received only a few rings; the dwarves wielded the seven rings, but nothing could make them invisible. Humans owned three rings, and others, thrown away by ghost elves, they found in hidden places. The ghost people served the Dark Lord and returned their rings to him. So he collected all the rings that were not destroyed by the fire of dragons - all but one. It fell from the elf's hand while he was swimming across the river and betrayed him - he became visible to the enemies, and the goblins killed him. But the fish swallowed the ring, and was filled with madness, until it ran ashore and spat out the ring, and died. There he was found by Deagol, who later became Gollum. Although this ring was not ruling, it was the most powerful and precious for the Sovereign.

All his life Tolkien was engaged in dividing words into parts in order to understand how they work. You can learn a lot if you do the same with the words he invented, in particular with names.

Caught in a web of words

Quite often, Tolkien created names using the roots of ancient words that he learned while studying various languages. An example of this kind is the giant spider Shelob. Old English lob means "spider"; prefixing it with a pronoun she - "she", Tolkien creates she-lob - the name for the female science. Sometimes he borrowed names from ancient texts. For example, a dense forest called Mirkwood appears in many ancient legends. Leshaki (original) Woses ) - the name of the tribe of forest savages of Middle-earth - this is an abbreviation for wodwos , an Old English word for savages living in the forest. Many of the names in The Hobbit are borrowed from a list of dwarfs in an ancient Norse poem. The name Gandalf - which means "wise alpha" - also appears on the same list.

Tolkien also borrowed names from his surroundings, especially when creating the landscape of Middle-earth. Tolkien researcher Thomas Shippey states: “Five minutes with the “Oxford Dictionary of Place Names”, with “English Hydonyms” by E. Ekwall or with “Dictionary of British Surnames” by P. Rini will allow to explain most of the most different Hobbit names and names, and the same thing, only on more difficult level, happens to the rest of Middle-earth. So, Wetwang [in the Russian translation of Bologne] in the possessions of Celerburn there is also in Yorkshire, the Ristanian Dunharrow [in the Russian translation of Dunherg] has obvious English parallels, rivers Silver lode [in Russian translation Serebryanka], Limlight [in the Russian translation of Kristalinka] and others, all have English roots...” (Shippi, 78-79).

And his name was Bingo

In some cases, the names were born to Tolkien on a whim. However, sometimes they needed to be worked on properly. And the best example of this is the name Frodo. Initially, the name of our hero was rather eccentric and more in line with the nature of the hobbit. His name was Bingo Bobber Baggins. (You can almost hear him snorting like Tigger in A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh as he springs up Mount Doom.) Tolkien's children gave the name Bingo to their favorite toys, soft koala bear cubs.

Tolkien wrote several chapters of The Lord of the Rings using the name Bingo Bobber Baggins. and for a long time resisted the urge to change this name, even when he began to feel that it did not fit the image of the hero. But as the tone of "The Lord" became more serious, he felt that the name should be dropped. Fortunately, he had a better name in reserve - he had already named one of Bingo's companions Frodo.

Tolkien knew that the name "Frodo" had a noble origin. In Beowulf, King Froda is mentioned - the hero of one of the Scandinavian sagas. (In ancient Scandinavia, his name was pronounced "Frodi".)

The parallels with Tolkien's story are obvious: both the Icelandic king and Tolkien's Frodo seek to establish peace; and their examples are so inspiring that their peoples resist the temptation of the golden ring. Tolkien even introduces an allusion to the Norse saga in The Lord of the Rings: when talking about the Ring, Faramir twice tells Frodo that he "would not have picked up this talisman even on the high road."

In addition to names drawn from various legends, Tolkien liked names that came from a root that meant wisdom. So the Ring-bearer was named Frodo.

Here are other names and titles illustrating Tolkien's borrowings from various sources.

Bag End(for example, in the phrase "Baggins from Bag End". [In the Russian translation "Torba" and, accordingly, "Torbnis from Bag End"]. One of Tolkien's aunts lived at the end of the street, which the locals called Bag End. It was playful ( and therefore close to the traditions of Hobbitania) a way of naming what is called in French cul-de-sac (literally - "the end of the bag") and denotes a dead end. (The surname of the self-proclaimed relatives of Bilbo Lakoshel-Torbinson [in the original - Sackville - Baggins ] brings us back to that funny expression.)

Gamgee, Samwise[in the Russian version of Sammium Scrombie]. The hero's surname is borrowed from Dr. Samuel Gamgee, the inventor of the cotton "Gamgee bandage" used in medicine. In Birmingham, where Tolkien spent his childhood, the doctor was a local celebrity. "Samwise" means "half wise" in Old English. This name reflects the essence of Sam only at the moment of our first meeting with him: accompanying Frodo on a difficult journey, he gains true wisdom.

Mark. One of the designations of Ristania comes from the word "Murcia" - the name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, located on the territory of modern Birmingham and Oxford.

misty mountains. This expression is borrowed from Scandinavian legends. Presumably, it denotes a place full of dangers hidden in the twilight. (Something like the mountain version of Mirkwood.)

Mordor. This is the name of the realm of Sauron, it means "Black Land" and comes from the Old English death , which means "mortal sin" or "murder".

Nazg. In black speech, this word means "ring", it appears on the inscription of the main Ring and in the name of the Black Riders, Nazgul ("Nazgul" - "ghost of the ring" or "vampire of the ring"). But in our world, this word also means "ring" - in the Gaelic language. It is surprising that Tolkien forgot this fact and remembered it long after the end of The Lord of the Rings (Letters. 384-385).

Cleft of Doom. In English - Crack of Doom . This expression, familiar to Tolkien from various sources, including Shakespeare's Macbeth, is used in English to refer to the peals of thunder or the roar of trumpets, which, according to the biblical prediction, should herald the Last Judgment. Tolkien turned this saying into the name of the real gorge of Mount Doom, where the Ring is to be destroyed. (Tolkien scholar Ruth S. Noel believes that Frodo's arrival at the Crack of Doom marks the beginning of the Last Judgment for Middle-earth.)

Rohan[in the Russian version of Ristaniya]. An ancient French family. In the history of this family, politics and war were intertwined, but for Tolkien this did not play a significant role: he simply liked this word. He used the surname without putting any special meaning into the word.

Saruman. From Old English searu , which means "cunning" or "devious".

Sauron. From an Old Norse word meaning "disgusting".

Tolkien and his brother lived in the vicinity of Birmingham as children and picked blueberries near the house. blueberry in english bilberry , and perhaps it was childhood memories that suggested Tolkien the name Bilbo.

What's in a name?

Tolkien considered all these names and titles as puzzles. He loved working on them, even if it did not affect the development of the plot. Thomas Shippey believes that the time Tolkien spent inventing place names "seems wasted" because not all names play an important role in the narrative. Yet these titles have an important function, Shippey adds. Maps and place names help make Middle-earth more real.

This statement by Shippey about place names can rightly be applied to the names of people and the names of things. All this makes The Lord of the Rings look like a real story, which, in fact, Tolkien was counting on.

In 1973 The Hobbit was translated into Icelandic, one of Tolkien's favorite languages. This brought great joy to the writer. Commenting on this fact, he said that the Icelandic language suits this work better than any other. Most of the names he used, such as "Gandalf", were borrowed from the Old Norse (Old Norse) language.

Expensive rielethuil !
You have opened up (fortunately :)) my "old wounds", reminded me that once upon a time, in the year 2003, I was very, very interested in the issue of various translations of Tolkien ....

I remembered my youth, rummaged through the bowels of the screw of the old computer and dug up a comparative table of various names, titles, expressions, etc. there. based on seven different translations of The Lord of the Rings. If you are interested, then here you can read about the names and titles associated with. In part, we can draw conclusions about which translation to prefer :)

Translations are abbreviated:
1. Kamenkovich and Carrick (K&K),
2. V. Matorina (VAM),
3. Nemirova (N),
4. Muraviev and Kistyakovsky (M&K),
5. Grigorieva and Grushetsky (G&G),
6. Z. Bobyr (B),
7. Volkovsky and Vosedoy (V).

HOBBITS

Frodo and Bilbo (Baggins)
In the film - Baggins
Well, Frodo and Bilbo - they are also in Africa Frodo and Bilbo, but they made fun of the surname ... Actually, there are two options: English Baggins or not translated at all - Baggins(К&К), or, respectively, translated. Here, most agree torbinse(this is YOU, M&K, N). G&G came up with Sumniksa(I could hardly resist not to write - Sumkins. It begs to be!). Nemirova combined the incompatible, and she has both Baggins and Baggins at the same time. - p.198
But Volkovsky went the farthest. Sit down please. They are - Bebbins. Of course, this is the translator's explanation that he used some kind of dialectism, etc. But the surname does not sound less funny and ridiculous from this ...

The Scarlet Book - if you remember, that was the name of the original source telling about the War of the Ring (Red Book of Westmarch)
Everyone translates the Red Book as "scarlet", and only YOU - "red" (not a very good option, because the Red Book for us is steadily associated with the list of protected animals, etc.)
Westmarch each translates according to its own concept:
Scarlet Book of the Western Fringes (K&K)
Scarlet Book of Western Reach (M&C, V)
Red Book of the Western Borderlands (WAM)
Scarlet Book of West Crome (G&G)
Scarlet Book of Westfall (H)

The name of the country of hobbits (in the book - Shire, in the movie - Shire)
The name Shire, now known from the film, was only translated by B, G&G. The name Hobbitania (M & K) is very well known, it is so familiar that you constantly want to use it. It is very fortunate because it contains the word "hobbits" itself. VAM came up with a good option, connecting the English source with the word "hobbits" - Hobbitshire (VAM).
Nemirova follows M&K, using the word Hobbitania, but she also has her own alternative - Edge (N).
Other options - Zaselye (K&K) and Udel (V)

Three tribes of hobbits. If you remember, they are mentioned in the introduction to The Lord of the Rings.
In the original (in the book) the names are written like this: Harfoots, Stoors, Fallowhides.
Perhaps I will give all the options without comment. The only thing I will remind you is that M&K draws an analogy with hares when translating.
Woollegs, Dubs and Beloskors (K&K)
quick, grab and hide (B)
mokhnolegs, stors and lightlings (VAM)
lapitups, shorts, whites (M&K)
Mokhnonogi, Khvaty, Lesoviki (G&G)
woollegs, stursas, brownheads (N)

Hobbit name for a useless, superfluous thing for gifts. Museum of these things.
The English "mahom" is not translated by K&K (mat), G&G (mat) and N (meth). Everyone else is trying to give this strange Hobbit word a "talking" sound:
Musom (M&K) seems to be the most successful option.
turbidity (B) - and I absolutely do not like this one.
surrender (YOU) - I love YOU, but I don’t like many of her translation options.
The name of the place (house, museum) where mathom's are stored:
matemushnik (K&K),
Muten-Khoromina (V),
House of surrender (VAM),
Musomny Barn (M&K),
Muttom Dom (G&G),
house of metomes (H).
And here, it seems to me, M & K with their Ambar are in the lead.

Hobbit dwelling, large forked burrow
English smial:
emoticons (K&K)
smials (M&K, V, N)
smilies (WAM)
Smeala (G&G)

One-fourth of the land of the Hobbits (the Shire, Hobbitania) is called: Note that each translator came up with their own name for English Farthing:
Limit (K&K),
Thursday (B),
quarter (WAM),
lot (M&K),
four (Y&Y).
Nemirova does not mention this word at all.

Bilbo and Frodo's Manor, Famous Bag-End Under Hill.
So, Bag-End Under Hill.
The most, perhaps, the most famous (perhaps the most successful) name was invented by M & K and after them Nemirova repeated it - Torba-on-Kruche (of course, you understand that this obliges to call Frodo Baggins). Slightly altered this name to YOU ​​- Torba-in-the-Hill. Bobyr generally dispensed with this word (due to the abbreviation of the translation). And you will find the funniest or most unexpected options at G&G - Zasumki, Sumkin Gorka, Volkovsky - Beben-on-Bugr, Beben and K&K - Kotomka.

Hobbit City - Hobbiton.
Given in English transcription - Hobbiton - by most translators (K&K, V, N, G&G). YOU came up with an interesting option - Hobbittown. At M & K - Norgord ("city of holes"). All options are perfect.

The area between ... I don’t remember what and what
Most use the words Prirechye (К&К, YOU, М&К, Н). There are two other options - Zaruchye (V) and Uvodie (G&G).

Bilbo's Unloved Relatives - Sackville-Bagginses
You won’t surprise us with the translation of the second part of the surname, but the imagination of the translators of the first part is worthy of respect: Hapni, Derikul, Koshel and Lyakoshel, simply Sakvil and Sumkin. By the way, don't be surprised if you find the names of these "relatives" in different versions: from Oddo and Lubelia (M&K) to Otto and Lobelia (G&G).
Here's the full list of options:
Sackville-Baggins (K&K)
Hapney-Bebbins (V)
Sumkin-Bags (VAM)
Lacochel Baggins, Oddo and Lubelia (M&C)
Derikul-Sumniksy, Otto and Lobelia (G&G)
Pouch Bags, Oto and Lobelia (N)

The age of the hobbit before coming of age. If you remember, at the very beginning of the book there is a phrase like - "until the age of 33, Frodo was considered ..." In English it sounds like in his tweens ...
I must say right away that this phrase is not translated by Volkovsky and Bobyr, although the latter goes without saying.
Two translators call this time "early summers" (M&K) and "immature summers" (H). By the way, I think you are already accustomed or will soon get used to full or partial (in the sense, in the same vein) coincidences of the translations of M&K and Nemirova. This is the fundamental position of the translator.
It was interesting to see what other translators came up with to refer to hobbits at this age. At K&K, Frodo at this age was called "junk", among YOU - "twenty", at G&G - "dorostok".

Miller Sandyman
K&K gives this surname in English transcription - Sandiman. The rest one way or another "translate" its root (sandy - sand): Pesoks (VAM), Peskuns (M&K, N), Pesoshkins (G&G). Volkovsky has his own, rather strange version - Okhryak (maybe this is something between ocher and boar?)

Sam's last name, aka Sam (Samwise) Gamgee
Sam is Sam, although he can be both Samwise (K&K) and Samius (V). It is more interesting to look at the translation of the surname: these are Gamgi (K&K), Gamji (VAM, G&G), Gamji and Gamji (B). The M&K (and, accordingly, H) variant - Scrombie - is interesting, emphasizing Sam's modesty and devotion to his master. Volkovsky's variant - Guzhni - I don't like it.

Last name Merry, aka Merry Brandybuck
Most translators confine themselves to a simple translation, although there are slight differences in the lettering: Brandyback (K&K), Brandybuck (B, WAM). For M&K (and, accordingly, N), the "back" changes to "bunny" (in accordance with the translator's concept of the relationship between hobbits and rabbits) - Brandyzyke. In G&G, "back" changes to "skok" (apparently, in part, for the same reason as in M&K) - Brandyscock. Therefore, all the places where the Brandiscokes lived will be consonant with the surnames - Zaskochie, Skochka, etc.

The main families of hobbits (Bilbo lists them in his "birthday" speech):
First, the English original:
Grubbs, Ghubbs, Burrows, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses, Proudfoot (Proudfeet)
Grubbs, Kubbs, Badgers, Dudels, Bulgers, Perestegins, Debellings and Bigfoots (Bigfoots) (K&K)
Gluttons, Dumps, Bulbans, Explain, Tolstings, Trumpets, Badgers and Mohnostupy (Mohnostupy) (B)
Rylsy, Zhuily, Zakopansy, Dudlings, Bolgers, Tight-bellies, Pyshnings, Badgers and Mokhnolaps (Mokhnopyats) (VAM)
Rytly and Grunts, Puziks and Crotts, Help-Lyamkins and Dudkins, Sdobs and Bigfoots (G&G)
? (H)
? (M&K)

Pippin (Peregrin) Took, aka Pippin (Peregrin) Took
Usually it is still Pippin, although sometimes Pippin (VAM); most often he is still Tuk, although sometimes Tukk (K&K). And only in two cases is he Pin (M&K and N), and only in one is Krol (guess who? Of course, M&K and only them!!!)

surname and nickname of Fredegar Bulger. If you don’t remember who it is, it’s such a fat hobbit, Frodo’s friend, who stayed to guard his new house and “fought off” the Nazgul
We are mainly interested in the translation of his nickname, although, as it turned out, not everything is so simple with the surname. Although in English it is Bolger, all translators have their own variants of the surname - Bulger (K&K), Bulban (V), Bolger (VAM), Bobber (M&K), Bulber (N). G&G immediately gives something in between a surname and a nickname - Puziks.
As for his nickname - Fatty - it translates as Donut (K & K), Fat (B), Meakush (VAM), Tolstik (M & K), Fat (N).

The farmer whose hobbits ate plenty of mushrooms - Maggot
K&K, G&G have it - Maggot. Other options:
Biryuk (V, M&K)
Motyl (VAM)
Chuddick (H)

People and others call hobbits like this:
There seem to be "halflings" in the movie (Lurz says "find the halflings".
Nevertheless, each translator has his own version (or even two), which surprises once again:
small (K&K), low click (M&K, N), shorty (B)
half-growth, half-growth (WAM)
underage, halfling (B)
The most interesting thing is that Volkovsky cites the English word Halfling in Russian transcription. The only advantage of this move is that now you understand how it would sound in English. But such a translation cannot be called successful. Even worse - "short". What is this, an insult?
? (Y&Y)

Hobbits call people:
The English version - Big Folk - is translated as Big (K & K), Bolshuns (B), Ogromins (VAM), Hulks (M & K), Tall People (G & G), Hulks, Tall People (H). There were no repeats! :)

Hobbit word for the number 144 (twelve dozen)
The English version is one gross. Translations: most often - gross (VAM, G&G, N), as well as "a bunch of small" (K&K), choh (V), edge (M&K)

Having sold Bilbo's manor, Frodo bought a new house in a place called ... Crickhollow.
In translations - 3 beams, 2 ravines and 1 hollow. See for yourself:
Krikkova Hollow (K&K)
Dry Ravine (V)
Kryvrazhki (G&G)
Krichya Balka (VAM)
Rabbit Balka (M&K)
Creek Beam (N)

Backland. I don’t even know what it is… Probably the town in Backbury where the Brandybacks lived…
The English version is Buckland - K&K and BAM are interpreted without any special tricks (Backland and Buckland, respectively). Volkovsky has Bakovina, M&K has his favorite Hare Hills, G&G has Zaskochie (do not forget that the Brandiscokes live there). Nemirova, if I'm not mistaken, has Zabrendia. If I'm wrong, correct me.

The Brandybacks lived in...
They lived in Buckebury, that is, in Backbury (K&K), Buckburg (BAM), Zygorde (M&K),
Skochke (G&G), Zabrendia (N) – Zabrendia again? Sorry, that's how it was translated.
And again, Volkovsky beats all records with his Bucklushes. Yes, yes, it was in Baklushy that his Brandybucks lived.

Conspiracy "pseudonym" Frodo
Of course, you know from the movie - it's Mr. Underhill. He is also Podholmes (K&K, V, VAM, N), he is also Nakruchins (M&K), he is also Noroholm (G&G), he is Holmins (B)

Gollum. Still, he is a hobbit, albeit a bad one.
Of course, Gollum. So everyone writes - Gollum, except for the good old M&C, G&G. They have him - Gollum. Well, they have a Balrog - Barlog. Alliteration.

New settlement in Hobbitania
New Rowl / Sharkey's End
New Naulok (Sychevy Pshik) (V)
Novaya street or dead end Sharki (VAM, K&K)
New Proulok (Sharka's Grave) (M&C)
Novosumy or Aspid End (G&G)
Novaya Street (Sharka's Grave) (Н)

Hungry Years in Hobbitania - Days of Dearth
Mortal Hunger (B)
Hungry Years (WAM, K&K)
(M&K)
Days of Deadly Trouble (D&D)
Years of Bad Harvest (H)
(B)

Michel Delving in the White Hills - Capital of the Shire (Hobbitania)
Michel Delving / White Downs
Michel Delving on White Hills (K&K)
Grain barn on Whitewashed Steeps (B)
Mitchell Delving at the White Hills (WAM)
(M&K)
Mikoryto on Belyye Uvalakh (G&G)
Great Burrows in the White Highlands (H)
(B)

Brandyback Family Manor - Brandy Hall
Brandywine Parates(K&K)
Brandy Hall(V)
Brandyhall (WAM)
(M&K)
Brandinorie (G&G)
Brandytrope (N)
(B)

Tukk Manor
Big Smilies (K&K)
Fertilizer Smiles (B)
Great Smiley (VAM)
(M&K)
Smealishcha (G&G)
Large Smials (H)
(B)

Gamgees lived in (on) Bagshot Row
in Otvalny (K&K)
- (AT)
on Slick Street (WAM)
(M&K)
in Tugosumy (Y&G)
in Torbin lane (H)
(B)

Hamfast, Sam's father
Gaffer Gamgee
Ham Gamgee, Old Man (K&K)
Ham Gougny, Starben (V)
Hamfast, Gamgee's grandfather (WAM)
Zhihar (M&K)
Old Man Ham (G&G)
Ham Scrombie, Grandfather (N)

hobbit dance (remember, hobbit youth kept trying to dance it during Bilbo's speech) springle-ring
jump-jump (K&K)
jingle jump (B)
ring jumper (WAM)
(M&K)
Jump-Jump (G&G)
"everyone dance, let's jump at once" (N)
(B)

chronicles are stored in Undertowers
Turret (K&K)
Turrets (B)
Under the Towers (WAM)
(M&K)
Undershot (H&G)
Underturret (H)

Ringbearer Ringbearer
keeper of the Ring (K&K, V, M&K, N)
bearer of the Ring, Bearer of the Ring (WAM)
Ring bearer (B)
Keeper (G&G)

Hobbit Falco Boffin (Boffin)
Boffin (K&K, WAM)
Swedun (V)
(M&K)
Umnix (G&G)
Moudrens (H)

Tuckborough - Tuckborough
Toukland (K&K)
Tukovishchi (V)
Tukboro (WAM, G&G)
(M&K)
(H)
(B)

the main position in the Hobbitania is Mayor
mayor (V)
burgomaster (VAM, K&K, N)
(M&K)
Mayor (Y&Y)

shirrif
Sheriff (K&K)
shirriff (WAM, Y&Y, V)