Tolkien Encyclopedia > Elves > Glorfindel > Glorfindel's Name

Glorfindel's Name

by Irmo-(Valar)
August 8, 2001


    The name means "Goldtress”.

    The name is composed of
Glor- (Sind. Glaur-, Q. Laure-): gold
    And
Findel (Sind. Finnel, Q. Findë): hairlock, tress.
    The name is Noldorin in the early initial “Gnomish” sense: a Quenya adaptation of Sindarin and/or vice versa.
    Interesting is that both the name and its meaning have been steady since the earliest version of the Fall of Gondolin (1916), and reappear in both The Lord Of The Rings and The Silmarillion with that spelling and that meaning. That is quite something in the everchanging world of JRRT.
    In The Book of Lost Tales II p. 341 we find Glorfinn and Glorfingl as variants. There we also find findl and findil as quenya for hairlock, but these should be considered pre-mature forms of findë.

    Alternate Guild names are therefore:
Sindarin: Glaurfindel, Glaurfinnel, Glorfinn (arch.), Glorfingl (arch.)
Quenya: Laurëfindë, Laurefindl (arch.), Laurefindil (arch.).

References:
    The Lord Of The Rings
    The Silmarillion
    The Book of Lost Tales II
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