{"id":119373,"date":"2024-09-11T04:44:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T09:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=119373"},"modified":"2024-09-11T09:10:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T14:10:20","slug":"reflections-from-the-shire-the-shibboleth-of-feanor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2024\/09\/11\/119373-reflections-from-the-shire-the-shibboleth-of-feanor\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections from the Shire – The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Adar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week in Reflections from the Shire we have a guest post from Tolkien lover, and Tiktok and Threads regular, Lea\/Silmarilleanne about The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor and it’s appearance in The Rings of Power <\/em>episode four. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Staffer Kelvarhin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reflections from the Shire – The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest post by: Lea\/Silmarilleanne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keen-eared Tolkien fans may have noticed an interesting linguistic quirk spoken by Adar at the end of episode four of The Rings of Power<\/em>. He greets Galadriel with a familiar Quenyan phrase \u2013 one used by Frodo to greet Gildor Ingolrion in The Lord of the Rings<\/em>: \u201celen s\u00edla l\u00famenn omentielvo\u201d, to quote Frodo. But Adar\u2019s is slightly different, raising some interesting possibilities about his original elven identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Firstly, there\u2019s the fact that Adar is speaking Quenya at all. This suggests he is a Noldo of Valinor \u2013 just as Galadriel is; Quenya the language originated in Valinor and is the the language of the High Elves. It was dropped in favour of Sindarin shortly after the exiled Noldor arrived in Middle-earth, thanks to the ban placed upon it being spoken by the Sindar King, Elu Thingol, after he was informed of the Kinslaying at Alqualond\u00eb, the victims of which were his own people, the Teleri. It was never spoken by any of the other elves of Middle-earth, becoming something of an archaic language of lore. Furthermore, Adar calls Galadriel \u201cAlt\u00e1riel\u201d, the Quenyan form of the name Galadriel \u2013 an epess\u00eb (a kind of nickname) she was given in Valinor, and which was Sindarised to Galadriel in Middle-earth. This is all to say, were he anything other than a Noldo, it is extremely unlikely he would have spoken Quenya and known Galadriel\u2019s Quenyan epess\u00eb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most intriguing part of all this though is instead of s\u00edla, Adar pronounces the word as th\u00edla \u2013 or, more accurately \u00fe\u00edla. This usage of the thorn in place of s suggests he is not only speaking Quenya, but a very specific dialect of Quenya \u2013 F\u00ebanorian Quenya, known amongst many fans as \u2018the F\u00ebanorian lisp\u2019 (indeed, those who spoke this way were dubbed \u2018the Lispers\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor, published in The Peoples of Middle-earth<\/em>, volume 12 of the History of Middle-earth, Tolkien at his philological best describes how sociopolitical matters affect language and vice versa. As the Shibboleth explains, the Noldor and the Vanyar, two of the three tribes of elves, once lived together in the city of Tirion in Valinor and shared a language, Quenya. The Vanyar relocated to the city of Valmar to be closer to the Valar, and as a result of this distancing, dialectical shifts occurred between the two peoples. The Vanyar retained the \u00fe in their language, but amongst the Noldor there was a \u201cconscious and deliberate change\u2026based primarily on phonetic \u2018taste\u2019 and theory\u201d to s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change was attacked and opposed by loremasters, who believed it would cause damage \u201cin confusing stems and their derivatives that had been distinct in sound and sense\u201d. The chief linguistic loremaster at this time was F\u00ebanor, who as well as being a fastidious loremaster also had a very personal reason for objecting to the change. F\u00ebanor\u2019s mother, and first queen of the Noldor, was M\u00edriel \u00deerinde. While the linguistic shift is said to have happened (or at least began) within her lifetime, M\u00edriel herself adhered to the pronunciation \u00fe, and \u201cdesired that all her kin should adhere to it also, at least in the pronunciation of her name\u201d, therefore \u00deerind\u00eb as opposed to Serind\u00eb.<\/p>\n\n\n

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However, unprecedented amongst the elves of this time, M\u00edriel died, and refused to be re-embodied. Embittered by this, her husband Finw\u00eb himself switched away from \u00fe in favour of s, which had at this point become almost universal amongst the Noldor bar M\u00edriel\u2019s kin. Matters were worsened further when his second wife, Indis of the Vanyar, followed suit. As a Vanya, Indis had hitherto retained the \u00fe in her speech, but she declared, \u201cI have joined the people of the Noldor, and I will speak as they do\u201d. F\u00ebanor, hating Indis and seeing her as somewhat of a usurper in his mother\u2019s rightful place, believed her switch to be a grave insult and belittlement of his mother, and came to view the rejection of \u00de as a symbol of rejection of both his mother M\u00edriel, and by extension himself, her son, as the chief of the Noldor next to Finw\u00eb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, he became yet more vehement in his objection of the shift, even while his behaviour turned those who had previously agreed with him to the opposing side:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHad peace been maintained there can be no doubt that the advice of F\u00ebanor, with which all the other loremasters privately or openly agreed, would have prevailed. But an opinion in which he was surely right was rejected because of the follies and evil deeds into which he was later led.\u201d<\/em><\/block><\/p>\n\n\n\n

F\u00ebanor remained steadfast in his opposition, pointedly calling himself \u2018Son of \u00deerinde\u2019 and telling his sons, when they queried the difference in their speech from that of their kin, that they \u201cspeak as is right, and as King Finw\u00eb did before he was led astray\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So even before the Rebellion of the Noldor and their exodus to Middle-earth, s in place of \u00fe had become dominant, and this was further cemented in exile: \u201cThe s was certainly used in Beleriand by almost all the Noldor,\u201d Tolkien writes, and this is followed by the note \u201cIt is not even certain that all F\u00ebanor\u2019s sons continued to use \u00de after his death and the healing of the feud\u201d between the F\u00ebanorians and the family of Fingolfin, though it seems almost certain any elf who did retain the thorn would have been counted amongst the F\u00ebanorian followers \u2013 thus is raised the question of Adar\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Adar saying it to Galadriel adds yet another layer of significance. The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor further details how Finarfin, Galadriel\u2019s father \u201cloved the Vanyar (his mother\u2019s people)\u201d and that because of this love in his house, \u00fe remained in standard use and he was moved neither one way nor the other by F\u00ebanor\u2019s shibboleth, acting purely as he wished. Galadriel therefore grew up in a household that retained the \u00fe. However:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201copposition to F\u00ebanor,\u201d Tolkien writes, \u201csoon became a dominant motive with Galadriel\u2026 so while she knew well the history of their tongue and all the reasons of the loremasters, she certainly used s in her own daily speech.\u201d<\/em><\/block><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, she purposely transitioned to using s to spite F\u00ebanor. Adar\u2019s own usage of it then could also be retaliative or in a similar vein: he is aware of its import and meaning to Galadriel and could potentially be purposely using it as a means of aggravating her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, the implications of him speaking Quenya \u2013 and specifically the F\u00ebanorian dialect of Quenya \u2013 seems to contradict earlier indications in the show about him being one of the first orcs; the first orcs were made from elves taken during the days at Cuivi\u00e9nen, long before the elves went to Valinor and Quenya the language even existed; at this time, they spoke only Primitive Quendian. It would also seem odd if Quenya is his mother tongue, why his name is Adar, the Sindarin word for father, as opposed to Atar as it is in Quenya. But how deep does the show want to delve? It could be a lot more straightforward \u2013 the show is going on the simplified premise of Quenya having been spoken by the elves since those early days, and the dialectical shift having happened since then simply being indicative of Adar\u2019s extreme age. But if Adar is from amongst those first elves, as Galadriel claimed in the first series, that would put him of an age, older even, than C\u00edrdan, and yet Adar is very noticeably lacking the beard that is illustrative of C\u00edrdan\u2019s long lifespan. On the other hand, if the show really is going this deep on the lore, exactly who is he? Theories of Adar being Maglor abound, since it would tick many of the boxes: F\u00ebanorian speech, Noldo, dark hair, familiarity with the name Alt\u00e1riel\u2026 But surely, even with a multitude of scars on his face, Galadriel would recognise her cousin? There is also, and perhaps most fundamentally, the issue of rights. While the Tolkien Estate has afforded Amazon some leniency and granted access to certain items outside the rights they own \u2013 most notably, the name \u201cAnnatar\u201d, a word which does not appear in the Lord of the Rings and its appendices, which Amazon owns the rights to \u2013 it is another level entirely to grant them access to an entire character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of whether Adar\u2019s use of the \u201cF\u00ebanorian lisp\u201d becomes significant and plot-relevant, or remains a little easter egg for keen-eared viewers, it has certainly conjured a lot of discussion, and a wonderful new level of interest in more casual fans, who have begun seeking out a once fairly obscure text like The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author:<\/em> Lea aka Silmarilleanne is a long-time lover of Tolkien’s works with a penchant for his languages and the House of Finw\u00eb. When her nose isn’t buried in a book or a PlayStation controller in her hands, she can most often be found talking Tolkien on Tiktok and Threads.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~ * ~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to discuss “The Shibboleth of F\u00ebanor” further, or just want to discuss all things Tolkien in a welcoming, troll-free environment check out TheOneRing.net\u2019s Discord<\/a> or message boards<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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