Tolkien Time: What actually is… Adar?

Hahaha, I fooled you! Because those of you who have seen the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power naturally have a very specific image in mind when you hear the name Adar, namely that of actor Joseph Mawle as a corrupted Elf, who leads a band of orcs and calls himself Uruk. Or that of Benjen Stark from Game of Thrones … is the same actor ^^ We can briefly guess who Adar from Tolkien’s lore is before I dedicate myself to the actual topic of this little explanation lesson, namely the languages ​​of the Elves aka Elvish . All in good time …

Who is Adar?

Adar, as we know from the series, is an elf that his orcs (his children) seem to trust blindly. He also credits himself with slaying Sauron. His scarred face, tall stature, and dark hair lead some fans to believe that Adar could be Maeglin, son of a Dark Elf who was captured by Orcs. Under torture and Morgoth’s promise that Meaglin could wed his secret flame, the Elf betrayed the location of the legendary city of Gondolin. Maeglin’s life ended (actually) when the city was attacked and he was pushed off the city walls by Tuor, Earendil’s father.

Incidentally, dark elves, the Moriquendi, are the elves who did not migrate west to Aman and weren’t in Valinor, when the Two Trees were still in bloom. It is not certain whether Adar is Maeglin. But it seems that he is a Noldor. In Episode 6, Udûn, Galadriel refers to Adar as Moriondor, Son of Darkness, one of the first Orcs (Adar clarifies: Uruk, but not to be confused with Saruman’s Uruk-hai). That there is nothing Elvish about Adar can be seen without a doubt by his black blood. Let’s wait and see what happens to him in Rings of Power Season 2.

Adar means “father” and that probably won’t be his real name.

Source: Amazon Studios

What is worth emphasizing here is that the Noldorian descendants of Finarfin and the Vanyar were most likely to have blond hair, while most of the Noldor were dark-haired. But we’ll talk about the elves and their different tribes another time ^^

So what is Adar?

Adar won’t be the real name of the Rings of Power character, making the guesswork as to who he might be even more intriguing. For Adar is a Sindarin word, and it simply means father. There is also the variation Ada for dad or father. So let’s get down to the actual topic: Elvish! And as is the case in the Tolkien universe: there are many and varied expressions for all proper names. Sindarin is the language of the elves of Beleriand and was developed by Tolkien over the years in the three levels of Goldogrin, Noldorin and finally Sindarin.

A little digression: The original form Goldogrin has existed since 1917, from the 1930s when Tolkien was working on The Lord of the Rings it became Noldorin with an expanded word list; it is the language the Noldor brought with them from Valinor. However, towards the end of his work on The Lord of the Rings, Noldorin became Sindarin, the language of the Elves, who never left Middle-earth.

So now the origin story is that the Elves speak Sindarin who did not go to Valinor, and from this many dialects derived; such as the falathrin from coastal regions, the mithrim of the elves from the north, and the doriathrin from the realm of Doriath. After the return of the Noldor from the Immortal Lands, northern Sindarin, i.e. mithrim, prevailed in large parts. Other dialects formed in Imladris, which shows a clear influence of Quenya, and in Mirkwood, the Nandorin (divided into Ossiriandeb, the dialect of Lothórien and the dialect of the woodland realm). And because so many dialects evolved, the Sindarin is never equal to Sindarin because Tolkien worked so hard on it over time, which tended to simplify the language. If you want to know more about Sindarin, then you should visit Sindarin.de!

Gil-galad and Elrond may, for convenience, converse in Sindarin when alone. Of course, so that we can understand them, they speak Westron for us … hehehe.

Source: Amazon Studios

What is Quenya?

So while Sindarin is the language of the Elves who have never seen Valinor, Quenya is the language of the Elves who have seen Valinor… to put it simply. Quenya is in any case more of a language for ceremonial occasions in Middle-earth in the second and third ages. Basically, however, Quenya means “the language of the Quendi” i.e. “the language of the speakers” i.e. … Elvish. For Tolkien called Elves Quendi for the sake of simplicity.

The Valar spoke this language very quickly in the Blessed Realm, and Melkor (yes, of all people) was the most eloquent of them. Quenya was created in 1915 and of course there are different dialects because Tolkien was constantly honing it, similar to Sindarin. The main tribes are the Vanyarin, spoken by the Vanyar exclusively in Valinor, and the Noldorin, spoken by the Noldor. And the Noldorin in particular was then divided into further subspecies by the exile of the Noldor. If you want to read up on the grammar, please follow this path to Ardapedia.de.

What is valarine?

Valarin is again the language of the Valar and Maiar, although they shouldn’t have needed a language because they could communicate with each other telepathically. Yet they created a language just as they chose physical bodies. The Valarin, however, is a language that the Eldar do not like at all, because it contains so many sounds that they can hardly pronounce. For example, the Quenya name for the Ring of Destiny is Máhanaxar. In the Valarin the same word is Māχananaškād.

And the Black Speech?

As mentioned elsewhere, Sauron designed the Black Speech for his subjects, although they commonly used the Westron. So much like Quenya, the Black Speech is more of a ceremonial thing. Due to his origin, Sauron used the original Elvish for the language, some orc languages ​​and even parts of the Valarin (he is Maiar). Possibly, and given the reference to Māχananaškād, the word Nazg for ring could have been borrowed from Valarin. This is what Ardapedia says:

“The Valarin may even have influenced the Black Speech of Mordor. For example, it might be possible that Nazg, the Black Speech word for ring, comes from the Valarin, where Māχananaškād is the Ring of Destiny (Quenya Máhanaxar), meaning Māχan something like “action performed with authority”, or simply “authority” (meaning probably an action of Eru. A similar basic idea concerning fate can be found in the Quenya word Umbar, which is sometimes translated as Eru’s decision). Māχan thus means fate , so Anaškād Ring. Not quite, because probably part of it is a genitive affix. But at least the Našk part is strongly reminiscent of Nazg.”