Nerdanel?

[ithren]

Excuse me, Mr. Fingon, sir,

but can you tell me what the name 'Nerdanel' translates to?

The 'ner' means 'man', I know, but I can't find the rest of it anywhere. I've tried UT and some of the HoME books, such as vols. 11 and 12 and Web sites, but can't find where Prof. Tolkien ever gave the meaning for the name.

Thanks again for your time!

[Rhapsody]

From Dawn's essay on Nerdanel (which is a very good read) I lifted this:

In fact--while concrete evidence as to the meaning of the name Nerdanel is lacking--one hypothesis is that Nerdanel means "man maker" in recognition of her extraordinary number of male children (7, 14).

In her essay she refers to this thread where someone states this:

Christopher Gilson suggested the translation "manly woman" in his "High-elven Glossary" in _Parma Eldalamberon #6_. The idea, apparently, that _nerda_ is an adjectival form of _ner_ "man" (NDER-) and _-nel_ meaning woman.

[ithren]

Hi, Rhapsody!

Thanks so much for the excellent essay by Dawn Felagund, which I printed out to keep as a reference tool.

It certainly answers the question of what Nerdanel's name means, with a lot of bonus material as well.

She's one of my favorites, kind of like a Greek tragic heroine. She certainly had to put up with a lot from Feanor, then ended up losing all her children as well.

[Darth Fingon]

Jun 8, 2009 9:12:38 GMT -6 Rhapsody said:

In fact--while concrete evidence as to the meaning of the name Nerdanel is lacking--one hypothesis is that Nerdanel means "man maker" in recognition of her extraordinary number of male children (7, 14).

If we go with this meaning, it could also refer to the fact that she was a sculptor of very lifelike works.

Christopher Gilson suggested the translation "manly woman" in his "High-elven Glossary" in _Parma Eldalamberon #6_. The idea, apparently, that _nerda_ is an adjectival form of _ner_ "man" (NDER-) and _-nel_ meaning woman.

I think this is the more likely explanation, since if you look at the meanings of Tolkien's names, they're almost always very simple.

A few more possibilities off the top of my head:

1) The stem NER, apart from giving us words for 'man' and 'manly', also gives 'strength'. So Nerdanel could also mean something like 'woman of strength'.

2) The 'anel' portion could be daughter rather than woman, for a meaning of 'man-daughter' (daddy's girl: somebody who takes after her father rather than mother).