Philology, the study ofcomparative and historicallinguistics, especially of themedieval period, hada major influence onJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfantasy world ofMiddle-earth. He was a professional philologist, and madeuse of his knowledge of medieval literature and language to createfamilies of Elvish languages and many details of the invented world.

Among the medieval sources for Middle-earth areCrist 1, which led to the tale ofEärendil, the beginning of Tolkien's mythology;Beowulf, which he used in many places; his philological study of theOld English wordSigelwara, which may have inspired theSilmarils,Balrogs, and theHaradrim; and his research on an inscription at the temple ofNodens, which seems to have led toCelebrimbor Silver-hand, maker of theRings of Power, toDwarves, and to theOne Ring itself.

His use of his philological understanding of language in the construction of his Middle-earthlegendarium was pervasive, beginning with hisfamilies of Elvish languages. From there, he created elements of story, including thehistory andgeography of Middle-earth, the names of people and places, and eventuallya complete mythology.

From his schooldays,J. R. R. Tolkien was in his biographerJohn Garth's words "effusive about philology"; his schoolfriend Rob Gilson called him "quite a great authority onetymology".^[2] Tolkien was a professionalphilologist, a scholar of comparative and historicallinguistics. He was especially familiar withOld English and related languages. He remarked to the poet andThe New York Times book reviewerHarvey Breit that "I am a philologist and all my work is philological"; he explained to his American publisherHoughton Mifflin that this was meant to imply that his work was "all of a piece, andfundamentally linguistic in inspiration. ... Theinvention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows."^{[T 1]}

The Tolkien scholarVerlyn Flieger writes that Tolkien's "profession as philologist and his vocation as writer of fantasy/theology overlapped and mutually supported one another",^[3] in other words that he "did not keep his knowledge in compartments; his scholarly expertise informs his creative work."^[4] This expertise was founded, in her view, on the belief that one knows a text only by "properly understanding [its] words, their literal meaning and their historical development."^[3] She states that he skilfully exploited the language styles of different characters to situate them geographically as well as in their specific culture and their psychological makeup, commenting that, "One can imagine a seventy-page essay centuries hence on 'Tolkien as a Philologist:The Lord of the Rings'".^[4]

• 
  Ēala ēarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended,
  "HailEarendel, brightest of angels, over Middle-earth to men sent"
  (second half of top line, first half of second line) - part of the poemCrist 1 in theExeter Book, folio 9v, top^[5]

Tolkien began his mythology with the 1914 poemThe Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star, inspired by the Old English poemCrist 1.^[6][8] Around 1915, he had the idea that his constructed languageQuenya was to be spoken by Elves whom the characterEärendil meets during his journeys.^[9] From there, he wrote theLay of Earendel, telling of Earendel and his voyages and how his ship turned into themorning star.^{[10][11][5][12]} These lines fromCrist 1 also gave Tolkien the termMiddle-earth (translatingOld EnglishMiddangeard). Accordingly, the medievalistsStuart D. Lee andElizabeth Solopova state thatCrist 1 was "the catalyst for Tolkien's mythology".^[6][7][8]

Tolkien's detailed philological study ofBeowulf, with itseotenas [ond] ylfe [ond] orcneas, "giants [and] elves [and] devil-corpses" helped to inspire him to createElves andOrcs.^[13]

The phraseOrthanc enta geweorc, on the second line of the Old EnglishMaxims II manuscript, seems to have inspired both the tower ofOrthanc and the tree-giantEnts who lived nearby.^[14]

Tolkien was an expert onOld English literature, especially the epic poemBeowulf, and made many uses of it inThe Lord of the Rings. For example,Beowulf's list of creatures,eotenas ond ylfe ond orcnéas, "Ettens [giants] andElves and demon-corpses", contributed to his creation of some of the races of beings in Middle-earth.^[13]

He derived theEnts from a phrase in another Old English poem,Maxims II,orþanc enta geweorc, "skilful work of giants".^[15] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey suggests that Tolkien took the name of the tower ofOrthanc (orþanc) from the same phrase, reinterpreted as "Orthanc, the Ents' fortress".^[14]

The wordorþanc occurs again inBeowulf in the phrasesearonet seowed, smiþes orþancum, "[amail-shirt, a] cunning-net sewn, by a smith's skill": Tolkien usedsearo in itsMercian form*saru for the name of Orthanc's ruler, the wizardSaruman, "cunning man", incorporating the ideas of skill and technology into Saruman's character.^[16] He made use ofBeowulf, too, along with other Old English sources, for many aspects of theRiders of Rohan. They called their land the Mark, a version of the Mercia where he lived, in Mercian dialect*Marc.^[17]

In the case of Tolkien's description of the floor of Meduseld, the hall of KingThéoden of Rohan inThe Lord of the Rings, the folklorist and Tolkien scholarDimitra Fimi suggests that it is possible to trace Tolkien's thought back to an actual medieval floor. In a 1926 review of an article about placenames and archaeology, Tolkien wrote that the phraseon fāgne flōr, "on the bright-patterned floor", occurs inBeowulf, line 725. He commented that it "might be guessed to mean paved or eventessellated floor."^{[T 2]} Tolkien, describing himself rhetorically as "the philologist", notes that theOxfordshire village ofFawler was in 1205 namedFauflor;^[a] that he would wonder if that meant there was a Roman villa nearby; and that "the archaeologist" would reply that there was indeed one "with a tessellated pavement" near there, the large and luxuriousNorth Leigh Roman Villa.^{[T 2][19][20]} Fimi writes that theBeowulf lines are definitely echoed in Tolkien's description of the hall of KingThéoden of Rohan inThe Lord of the Rings, and "perhaps even this image of the real floor" too.^[20]

Dimitra Fimi's analysis of the origins of the King ofRohan's hall floor inThe Two Towers^[20]

Beowulf, lines 723–725	Tolkien's prose translation[T 3]	"The King of the Golden Hall"[T 4]	A "bright-patterned floor" at a village named after it[T 2][19]
onbraéd þá bealo-hýdig,       þá hé gebolgen wæs, recedes múðan.       Raðe æfter þon on fágne flór       féond treddode,	He [Grendel] wrenched then wide, baleful with raging heart, the gaping entrance of the house; then swift onthe bright-patterned floor the demon paced.	The hall was long and wide and filled with shadows and half lights; mighty pillars upheld its lofty roof… As their eyes changed, the travellers perceived thatthe floor was paved with stones of many hues; branching runes and strange devices intertwined beneath their feet.

Several Middle-earth concepts may have come from the Old English wordSigelwara, used in theCodex Junius to mean "Aethiopian".^[22][23][24] Tolkien wondered why there was a word with this meaning, given that the Anglo-Saxons had had little or no contact with peoples of Africa. Accordingly, he conjectured that it had once had a different meaning, which he explored in detail in his philological essay "Sigelwara Land", published in two parts in 1932 and 1934.^{[T 5]} He stated thatSigel meant "bothsun andjewel", the former as it was the name of the sunrune *sowilō (ᛋ), the latter from Latinsigillum, aseal.^[21]

He decided that the second element was*hearwa, possibly related to Old Englishheorð, "hearth", and ultimately to Latincarbo, "soot". He suggested, in what he admitted was a philological conjecture, that this implied "rather the sons ofMuspell [a fiery realm in Germanic myth] than ofHam [Biblical Africans]".^{[T 5]} In other words, he supposed, theSigelwara named a class of demons "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot".^{[T 5]} Shippey states that this "helped to naturalise theBalrog" (a demon of fire) and contributed to the sun-jewelSilmarils.^[23] Further, the Anglo-Saxon mention ofAethiopians suggested to Tolkien theHaradrim, a dark southern race of men.^{[b][T 6]}

In 1928, a 4th-century pagan cult temple wasexcavated atLydney Park, Gloucestershire.^[25] Tolkien was asked to conduct a philological investigation of aLatin inscription there, translating it as: "For the godNodens.Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one-half [its worth] to Nodens. Among those who are called Senicianus do not allow health until he brings it to the temple of Nodens."^[26] An old name for the place was "Dwarf's Hill", and in 1932, Tolkien traced Nodens to the Irish heroNuada Airgetlám, "Nuada of the Silver-Hand".^{[T 7]}

Shippey thought this "a pivotal influence" on Tolkien's Middle-earth, combining as it did a god-hero, a ring, dwarves, and a silver hand.^[1] TheJ.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia notes also the "Hobbit-like appearance of [Dwarf's Hill]'s mine-shaft holes", and that Tolkien was extremely interested in the hill's folklore on his stay there, citing Helen Armstrong's comment that the place may have inspired Tolkien's "Celebrimbor and the fallen realms ofMoria andEregion".^[1][27] The Lydney curator Sylvia Jones said that Tolkien was "surely influenced" by the site.^[28] The scholar of English literature John M. Bowers notes that the name of the Elven-smithCelebrimbor is the Sindarin for "Silver Hand", and that, "Because the place was known locally as Dwarf's Hill and honeycombed with abandoned mines, it naturally suggested itself as background for theLonely Mountain and the Mines of Moria."^[29]

Tolkien was constantly inspired in his writing of fiction by his professional work in philology. The Tolkien scholarJohn D. Rateliff gives a few examples among many: his use of thePoetic Edda for the names of Dwarves inThe Hobbit; of theBeowulf scene where a cup is stolen from the dragon's hoard, forBilbo's venture into Smaug's lair; and his construction of the mythic tale ofEarendil from the Old English nameEarendel. His creation took many forms.^[30]

Tolkien took a special pleasure, described in his 1931 essay "A Secret Vice",^{[T 9]}in inventing languages.^[31] He invested a large amount of time and energy creating philologically-structured language families, especially theElvish languages ofQuenya andSindarin, both of which appear inThe Lord of the Rings.^[32] Thus, the word for "Elves" in one language variant, Common Eldarin, waskwendi, itsconsonants realistically and systematically modified intoquendi in Quenya,penni in Silvan,pendi in Telerin, andpenidh in Sindarin.^{[32][T 8]}

The existence of all these languages motivated his creation of a mythology; the languages needed people to speak them, and they in turn needed history and geography, wars and migrations.^[32] InThe Silmarillion, these include thesundering of the Elves, their repeated splintering into separate groups neatly mirroring the fragmentation of Quenya into languages and dialects.^[33] Tolkien stated as much in his foreword to the Second Edition ofThe Lord of the Rings: "I wished first to complete and set in order themythology and legends of the Elder Days ... for my own satisfaction ... it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues".^{[T 10]}

The scholar of folklore Tommy Kuusela writes that Tolkien's intention to createa mythology for England,^{[T 11]} noted by other scholars,^[35][36][37] was based on his nation's evident lack of anything like the tradition inFinnish,Greek, orNorse mythology and folklore.^[38] Tolkien admitted as much in his 1936 lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", suggesting that England's lost mythology must have been something like the surviving Norse myths.^[38] He could not do whatElias Lönnrot did in Finland, for example: travel the countryside to gather folk tales surviving inoral tradition, and assemble them into a genuine national mythology like theKalevala. Instead, he was driven to invent, making use of whatever materials he could find: philological hints and cluesin medieval literature, as well as story elements from non-English mythologies.^[38] His method was always to look for the hidden or missing using his knowledge of philology: "Theasterix [conjectured wordform], theroot and the recreated word become, in Tolkien's mind, the seeds for a narrative."^[38] At the most, he could suppose that some of the material in his legendarium "already existed; it was something originating in a collective English imagination, and he was in that sense not inventing things from scratch."^[38]

With so little information about what English mythology might have been, Tolkien was forced to combine scraps from whatever sources he could find. An instance of this is his reconstruction of Elves, based on clues from such Old English sources as had survived, combined with clues from further afield, such as Norse mythology.^[13]

Tolkien devoted enormous effort to placenames, for example making those inThe Shire such as Nobottle, Bucklebury, and Tuckborough obviously English in sound and by etymology,^[41] whereas the placenames inBree containBrittonic (Celtic) language elements.^[40] Shippey comments that even though many of these names do not enter the book's plot, they contribute a feeling of reality and depth, giving "Middle-earth that air of solidity and extent both in space and time which its successors [in fantasy literature] so conspicuously lack."^[41] Tolkien wrote in one of his letters that his work was "largely an essay in linguistic aesthetic".^{[T 12]}

He made use of several European languages, ancient and modern, including Old English for the language of Rohan,Old Norse for the names of Dwarves, and modern English for the Common Speech shared by the peoples of Middle-earth, creating as the story developed a tricky linguistic puzzle. Among other things, Middle-earth was not modern Europe but that region long ages ago, and the Common Speech was not modern English but the imagined ancient language ofWestron. Therefore, the dialogue and names written in modern English were,in the fiction,translations from the Westron, and the language and placenames of Rohan were similarly supposedly translated fromRohirric into Old English; therefore, too, the dwarf-names written in Old Norse must have been translated fromKhuzdul into Old Norse. Thus the linguistic geography of Middle-earth grew from Tolkien's purely philological or linguistic explorations.^[40]

Tolkien's philological liking for lost words expressed itself, too, in his use of what Shippey calls some "strikingly odd words" inThe Lord of the Rings. One of these is "dwimmerlaik", from Old Englishdwimor,^[c] which Shippey describes as a hazy concept blending magic and deceit, with "suggest[ions of] veiling, illusion, shape-shifting," andlac, meaning sport or play.^[43]Éowyn uses the word to defy theWitch-king of Angmar as they fight to the death in theBattle of the Pelennor Fields: "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, Lord of carrion!"^[43] Shippey reconstructs Tolkien's philological thinking behind his use of the word. He notes that Éowyn's brotherÉomer had earlier describedSaruman as "a wizard both cunning and dwimmer-crafty, having many guises," giving a gloss on the strange word.^[43] Shippey comments that this usefully makes Éomer sound "archaic but not entirely unfamiliar".^[43] Another man from Rohan, the traitorGríma Wormtongue, uses the related word "Dwimordene" for the magical realm of the Elves, glossing it as he speaks with the phrase "webs of deceit were ever woven in Dwimordene."^[43] Thus "dwimor/dwimmer" is seen to suggest both magic and deception. Finally, Tolkien uses the name "Dwimorberg", directly translating it into modern English as "the Haunted Mountain".^[43] So, Shippey writes, by the time Éowyn shouts "dwimmerlaik", the attentive reader should have been able to pick up the various clues as to its meaning.^[43]

Tolkien described a tradition of philological study of Elvish languages within his legendarium. Elven philologists are indicated by the Quenya termLambengolmor, "loremasters". In Quenya,lambe means "spoken language" or "verbal communication".^{[T 13]} Tolkien wrote:

The older stages of Quenya were, and doubtless still are, known to the loremasters of the Eldar. It appears from these notices that besides certain ancient songs and compilations of lore that were orally preserved, there existed also some books and many ancient inscriptions.^{[T 14]}

Philologists among theLambengolmor were Rúmil, who invented theSarati, the first Elvish script,Fëanor, who developed this script into theTengwar which became widespread in Middle-earth, and Pengolodh ofGondolin, who wrote theLhammas or "The Account of Tongues".^{[T 13]}

InThe Lord of the Rings, a human philologist appears in the shape of theherb-master of the Houses of Healing inMinas Tirith. The man, asked for the rare herbathelas, displays his learning by reciting its names in different languages, and repeats a rhyme the people used to say about it, but neither has it in store nor sees the need to have it there. Shippey comments that this unsuccessful figure illustrates "in a rather prophetic way" how real knowledge can dwindle until it is no longer felt to be at all useful, as happened to Tolkien's discipline of philology.^[44]

The wizardGandalf, too, has philological leanings. Sherrylyn Branchaw writes inMythlore that Gandalf twice takes time to study old manuscripts in the hope of gaining knowledge: first in the library atMinas Tirith, where he readsIsildur's crucial account of the One Ring; and again in the darkness ofMoria, when he endangers the quest by delaying to read theBook of Mazarbul. She adds that the wizard's struggle with the password written above the Western door to Moria shows both the trap of going too far into philology, and the importance of doing the philology correctly. The inscription could be read as the cryptic "Friend, speak [the unstated password], and enter"; it is only after much delay that Gandalf realises it actually means "Say 'Friend' [Quenya:mellon] and enter", i.e. that the password is stated directly in the plain text, and the learned wizard has overthought the question.^[45]

Tolkien stated, in a joking letter that he was surprised to see published inThe Observer in 1938, that "the dragon [Smaug] bears as name—apseudonym—the past tense of theprimitive Germanic verbsmúgan,^[48] to squeeze through a hole: a lowphilological jest."^{[T 15]} Tolkien scholars have exploredwhat that jest might have been;^[46] an 11th-century medical textLacnunga ("Remedies") contains the Old English phrasewid smeogan wyrme, "against apenetrating [parasitic] worm" in aspell.^[d][47] The phrase could also be translated "against a crafty dragon", since the wordwyrm meant variously "worm, snake, reptile, dragon",^[46][49] while the Old English verbsmúgan meant "to examine, to think out, to scrutinise",^[50] implying "subtle, crafty". Shippey, like Tolkien a philologist by training, comments that it is "appropriate" that Smaug has "the most sophisticated intelligence" in the book.^[46] All the same, Shippey notes, Tolkien has chosen theOld Norse verbsmjúga, past tensesmaug, rather than the Old Englishsméogan, past tensesmeah—possibly, he suggests, because Smaug's enemies were Norsedwarves.^[51]

Shippey writes thatThe Lord of the Rings embodies Tolkien's belief that "the word authenticates the thing",^[52] or to look at it another way, that "fantasy is not entirely made up."^[53] Tolkien, as a professional philologist, had a deep understanding of language and etymology, the origins of words. He found a resonance with the ancient myth of the "true language", "isomorphic with reality": in that language, each word names a thing and each thing has atrue name, and using that name gives the speaker power over that thing.^[54][55] This is seen directly in the characterTom Bombadil, who can name anything, and that name then becomes that thing's name ever after; Shippey notes that this happens with the names he gives to the hobbits' ponies.^[54]

This belief, Shippey states, animated Tolkien's insistence on what he considered to be the ancient, traditional, and genuine forms of words. A modern English word like loaf, deriving directly from Old Englishhlāf,^[56] has its plural form in 'v', "loaves", whereas a newcomer like "proof", not from Old English, rightly has its plural the new way, "proofs".^[52] So, Tolkien reasoned, the proper plurals of "dwarf" and "elf" must be "dwarves" and "elves", not as the dictionary and the printerstypesettingThe Lord of the Rings would have them, "dwarfs" and elfs". The same went for forms like "dwarvish" and "elvish", which he saw as strong and old, and avoiding any hint of dainty little "elfin"flower-fairies, which he saw as weak and recent.^[52] Tolkien insisted on the expensive reversion of all such typographical "corrections" at thegalley proof stage.^[52]

Mark Shea, inJane Chance's 2004 collection of scholarly essaysTolkien on Film, produced soon afterPeter Jackson'sfilm trilogy had come to the cinema, wrote aparody of philological scholarship in the form of "a source-critical analysis" ofThe Lord of the Rings tradition in print and on film.^[57] The analysis states that "Experts in source-criticism now know thatThe Lord of the Rings is a redaction of sources ranging fromThe Red Book of Westmarch (W) toElvish Chronicles (E) toGondorian records (G) toorally transmitted tales of theRohirrim (R)," each with "their own agendas", like "the 'Tolkien' (T) and 'Peter Jackson' (PJ) redactors". It states confidently that "we may be quite certain that 'Tolkien' (if he ever existed) did not write this work in the conventional sense, but that it was assembled over a long period of time..." and that "T is heavily dependent on G records and clearly elevates the claims of theAragorn monarchy over the House ofDenethor." It comments that "Of course, the 'Ring' motif appears in countlessfolk tales and is to be discounted altogether", while "the 'Gandalf' narratives" seem to beshamanistic legends, recorded in W "out of deference to localShire cultic practice."

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