O LJ of knowledge...

[enismirdal]

What's the adjective for "of Gondolin"? Same as "French" means "of France" and "Mancunian" means "of Manchester", etc. The context is, "...a replica of his [adjective] armour..." so would sound not ideal if I have to just go with "his armour of/from Gondolin".

Brain currently far too distracted with knowledge of how to sex weevils and repel beetles from grain stores to cope with matters Elvish.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hm. My brain immediately supplies "Gondolin", "Gondolinin", "Gonolinian" but I don't think that's helpful :)

[lauand.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Tolkien designed a way to make adjectives in all the elvish tongues, but I'm just unable to remember!

Normally it's -in, as in Sindar-Sindarin, Noldor-Noldorin, but "Gondolinin" sounds a little bit weird to me.

Googling a bit, it seems that most adjectives in Quenya end in "a", "e" or "ea", so I suppose the "-in" sufix is Sindarin? Being an imaginary city, I don't think there's an official English term for it.

In some text about the city I've found the term "Gondolindrim", but it refers more to the inhabitants, as "Spaniard" instead of "Spanish".

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my feeling, that "Gondolindrim" was fine to refer to a group of people but wasn't normally applied to objects. Thanks for the input - there are some useful considerations there! :)

[joyful-molly.livejournal.com]

I'd weasel my way out by writing "a replica of his Gondolin' armour"...

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

I think I'll hold that in reserve as a backup plan! Thanks! ;)

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Elves of Gondolin are called Gondolindrim.

[naath.livejournal.com]

HoME (the index silly, I didn't read it all for you edification; I haven't read it all for MY edification yet) has:
Gondothlim (dwellers in stone, for the people); Gondolindeb, Gondolindren, Gondolic (for the language); and Gondolindrim (for the people)

(I only looked under 'gon')

I don't recall any mentions of objects-from-Gondolin :(

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Hmm...lots of options to consider, anyway! Thanks for peeking at the index! I've read some bits of HoME but not all...I have a feeling I lent Book 1 to someone years ago and never bothered to claim it back... Oops.

[innocencest.livejournal.com]

I propose gondolinium =)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

LOL! I love it. It makes me think of a luxury apartment. "So, where do you live?" "I have a penthouse flat in Bristol, and a Gondolinium by the sea for holidays."

:D

[illusive-shelle.livejournal.com]

How about Gondonline?

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

Ich bin ein Gondoliner.

Err. Seriously. Well, the only option I can think of that nobody's suggested yet is to go back to the proto-Germanic languages that the myths Tolkien used for source material were written in. That would suggest Gondolingen, at least in Alemannic, which is good enough for me.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

That makes a certain logical sense...but given that Sindarin is based primarily on Welsh I'm not sure how justifiable that would be! *idly wonders how the Welsh would turn "Gondolin" into an adjective...

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

Gondolaeg, I think, which you're really not going to use.

[nienna-weeper.livejournal.com]

What about Elvish beetles?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good one!

If you want an 'Englished' adjective, perhaps something like Gondolinian (like Gondorian) or Gondolian, Gondolindric (like Rohirric, derived from Gondolindrim), or Gondolic. I think the latter is attested for the language at least, so it may be the safest choice - Germanic languages, at least, do that all the time.

If you want an actual 'Elvish' adjective (please don't ;)), you could invent something like Gondolindren, I suppose, but my Sindarin is lousy, so I wouldn't rely on it ;)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

I suppose I hadn't really thought of it like that - when it's something like "Sindarin" or "Noldorin" then I don't tend to consider whether it's an Elvish or English adjective, just whether it feels "standard" or not! But since there doesn't seem to be a standard for making an adjective out of "Gondolin"...tricky!

Gondolic sounds odd...but if it's attested (looks like it is for the language, but maybe not for objects?) it would seem a safe option...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Well, "Sindarin" and "Noldorin" both are Elvish, to be fair.

I find "Gondolic" extremely weird, and if it were my fic, I'd probably go for Gondoli(ni)an - even though it isn't attested ;)

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I reckon the context matters. If it's an elf saying it, he might well have different ideas about how to make an adjective out of Gondolin from, say, a human or hobbit or whatever using the same word. Some things just sound right, too, which is another consideration. Gondolinian sounds rightish to me (whereas Gondolinish or Gondolinic or similar wouldn't).

I don't think there's a corpus answer, or at least can't think where to find it if there is. But I wonder what Tolkien migth have gone for if confronted with the problem. Hmm... I think he might have gone for something more elaborate, like 'armour made by the smiths of Gondolin' or similar.

Just throwing some ideas around, anyway! Am I too late though? :)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

You're not too late - it's for a later chapter that I'll post in the next few days.

Gondolinish and Gondolinic definitely sound a bit odd! I was rather hoping there'd be an easy answer, but it seems there isn't! Your input is much appreciated and I might try restructuring - it's not a terribly flowery fic in terms of the prose so I'm not sure how Tolkienic I can sound without it jarring! ;)

Thanks!