13-05-2005, 00:10
Il suffit de demander au professeur ;)<p>Letters, n°324 :<p><blockquote>In the matter of Gondar/Gondor you touch on a difficult matter, but one of great interest: the nature of the process of 'linguistic invention' (including nomenclature) in general, and in The Lord of the Rings in particular. It would take too long to discuss this it needs a long essay which I have often in mind but shall probably never write. As far as Gondor goes the facts (of which I am aware) are these: 1) I do not recollect ever having heard the name Gondar (in Ethiopia) before your letter; 2) Gondor is (a) a name fitted to the style and phonetics of Sindarin, and (b) has the sense 'Stone-land' sc. 'Stone (-using people's) land'.</blockquote><br>On peut rappeller encore une fois, que dans le domaine de l'invention linguistique et en particulier des noms, il est très rare de trouver chez Tolkien des influences externes explicites ou conscientes (avec quelques exceptions : cf Avalónë, Atalantië, etc... <i>gond-</i> est d'ailleurs un cas un peu particulier, comme il est expliqué ensuite dans la lettre). <p>B.