Language invention, climate, and landscape in Tolkien’s Gnomish Lexicon
— Andrew Higgins, independent scholar
Paper given 9 July 2021 at Medieval climates, cosmologies, & ecosystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien II
In the entire corpus of J.R.R. Tolkien’s multilayered and complex language invention, one of the most complete glossaries exists within Tolkien’s 1917 i Lam na Ngoldoathon. The Grammar and Lexicon of the Gnomish Lexicon, which Tolkien invented as the language of the exiled Noldoli, to explore how language changes over historical time and wandering. Included in this lexicon of over 300 invented words are names for landscape and climate that Tolkien used to build his emerging story-world of Arda in which the earliest lost tales of the Elves took place. In this paper I will dig deeply into the Gnomish Lexicon to explore some of the key invented words for landscape and climate, their origins in roots from the older Qenya language and how some of these words persist in later versions of the Tolkien’s mythology and world-building.
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