Dunland - Welsh Nomenclature

The developers used the Welsh language as a loose basis for the Dunlending nomenclature in Enedwaith and Dunland.

Tolkien was particularly fond of Welsh, first encountering it in his youth:

"I heard it coming out of the west. It struck at me in the names on coal-trucks; and drawing nearer, it flickered past on station-signs, a flash of strange spelling and a hint of a language old and yet alive..." — "English and Welsh" in The Monsters and the Critics, 1983

The depth of his feeling on the matter is shown in the same essay:

"Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; and Welsh is beautiful."

The use of Welsh to represent the language of the Dunlendings, ancient enemies of the Rohirrim, might recall the enmity of the Welsh and early English, upon the latter of whom the Rohirrim are based. However, Welsh is already present in the Lord of the Rings, both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, in the Sindarin language, whose phonology and morphology are strongly influenced by it. Directly, in certain names in Buckland and the Bree area: in Appendix F.II "On Translation", the author compared their geographic relation to the rest of the Shire with the relation of Wales to England. This is seen in the real words bre "hill", and gorhendad "great grandfather".

Differences between Dunlendish and Welsh

Firstly, note that the Dunlending language in the game is not Welsh, only inspired by it. Therefore differences represent choices by the developers not errors. Welsh equivalents have been included in this page for general interest, to allow following up, and to show somewhat of the developers' decision making.

The developers have made fairly consistent changes in spelling and word order to better accommodate to the existing secondary world and to an English-speaking audience.

DD has been respelled as DH, and LL as LH. This is consistent with Sindarin.

FF and F have been respelled as F and V respectively. Vocalic W and Y have both been respelled as U. U has also replaced WY. In all cases this has yielded forms more consistent with English.

There has been a tendency toward compounds of the form [attribute]-[base], for example Uch-lûth "ox clan". This is normal in English. However, while this pattern exists in Welsh, it is more limited in scope and the norm is [base] [attribute], for example Llwyth yr Ych "ox clan". Ych-lwyth if it existed would likely be interpreted as a tribe of oxen.

Places

Here and in other tables below, when words have several varying translations, usually I have chosen without comment the translation which suits best the game context. The Welsh translations in the right column have generally, but not always, been chosen to keep as close to the game names as reasonable. In general they are formally correct but not necessarily idiomatic. Idiomatic translations have sometimes been provided, and may be spotted by their greater difference.

A: archaic
lit: literally

Name	Translation and Comments	Welsh
Avardin	sorrow town, goat fort, etc.; A: afar sorrow, or gafar goat, A: din fort, town	Dinafar
Barnavon	an existing non-Welsh surname; hard to interpret as Welsh; judgement river, or summit in/by the river (bar yn afon); reminiscent of Caernarfon
Brôntrig	hillside dwelling	trigfa'r fron
Carreglyn	rocky lake or rocky glen
Cartrev Andras	the home of Andras; similarly with other names: Dyfed, Emlyn, Matho etc.	cartref Andras etc.
Cartrev Maru	home of the dead	cartre'r Meirwon
Colven-unus	tree island	ynys golfen
Cors Avanc	avanc bog (for avanc, see below)	cors afanc
Crug Fernvael	Fernvael's Barrow (Ffernvael is an extant proper name)	crug Ffernfael
Crug Cadelhin	Cadelhin's Barrow (Cadellin is an extant proper name)	crug Cadellin
Cuvnerth	strong; also a male name	cyfnerth
Drûg-haniad	prob. evil descent (drwg haniad) though this would not be a typical use of haniad
Durgors	steel marsh
Dúvispont	water under the bridge	dŵr-is-pont
Dûv Corvan	dûv is consistently used for water but corvan is unintelligible here
Flam-cadlus	flame camp	cadlys y fflam
Fordh Maru	road of the dead	ffordd y meirwon
Galar-gwig	Mournshaws (a direct translation, shaws having the same meaning as in Trollshaws)	Galarwig
Galar Culch	ring of mourning	cylch galar
Galtrev	hillside town	galltref, tre'r allt
Gavar Cadlus	goat camp	cadlys yr afar
Gwaed Brun	hill of blood	bryn gwaed
Gwâl Draig	dragon lair (here and in similar names the meaning is Lair of the Dragon-clan not lair of dragons, so dragon is interpreted as singular	gwâl y ddraig
Hen Turrau	old towers	Hen Dyrau
Llaid ogo	muddy cave	ogof leidiog
Lhan Bach	little town	Llanfach, Llan-fach (extant)
Lhan Colvarn	condemned village	Llangollfarn
Lhan Gogledh	north town	Llanogledd
Lhan Rhos	moor town	Llanrhos, Llan-rhos (extant)
Lhan Tarren	hillock town	Llandarren (extant)
Llanuch	ox town	Llan-ych
Lhe Colvarn	condemned place	lle collfarn
Lhe Lhechu	lurking place	lle llechu
Lhun Avanc	lake of the Avanc	llyn yr Afanc
Maur Tulhau	great holes (Micheldelving)	Mawrdyllau, Tyllau Mawr
Munudh Dúv	mountain by the water	mynydd dŵr
Oirnad Culch	circle of lamentation	cylch oernadu
Plas-maru	place of the dead	plas y meirwon
Pluvun Gwern	feather meadow	Gwern y plu
Pren Gwydh	wild wood (problematic; pren is a tree or the substance wood, but other intepretations are much less likely)	pren gŵydd (lit.); y coed gwyllt
Pruv Cadlus	worm camp; the use of pryf for a serpent is highly archaic, this is today a worm or insect	cadlys y pryf
Rhuvel-cadlus	war camp	cadlys rhyfel
Sarf Cadlus	serpent camp	cadlys y sarff
Skud Carchar	waterfall prison	carchar y sgwd
Trac-plas	place of death	plas tranc
Trum Dreng	dire ridge
Tûr Morva	marsh tower	tŵr morfa
Uch Cadlus	ox camp	cadlys yr ych
Unig-pulh	lonely pool	pwll unig
Urdhas Culch	ring of dignity	cylch urddas
Uvel-cadlus	fire camp	cadlys yr ufel

NPCs

Peoples
Algraig	an outlying rock	allgraig
Avanc-lûth	The Avanc-clan	Llwyth yr Afanc
Caru-lûth	The Stag-clan	Llwyth y Carw
Draig-lûth	The Dragon-clan	Llwyth y Ddraig
Hebog-lûth	The Falcon-clan	Llwyth yr Hebog
Turch-lûth	The Boar-clan	Llwyth y Twrch
Uch-lûth	The Ox-clan	Llwyth yr Ych
Names from folklore and mythology
avanc	a river monster from folklore	afanc
Brathach	a placename	variant of Brythach
bugan	puck from folklore	bwgan
cun annun	hounds of the Otherworld	cŵn Annwn
Draigoch	the red dragon	Y Ddraig Goch
Dremidudh	see Culhwch and Olwen	Dremidydd
Glewlûd	see Culhwch and Olwen and others	Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr
Gwunfardh	(historic name)	Gwynfardd
Gwyllion	night spirits; this character matches the Old Woman of the Mountain tale from Monmouthshire folklore
Lleu Brenin	(mythological figure)	Lleu Llaw Gyffes
Lludd	(mythological figure)	Lludd Llaw Ereint
Stoors
	The names of the stoors in Maur Tulhau are modelled on Shire names. Here again note that the Welsh column only gives the names as they would be spelled, not as plausible translations. Some of these names, like Madgorff, are extremely unlikely.
Rhus Cornchúthur	Rhys Hornblower	Rhys Cornchwythwr
Iolo Brochtû	Iolo Brockhouse	Iolo Brochty
Gwin Cuthonon	Gwyn Maggot	Gwyn Cynrhonyn
Caradog Henbuch	Caradog Oldbuck	Caradog Henfwch
Rhosun Turio	Rose Burrows	Rhosyn Turio
Coid Isbrun	Coid Underhill	Coid Isfryn
Adsiltia Madcorf	Adsiltia Goodbody	Adsiltia Madgorff
Cadel Balchtroed	Cadel Proudfoot	Cadell Balchtroed
Lili Gardhur	Lily Gardener	Lili Garddwr(aig)
Violed Isbrun	Violet Underhill	Fioled Isfryn
Iago Glennudh	Iago Banks	Iago Glennydd
Miscellaneous
asgurn-capten	bone-captain	asgwrn-gapten
Cloben	whopper
cuthraul	demon	cythraul
Cymynu	to hew
druggavar	evil goat	drwg afr
Duhirun	rascal	dihiryn
elhudan	jack-o'-lantern	ellylldân
Enaid-helgi	soul hound
Gavar-diafol	goat-devil	gafar-ddiafol
gwiber	viper
Harcennun	Ironscale? Firmscale?! (cennyn scale haearn iron haer firm)
Malh-gavar	blight-goat	Mallafar, Gafar y Fall
Rhi Helvarch	the hunter king (helfarch can also be a horse)	Y Rhi Helfarch
Tantafod	Firetongue	tafod tân
Tuisog	prince	tywysog
Tulwulh-gwirod	dark spirit (see gwirod below)	ysbryd tywyll
Uffern-helgi	hound of hell	helgi'r Uffern

Miscellaneous

This list contains words used by Dunlendings in dialogue or quest text, names of objects, and words appearing in numerous varied places.

bedh-stones	grave stones	cerrig beddau
Brehur/Brehures	nobleman/woman, baron/baroness, etc.	A: brëyr, breyres
brenin	king
*Bûta khi!	eat you	bwyta chi
corrach	a dwarf
coblun	a goblin	coblyn
derudh	druid	derwydd
dievlig	devilish	dieflig
Dutegelh	black teapot (tecell du); this is based on the Pair Dadeni or Cauldron of Rebirth from folklore; Black Cauldron would be Pair Du
duvodiad	newcomer	dyfodiad
gurach	an old woman	gwrach
gwirod	spirits; these are alcoholic spirits, not ghosts	ysbryd pl. ysbrydoedd
*Khinio	dinner	cinio
maer	mayor
rheg	in "an ancient rheg - a curse"; normally this means a swear word	melltith
*Rhost khig!	roast meat	cig rhost
*Trenghi!	to die	trengi
*Ûmborth!	food	ymborth

• Bugan words