Friday, November 08, 2002
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OF ELVEN AND MORTAL NAMES

One of our co-members in The Philippine Tolkien Society has been studying Quenya for quite some time now. His knowledge is truly impressive. Once, when we were talking about name translations, he offered to translate our real names into Elven names. And this is how he translated mine:

"Your name, Maryann is obviously a combination of Mary and Ann (or Anna, Anne). Now the modern form Mary was descended from Hebrew Mariam or Miriam. The meaning is not known for certain, but there are several theories: "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness", and "wished for child" (all from Hebrew). However it is most likely an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from mry "beloved" or mr "love". Ales Bican, the webmaster of ELM used "bitterness" in his interpretation. As the Q word for "bitter" is sára, a good rendering would be Sárielle. "Beloved" in Q is melda, so Meldiel would be nice. As for the Ann element, it is descended from Hebrew Hannah (< Chaanach). Its meaning is unambiguous "favour" or "grace". Its Q equivalent is alamare or almie. So Maryann can be interpreted as either Almiesáriel or Almeldiel (by haplology). Take your pick."

I picked Almeldiel for two reasons. First, I didn't like the "bitterness" element of the translation for Almiesáriel. :( "Beloved" was of course more favorable. :) Second, the "beloved" element was based on an Egyptian translation, and I am truly fascinated with ancient Egyptian culture, so the choice was clear. Almeldiel it is. :)

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A HOME FOR MY ADOPTIES

Thanks again to Lily (and Pixel Empire), I have adopted more cute little icons! :D And I couldn't help myself, I just had to put most of them in, especially when I found pixel images for Dragonlance, LOTR, and Harry Potter (and Indiana Jones! Yay!!!). And I don't care much if they look crowded there, they're all in good company. So if you're reading this blog, and you get too tired of my adopties, please have some patience. My precioussssssss children needed a home. :D