asfaloth

masculine name. Sunlit Foam

The horse of Glorfindel (LotR/213). In Tolkien’s notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s, he translated this name as “Sunlit Foam”, a compound of ast “light or heat of the sun” and faloth “large foamy wave” (PE17/18). He immediately rejected this etymology, stating that “Q. áze is from √GAS”, so that its Sindarin cognate would be ✱gast, not ast.

Elsewhere, however, Tolkien derived Q. árë “sunlight” < áze < √AS “warmth” (PE17/145, 148; VT43/18). If this is the correct root instead of √GAS, perhaps S. ast (and the translation of the name of Asfaloth) could be considered valid as well.

Conceptual Development: When this name first appeared Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, it was already in the form N. Asfaloth (RS/368).

Element in

• S. noro lim, noro lim Asfaloth “run swift, run swift, Asfaloth” ✧ LotR/0213; PE17/018

Elements

Word	Gloss
ast	“light or heat of the sun”
faloth	“large foamy wave”

Asfaloth

noun. 'Sunlit foam'

_prop.n. _lit. 'Sunlit foam', name of a white horse. The original meaning is uncertain. >> ast, faloth

noro lim, noro lim asfaloth

run swift, run swift, Asfaloth

Elements

Word	Gloss
nor-	“to run (or leap) of animals or men, to run (or leap) of animals or men; [G.] to roll [of vehicles]”
lim	“quick, swift”
Asfaloth	“Sunlit Foam”

Variations

• noro lim, noro lim Asfaloth! ✧ LotR/0213