(a tribe of Elves) Danwaith ("Dan-folk"), lenited Nanwaith (WJ:385). Also called, by confusion with the name of their leader Denwe, Denwaith (”People of Denwe”) (WJ:385)
Sindarin
danwaith
noun. the Nandor (a tribe of Elves)
danwaith
collective name. Danwaith
Cognates
- Q. Nandor “Silvan Elves, (lit.) Those who go back” ✧ WJI/Nandor
Elements
Word Gloss dan “back to, (back in return) against, down upon, back on, back again” gwaith “people; region, people, [ᴱN.] men, folk; [N.] manhood; man-power, troop of able bodied men, host, regiment; [S.] region” Variations
- Denwaith ✧ WJ/385; WJI/Danwaith
denwaith
noun. the Nandor (a tribe of Elves), the people of Denwe
danwaith
nandor
danwaith
nandor
("Dan-folk"), lenited Nanwaith (WJ:385). Also called, by confusion with the name of their leader Denwe, Denwaith (”People of Denwe”) (WJ:385)
A Sindarin name of the Q. Nandor, sometimes also called Denwaith in association (or confusion) with their leader’s name Nan. Denweg (WJ/385). This name is a combination of dan “back again” and the lenited form of gwaith “people”, hence: “✱people [who go] back again”.
Conceptual Development: In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this people was first called only the “Green-elves” (SM/133). Later Tolkien indicate that their name in their own languages was Danyar >> Danas, coined from the name of their leader Dan (LR/175). In the writing of the period, their name was often anglicized as “Danians” (LR/194). In The Etymologies, Tolkien said the name was derived from the root ᴹ√(N)DAN “back, backwards” (Ety/DAN), much like their later Sindarin and Quenya names.
In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s, Tolkien used the name Danathrim alongside the anglicanized form “Danians” (MR/169). In his Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 he used the name Danwaith, but by this period the name “Danian” had disappeared and Tolkien most frequently referred to them by their Quenya name: the Nandor.