aista-

to dread

aista- (3) vb. "to dread" (GÁYAS, VT45:14; possibly obsoleted by #2 above)

mordo

shadow, obscurity, stain

mordo (1) noun "shadow, obscurity, stain" (MOR)

guruthos

noun. dread of death, death-horror, shadow of death, dread of death, death-horror, shadow of death, [N.] fear of death

A word for the fear of death in the phrase le nallon sí di’nguruthos, translated in The Road Goes Ever On published from 1967 as “here overwhelmed in dread of Death I cry” or more literally “to thee I cry here beneath-death-horror” (RGEO/64), also translated in a 1958 letter to Rhona Beare as “to thee I cry now in the shadow of (the fear of) death” (Let/278). In notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien identified the elements as guru “death” and thoss “fear” (PE17/87), based on the roots √ÑGUR and √THOS (PE17/95).

Conceptual Development: The form N. {gurthos >>} guruthos “fear of death” appeared in the margin of The Etymologies next to the entry for the root ᴹ√GOS “dread” where the word’s final element was probably N. gost “dread, terror” (EtyAC/GOS). As such, its initial element when the word was first introduced was probably N. guruth “death” (Ety/ÑGUR).

Element in

• S. le nallon sí di’nguruthos “here overwhelmed in dread of Death I cry” ✧ LotR/0729; PE17/087; PE17/095; RGEO/64

Elements

Word	Gloss
guru	“death, death (abstract)”
thoss	“fear”

guruthos

noun. shadow of death

_ n. _shadow of death. >> nguruthos

guruthos

noun. the shadow of death, death-horror

nguruthos

noun. shadow of death

_ n. _shadow of death. >> guruthos

guruthos

death-horror, dread of death

guruthos (i nguruthos, o n**guruthos), pl. (if there is a pl.) either guruthys (in guruthys = i ñguruthys) or gyrythys (in gyrythys = i ñgyrythys) with umlaut throughtout the word. Coll. pl. guruthossath**.

guruthos

dread of death

(i nguruthos = i ñuruthos, o n’guruthos = o ñguruthos) (death-horror), pl. (if there is a pl.) either guruthys (in guruthys = i ñguruthys) or gyrythys (in gyrythys = i ñgyrythys) with umlaut throughtout the word. Coll. pl. guruthossath.

guruthos

death-horror, dread of death

(i nguruthos, o n’guruthos), pl. (if there is a pl.) either guruthys (in guruthys = i ñguruthys) or gyrythys (in gyrythys = i ñgyrythys) with umlaut throughtout the word. Coll. pl. guruthossath.

morchant

shadow

1) morchant (i vorchant), pl. morchaint (i morchaint). The literal meaning is ”dark shape”, referring to shadows with a recognizable form. 2) dae (i dhae) (shade), no distinct pl. form except with article (i nae). 3) daew (i dhaew), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndaew) (VT45:8). 4) gwâth (i **wâth; construct gwath) (shade, dim light), pl. gwaith (in gwaith) (UT:261) 5) muil (i vuil) (twilight, dreariness, vagueness), no distinct pl. except with article (i muil**),

dae

noun. shadow

dae

noun. shadow, shadow (cast by an object or form), [N.] shade

Element in

• S. Daeron ✧ SA/dae
• S. Dor Daedeloth “Land of Great Dread; Land of Shadow of Horror” ✧ SA/dae

morchant

noun. shadow (of objects, cast by light), dark shape

achas

dread

(fear), pl. echais. It is possible that the word is lenited in the source, and that it should have an initial g-; if so read gachas (i ’achas), pl. gechais (i ngechais = i ñechais), coll. pl. achassath.

dae

shadow

(i dhae) (shade), no distinct pl. form except with article (i nae).

daedhelos

great dread

(i naedhelos, o ndaedhelos), pl. daedhelys (i ndaedhelys). Coll. pl. daedhelossath. A side-form ends in -oth instead of -os. The word appears in the mutated form "ndaedelos" in LotR Appendix F, but since the second element must be delos "abhorrence" and it would surely be lenited following a vowel, this would seem to be one of the cases where Tolkien wrote d even though dh would be technically correct.

daew

shadow

(i dhaew), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndaew) (VT45:8).

delos

dread

(i dhelos) (fear, horror, abhorrence, detestation, loathing), pl. delys (i nelys), coll. pl. delossath. A side-form ends in -oth (pl. -yth) instead of -os (-ys).

dúath

dark shadow

(i dhúath) (nightshade), pl. dúaith (i núaith). Compare the Ephel Dúath or ”Mountains of Shadow” forming th outer fence of Mordor, perhaps suggesting that Dúath is also the word used of Sauron as ”the Shadow”.

gae

dread

(i ’ae), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ngae = i ñae)

goroth

dread

(i ngoroth = i ñoroth, o n’goroth = o ñgoroth) (horror), pl. geryg (in geryg = i ñgeryg) (WJ:415). Archaic pl. ✱göryth.

gorth

dread

(i ngorth = i ñorth, o n’gorth = o ñgorth) (horror), pl. gyrth (in gyrth = i ñgyrth). (WJ:415) Note: a homophone means ”dead; dead person”.

goss

dread

(i ’oss, constuct gos) (horror), pl. gyss (i ngyss = i ñyss).

gost

dread

(i ngost = i ñost, o n’gost = o ñgost) (terror), pl. gyst (in gyst = i ñgyst).

gwâth

shadow

(i ’wâth; construct gwath) (shade, dim light), pl. gwaith (in gwaith) (UT:261)

gôr

dread

(i ngôr = i ñôr, o n’gôr = o ñgôr, construct gor) (fear, horror), pl. gŷr (in gŷr = i ñgŷr). Note: a homophone means ”vigour”, but has different mutations.

morchant

shadow

(i vorchant), pl. morchaint (i morchaint). The literal meaning is ”dark shape”, referring to shadows with a recognizable form.

muil

shadow

(i vuil) (twilight, dreariness, vagueness), no distinct pl. except with article (i muil)

nâlu

noun. shadow

A noun attested only in the compound agannâlô “death-shadow [is]” (SD/247, VT24/12). The first element of the compound, agan “death”, as identified elsewhere (SD/426), so the remaining element must mean “shadow”. The compound is the subject of the sentence agannâlô burôda nênud “death-shadow [is] heavy on us” and is therefore in the subjective case. According the grammatical rules of Lowdham’s Report, the only possibly normal form producing this subjective is nâlu: compare nîlu “moon” to its subjective form nîlô (SD/431).

Conceptual Development: In early writings, the compound was (non-subjective) agannūlo, so that the apparent draft form of this noun was nūlo. A similar form nūlu appears on SD/306, described only as “a word with the evil sense of ‘night’ or ‘dark’”. It could be a separate word or another variation of this word, with the development nūlo >> nūlu >> nālu. Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne suggested (AAD/21) that the earlier forms may be related to ᴹQ. nulla “dark, dusky, obscure”.

Element in

• Ad. agannâlô burôda nênud “[the] death-shadow [is] heavy on us” ✧ SD/247; SD/247
• Ad. agannūlo burudan nēnum “death-shade heavy-is on-us” ✧ SD/312

Variations

• nūlu ✧ SD/306
• nūlo ✧ SD/312

ugru

noun. shadow

A noun translated “shadow” (SD/247), also described as “a word with the evil sense of ‘night’ or ‘dark’” (SD/306). It appears in the preprositional phrase ugru-dalad “under shadow” (SD/247) and in the draft-dative form ugrus “‽horror‽shadow” (SD/311).

Element in

• Ad. Êruhînim dubdam ugru-dalad “[the Children of Eru] fell under shadow” ✧ SD/247; SD/247
• Ad. ēruhīn udūbanim dalad ugrus “‽ fell under ‽horror‽shadow” ✧ SD/311
• Ad. ugrudâ- “to overshadow”

wath

noun. shadow

Derivations

• √WATH “*shade, [ᴹ√] shade”

Derivatives

• S. gwath “shadow, dim light, shadow, dim light, [N.] shade” ✧ PE17/041

guruthos

noun. fear of death

Changes

• gurthos → guruthos ✧ EtyAC/GOS

Elements

Word	Gloss
guruth	“death”
gost	“dread, terror”

Variations

• gurthos ✧ EtyAC/GOS (gurthos)

dae

noun. shadow

daew

noun. shadow

gae

noun. dread

Derivations

• On. gaia “dread” ✧ Ety/GÁYAS
  • ᴹ√GAYAS “fear” ✧ Ety/GÁYAS

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
On. gaia > gae > goe/gae	[gaia] > [gai] > [gae]	✧ Ety/GÁYAS

Variations

• goe/gae ✧ Ety/GÁYAS

goe

noun. dread