rohan
place name. Riddermark, (lit.) Horse-country
Cognates
- Roh. Riddena-mearc “Riddermark” ✧ LotRI/Rohan
- Wes. Lôgrad “Horse-mark” ✧ PM/053
Derivations
- S. Rochand “Rohan, Horse-country” ✧ Let/178; Let/382; LotR/1115; PM/053; RC/241; SA/roch; UT/318; WJI/Rohan
Elements
Word Gloss roch “horse” -ian(d) “-land, country” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources S. Rochann > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ Let/178 S. Rochand > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ Let/382 S. Rochand > Rochann > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ LotR/1115 S. Rochann > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ PM/053 S. Rochan > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ RC/241 S. Rochand > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ UT/318 S. Rochan(d) > Rohan [roxand] > [roxann] > [roxan] ✧ WJI/Rohan
rochand
place name. Rohan, Horse-country
Archaic form of the name Rohan (LotR/1115), a combination of roch “horse” and the archaic suffix †-ian(d) “land” (Let/382).
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, the form (ON.?) Rochan(dor) implies a different history for this name (RS/435).
Derivatives
- S. Rohan “Riddermark, (lit.) Horse-country” ✧ Let/178; Let/382; LotR/1115; PM/053; RC/241; SA/roch; UT/318; WJI/Rohan
Elements
Word Gloss roch “horse” -ian(d) “-land, country” Variations
- Rochann ✧ Let/178; PM/053 (Ln. Rochann)
- Rochan ✧ RC/241
- Rochan(d) ✧ UTI/Rochan(d); UTI/Rohan; WJI/Rohan
rohald
proper name. Rohald
The (untranslated) name of Gandalf’s horse in unpublished 1960 revisions to The Hobbit; John Rateliff suggested it might be a Sindarin name with the first element meaning “horse”, as in S. Rohan; the meaning of the second element is unclear (HH/876 note #2). As a Sindarin name, Rohald presents some difficulties, as -ld cannot occur finally in Sindarin, but the name is clearly not Quenya either and there is no other good explanation for the name.
Variations
- Rohan ✧ HH/386
The home of the Rohirrim, translated “Riddermark” (LotR/262) or more literally “Horse-country” (RC/241). It is a combination of roch “horse” and -(i)an “-land”, with the [[s|[x] (“ch”) softening to [h] in Gondorian pronunciation]] (LotR/1113).
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this land was first named N. Thanador of unclear meaning, which underwent several revisions (Ulthanador, Borthendor, Orothan[ador]) before Tolkien settled on N. Rohan (RS/434). At this earlier stage, Tolkien posited that this name developed from (ON.?) Rochan(dor); Tolkien coined the archaic form †Rochand later, while working on the drafts of the Lord of the Rings appendices (PM/53).