Quenya
valarauko
proper name. Demon of Might
Cognates
- S. Balrog “Demon of Might” ✧ PE17/048; PE17/048; SI/Balrog; SI/Valaraukar; S/031; WJ/415; WJI/Valarauko
Elements
Word Gloss BAL “power; powerful, mighty; have power” rauco “demon, powerful hostile and terrible creature” Variations
- Valarauka ✧ PE17/048
Quenya name for a Balrog, a combination of some derivative of the root √BAL “power” with rauco “demon” (SA/rauko, val; PE17/48). It also appeared as Valarauka (PE17/48).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s, their name was either ᴱQ. Valkarauke “✱Cruel Demon” or ᴱQ. Malkarauke “✱Torment Demon” (QL/58, 60, 101-2). In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the second form reappeared as ᴹQ. Malarauko of similar meaning (Ety/RUK), but in this conceptual period it seems to be a loan word from either Noldorin or Orcish (LR/404). The forms Valarauka or Valarauko emerged in Tolkien’s later writing (PE17/48, WJ/415).