zimraphel

feminine name. *Jewel Daughter

The daughter of Ar-Inziladûn (Tar-Palantir), who would have been the 25th ruler of Númenor had the throne not been usurped by her cousin Ar-Pharazôn (UT/224). Her Quenya name Tar-Míriel seems to mean “✱Jewel’s Daughter”. If her Adûnaic name has the same meaning, then the first element zimra probably means jewel and the second element -phel might mean “-daughter”, though it could simply be a general feminine suffix.

Conceptual Development: In her earliest appearance in the Tolkien’s stories, this character was called ᴹQ. (Tar-)Ilien (LR/27, SD/335, SD/351). Tolkien gave her the name Ad. Ar-Zimrahil after he invented the Adûnaic language (SD/373). The suffix -hil in this version of the name might be a feminine form of the patronymic -hin. In later material appearing in the published version of The Silmarillion, her Adûnaic name was changed to Zimraphel. This final version of the name is inconsistent with the phonetic rules laid out by Tolkien in Lowdham’s Report, which said that the vowels [ē] and [ō] could only be long in Adûnaic (SD/423).

Changes

• Zimrahil → Zimraphel ✧ PMI/Ar-Zimraphel
• Zimrahil → Zimraphel ✧ SDI2/Ar-Zimrahil

Cognates

• Q. Míriel “*Jewel-daughter” ✧ SDI2/Tar-Míriel; SDI2/Ar-Zimraphel; UTI/Ar-Zimraphel

Elements

Word	Gloss
zimra	“jewel”
-phel	“?-daughter”

Variations

• Zimrahil ✧ PMI/Ar-Zimraphel (Zimrahil); SD/373; SDI2/Ar-Zimrahil (Zimrahil)