"How does one pronounce Tolkien?"

[davem]

This article got me thinking http://www.examiner.com/x-11527-JRR-...nounce-Tolkien - not so much about how to pronounce Tolkien's name (coincidentally, when I first encountered the books ( & for some time later) I did pronounce it as the author of the piece suggests - 'Tolk-ee-en').

That pronunciation is still very evocative for me of my first entry into Middle-earth- as are my other original (mis)pronunciations: Soron, Seleborn, Thee-o-dn, Ee-omer, Ee-owyn, Mynas Tirith/Morgul - even my original mis-reading of Half-ing for Halfling, etc, etc.

Now, as all other well-informed readers do, I know the proper pronunciations & make the effort to get them right, but I'm wondering if I've lost something in leaving behind my original readings? Tolkien himself didn't appear to mind much - in the First Edition Foreword he states:

Much information, necessary and unnecessary, will be found in the Prologue. To complete it some maps are given, including one of the Shire that has been approved as reasonably correct by those Hobbits that still concern themselves with ancient history. At the end of the third volume will be found some abridged family-trees, which show how the Hobbits mentioned were related to one another, and what their ages were at the time when the story opens. There is an index of names and strange words with some explanations. And for those who like such lore in an appendix some brief account is given of the languages, alphabets and calendars that were used in the West-lands in the Third Age of Middle-earth. Those who do not need such information, or who do not wish for it, may neglect these pages; and the strange names that they meet they may, of course, pronounce as they like.

Thinking about it today after reading the article I can't help feeling that, for all I may have got the pronunciations wrong on my first reading, those pronunciations are essential to my experience of Middle-earth, & hold part of the magic of that experience which has been absent from subsequent readings. Its the same with the actual edition of the book which you first read - you may have gone on to buy other (possibly nicer, or at least more expensive) editions, but the experience of re-entering Middle-earth through the same physical book is different to reading it from other editions - & doesn't that also apply to the names & places as you first encountered them?

[Nessa Telrunya]

I agree that something so *small* as the pronounciation of names may hold a lot of stock with how you view middle earth. I suppose one way of saying someone's names can hold a sort of ring in one's mind.

That's interesting, though, I've never thought of it like that until I read what you said about that.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Nessa Telrunya

. I suppose one way of saying someone's names can hold a sort of ring in one's mind.
.

It holds all the mystery of new things in a new world - we discovered the names (& more importantly the sound of the names) as we discovered the world. For example, the Dark Lord of Middle-earth I first knew, & feared, & fled from, & finally confronted, along with the people of the story was Soron, not "Sowron". In the same way as we form an image of the characters & places when we first read the story, so we also learn their names, & the sound of their names, & the power of that first impression remains on some level - I'd even go so far as to suggest that changing the sound of the name alters & even lessens the magic we first experienced.

[Hakon]

I have to agree that the pronunciation of names greatly affects the way we view the book we read. I had most of the names correct cause I had seen the movies before reading the books and I first read The Hobbit as a class read aloud in elementary school. I used to think that Beleriand was spelled Bereland. That is how I saw it when I first glanced at the name. Now reading it as Beleriand I kind of feel like it lessens the magic.

[Eönwë]

I agree with what you've said, davem. Changing Cirith Ungol to Kirith Ungol, Seleborn to Keleborn and Sirdan to Kirdan was hard for me, and it's not the same. But then, when you read it again, it seems to fit better (at least to me).

As well as this let me take this as an opportunity to ask how you pronounce Smaug. Is it Sm-or-g or Sm-ow-g or neither?

[Nessa Telrunya]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

As well as this let me take this as an opportunity to ask how you pronounce Smaug. Is it Sm-or-g or Sm-ow-g or neither?

I use the latter, but I'm not sure which would be "correct"

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

I agree with what you've said, davem. Changing Cirith Ungol to Kirith Ungol, Seleborn to Keleborn and Sirdan to Kirdan was hard for me, and it's not the same. But then, when you read it again, it seems to fit better (at least to me).

As well as this let me take this as an opportunity to ask how you pronounce Smaug. Is it Sm-or-g or Sm-ow-g or neither?

I didn't think of this problem until when I joined the 'Downs, or just a bit after that, because it's always been just Šmak for me (the Czech "translation").

As for the others, I always took great care of pronouncing all names correctly, with the exception of Tolkien (only after learning its origins somewhere, everybody says Tol-kee-en in my home country anyway, there was even a radio broadcast where they said "Well, it should be really pronounced like this and this, but people usually pronounce it that way here, so I think it doesn't matter" and spent the rest of the broadcast calling him Tol-kee-en anyway), and then names like "Cirith Ungol", "Celeborn" and "Círdan", which I pronounced (and sometimes still pronounce, if I am not careful enough) as "Tsirith Ungol", "Tseleborn" and "Tsírdan". I believe that "Kírdan" sounds really awful, by the way. It doesn't sound right to me (the others do).