Troll Names - Tom

[Lord of the Rings]

William, Tom, and Bert. I'm sure people have pointed this out before, but it just occurred to me how out of place those names are in Middle-earth, especially Tom.

Specifically, in his more considered view of names (used in writing The Lord of the Rings, for instance), Tolkien's names all fall into two categories: forms in a genuine language of the late Third Age (including Sindarin, Quenya, Orcish, the Black Speech, and Khuzdul), or a form in a Germanic (or occasionally Celtic) language represented as a 'translation' of Westron (the Common Speech) and other vernaculars related to it (like Rohirric). William and Bert actually could be interpreted in this second category, since they're both ultimately Germanic names - this would mean they took Westron names, 'translated' into English equivalents (though William is maybe a bit more Frenchified than Tolkien usually goes for). But Tom, short for Thomas, is ultimately a Hebraic name, which Tolkien otherwise made no use of (since it didn't fit into his translation theory). 'Huggins', Bill's last name, is (I think) also an Anglicized Irish name, which is unusual but not quite as unparalleled for Tolkien.

Obviously Tolkien didn't have any real 'translation theory' in mind when he wrote TH, but did he ever try to rationalize or explain away the name Tom, which otherwise really breaks with his more considered practice later on?

[Elainiwen]

Maybe Men just named the trolls that, and the trolls took the names to themselves and that's it? I really cannot find another in-world explanation.

[Troelsfo]

I can think of no place where Tolkien does anything to explain the trolls' names. If he had ever done anything, I would expect that he would have done the same as he did with Sam, i.e. find some other name that could be shortened into Tom (Samwise instead of Samuel — surely something could be invented for Tom as well).

Story-externally, I think this is another example showing how Tolkien was working with The Hobbit. It is clear from the early drafts that The Hobbit wasn't so much eventually drawn into his Silmarillion world (as he seems to imply in later letters) as it was allowed to borrow from that world from the outset, but, and this is the important bit, without ever being intended to be a part of that world. Tolkien liberally borrowed from his mythology to provide a background for his children's story, but he never meant the story to actually be a part of his mythology. Because of this, Tolkien felt free to introduce elements into The Hobbit that he would never have accepted into his mythology: the ludicrous talking purse is another example. Of course, once the sequel became firmly rooted in, and a part of, the mythology, he suddenly had a story with several components that were incongruous with the overall atmosphere of the mythology, but which he was forced to accept. His work on the 1960 Hobbit — even though it never reaches further than the start of the third chapter — shows that he did accept these elements as he didn't make any attempt at deleting them (the names of the trolls are unchanged, and even the purse is retained).

[Galin]

I don't think Tolkien ever tried to explain these names in detail, and he retained them for the 1960 Hobbit, interestingly.


Tolkien explained the Hobbit name Tom as really Tomba if I recall correctly, so he made use of Tom and avoided Thomas, but that's in a Hobbit context of course.

[Moriel]

'Huggins', Bill's last name, is (I think) also an Anglicized Irish name, which is unusual but not quite as unparalleled for Tolkien.

A quick look indicates a possible French origin for this surname from the diminutive of 'Hugh'- I don't know anything about French diminutives, but -ín is most definitely an Irish diminutive. It would be pure unresearched speculation on my part to suggest that 'Hugh' came to Ireland, was transformed to (Hughín) Huggin, which then became the surname Huggins and transplanted to Britain- but not entirely improbable!

Another possible Irish derivative- Huggins as an alternative form of Higgins, which is an Anglicization of Ó hUiginn, which is of Norse origin and generally translated as viking, or 'sea-warrior,' though it is not a literal compound meaning the latter.

[Galin]

Just checked: to explain some names in the Shire: Tolman, Tolma, Tomba are attested examples chosen for publication in The Lord of the Rings. In Appendix F 'Tom, Tim, Mat' were said to be short for examples like Tomba, Tolma, Matta -- which might be like Bilba, Bunga maybe.


'Tomacca' or 'Tomburan' are from drafts -- unless these forms appear somewhere in the final text, but I don't think so.

[Lord of the Rings]

Moriel, I was was going off of Huggins being a variant of Higgins, but I don't have any reliable resources to hand to make any particularly informed comment. Incidentally, for Higgins, Ó hUiginn would be a phonetic adaptation of Norse víking-.

Galin, that'd do it

[geordie]

...Galin, that'd do it

Please - let's not have any movie quotes here..

LoL

[Moriel]

...hah, now that I look at it again, that absolutely makes sense; v > u is fairly typical, k > g less so but does occur. Thanks!

[Lord of the Rings]

That was, at best, a subconscious quote - oops.

[Stronghold]

Maybe the Troll was named after old man Bombadil! Tomwise though... I doubt it. Hebraic though? Funny he doesn't look Drowish :)