{"product_id":"tolkien-and-sanskrit-second-expanded-edition-the-silmarillion-in-the-cradle-of-proto-indo-european-9781540435484","title":"Tolkien and Sanskrit (second, expanded edition): The Silmarillion in the Cradle of Proto-Indo-European","description":"This study is based on the observation that Tolkien calqued the names of the \u003ci\u003eSapta Sindhavah\u003c\/i\u003e (Seven Rivers) from the \u003ci\u003eRig Veda\u003c\/i\u003e as the Seven Rivers of Ossiriand. In other words, Tolkien created seven Elvish river names that mean the same thing as the river names of the Sapta Sindhavah.\u003cp\u003eMuch has been said of Tolkien's use of Welsh, Old English, Gothic, Icelandic, Russian, Greek, and Latin. Little, however, has been said about Tolkien's use of Sanskrit (\u003ci\u003eRefined Speech\u003c\/i\u003e), the great-great-...grandfather of all the languages above. Sanskrit was spoken in the second millennium B.C. in the valley of the River Indus, the river that put the \"Indo\" in the name Proto-Indo-European, a linguistic term for the *reconstructed common ancestor of the European languages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll indications to the contrary (C\u0026amp;G ii, 461), there is little doubt about Tolkien's knowledge of Sanskrit from the point of view of a linguist. It is \u003ci\u003ede rigueur\u003c\/i\u003e for any serious philologist interested in etymologies like Tolkien. Tolkien was on the Language side of the English School at Oxford, where he took Comparative Philology as a special subject for Honour Moderations. (G\u0026amp;G ii, 758)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a certain sense, Tolkien's \u003ci\u003eThe Silmarillion\u003c\/i\u003e can be considered a veiled member of the genre of \u003ci\u003eRaj\u003c\/i\u003e Literature. The names of \u003ci\u003eThe Silmarillion\u003c\/i\u003e say that in the same way that the names in Tolkien's poem \"The Mewlips\" are masks that hide the fact that it is a poem about World War I. As the present study shows, the names of \u003ci\u003eThe Silmarillion\u003c\/i\u003e say that the locus of Tolkien's \"Mythology for England\" (C\u0026amp;G ii, 244-248) is the India of the British \u003ci\u003eRaj\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA literary analysis of Tolkien's place in \u003ci\u003eRaj\u003c\/i\u003e Literature is, however, much more speculative than the linguistic analysis that makes up the core of this study, which stands on solid philological ground. The literary analysis will, therefore, be left to another time and place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the basis of Tolkien's calque of the names of the Seven Rivers as Ossiriand is Vedic in concept, the superstructure that Tolkien builds upon this foundation is non-Vedic. Some elements of the superstructure are more readily attributable to historical sources, like the history of the India Campaign of Alexander the Great, and the history of the British \u003ci\u003eRaj\u003c\/i\u003e in India, both of which were a part of the school curriculum when Tolkien was growing up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the analysis of some of the words names in this study would not be believable in stand-alone articles, in the context of the coherent structure of words and names presented here, they are worthy of serious consideration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe discovery presented here has the potential to more clearly define the linguistic and philosophical cradle of Tolkien's 'Mythology for England, ' which was always \u003ci\u003eThe Silmarillion\u003c\/i\u003e, and never \u003ci\u003eThe Lord of the Rings\u003c\/i\u003e. It is Proto-Indo-European in the same way that the English language stems from Proto-Indo-European. That does not, however, mean that there is no gap between Proto-Indo-European language and culture, and the language and culture of The Shire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe analysis that follows is not a rehash of the discredited ideas of \u003ci\u003eThe Shores of Middle-earth\u003c\/i\u003e (1981). It is instead, a completely new, linguistic approach to Tolkien's \u003ci\u003eSilmarillion\u003c\/i\u003e nomenclature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCorrection\u003c\/b\u003e: On page 156, the name of the King of Anga is given as \u003ci\u003eKama\u003c\/i\u003e. It should read: \u003cb\u003eKarna\u003c\/b\u003e, which is the correct spelling of the name of this King, who is one of the main protagonists of the Hindu epic \u003ci\u003eMahabharata\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYour attention is invited to: \u003ci\u003eThe Tolkienotheca\u003c\/i\u003e (Llyfrawr, 2019), Part I of which is an \"Addendum to \u003ci\u003eTolkien and Sanskrit\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Createspace Independent Publishing Platform","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50354622955794,"sku":"9781540435484","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_18c43f0c-e62b-427e-8b74-b4542d3084c8.jpg?v=1728295591","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/tolkien-and-sanskrit-second-expanded-edition-the-silmarillion-in-the-cradle-of-proto-indo-european-9781540435484","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}