Celtic

Tolkien mentioned that Welsh names had a fascination for him since childhood. He wrote that he loved Wales and especially the Welsh language, that he found Welsh to be especially attractive, and that he found in Welsh an abiding linguistic-aesthetic satisfaction. He mentioned that he did not learn Welsh until he was an undergraduate, that he knew a little Welsh, but that he had always been defeated by Old Irish or its modern descendants, and that he knew Celtic things, many in their original languages Irish and Welsh. He also wrote to his aunt who lived in Wales that he had used prize money (from the Skeat Prize for English) to buy a Welsh grammar written by Sir John Morris Jones.

Tolkien was thanked for having helped "untiringly with problems of Celtic philology" in preparing the book Roman Britain and the English Settlements (1936).

Mythology

Tolkien claimed knowledge of Celtic languages and legends, but expressed a dislike in Celtic legends and denied that his legendarium is "Celtic".

However, Celtic concepts are present in some views about the Elves (see Elves - Celtic influence).

Other names

While the Westron world displays Germanic and Old English elements, Tolkien mentioned that the survival of traces of the older language of the Stoors and the Bree-men in Eriador resembled the survival of Celtic elements in England, that the names of the Bucklanders had a vaguely 'Celtic' style and that Bree, Combe (Coomb), Archet and Chetwood are modelled on relics of British (i.e. Celtic) names that were chosen according to their sense. Tolkien also told the Dutch Translator, Max Schuchart, that there were "'Celtic' elements in Buckland and East-farthing names." He stated in his guide for translators for the translation of names in The Lord of the Rings into other languages that he gave Hobbits from Buckland Welsh names or names of similar style and that Gorhendad meant "great-grandfather" in Welsh as well as that Archet had a Celtic origin and was descended from Welsh argoed.

J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned that he gave names in Buckland – such as Meriadoc or Gorhendad – a "Celtic cast", and that the relation of Welsh or British to English was somewhat similar to the relation of the older language of the Stoors and Bree-men to Westron. He also noted that many of the actual Buckland and Bree names – such as Marroc, Madoc and Seredic – had something of a Celtic style and the often had -ac, -ic or -oc as their ending.

These analogies are present mostly relating to Pre-Númenóreans and the Stoor hobbits, which is evident in place-names such as "Bree", and the personal names of the Bucklanders. According to Paula Marmor, the Celtic elements in Stoorish names represent an earlier language related to that of the Bree-landers.

In The Lord of the Rings, the majority of genuine Celtic names is seen in the family trees of the Brandybucks. Names such as Rorimac, Dinodas, Gorbadoc, Meriadoc, and Marmadoc are Celtic.

Other names having (or have been suggested as having) a Celtic influence include:

• Archet
• Bree
• Carn Dûm
• Carrock
• Chetwood
• Combe
• Crickhollow
• Yale

Edward Crankshaw, a reader for Allen & Unwin, was assigned to review the current draft of the "Quenta Silmarillion" in 1937. He had a mostly favourable attitude to it, but he said that the names were "eye-splitting Celtic names". Tolkien denied Celtic influences in his Elvish names, and he showed distaste for Celtic words.

Sindarin

Tolkien explained that he deliberately gave the language Sindarin a linguistic character like, but not identical with British-Welsh, and was constructed to resemble Welsh phonologically. He also mentioned that the lenitions or 'mutations' of Sindarin were deliberately made to resemble those of Welsh in phonetic origin and grammatical use, but are not the same in either of those two aspects.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 08/06/2026.