Quenya
hísilómë
place name. Land of Mist, (lit.) Mist-and-Dusk
Cognates
Derivations
- ✶χīþilōmē “Hithlum” ✧ PE17/133
Derivatives
- north S. Hithlum “Land of Mist” ✧ WJ/400
Elements
Word Gloss hísë “mist, mist, [ᴹQ.] fog, [ᴱQ.] haze; dusk; bleared” lómë “night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, [ᴹQ.] night-time, shades of night, gloom; [ᴱQ.] shadow, cloud” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶χīþilōmē > hīsilōmi [kʰīθilōmē] > [kʰīθilōmē] > [xīθilōmē] > [hīθilōmē] > [hīθilōme] > [hīsilōme] ✧ PE17/133 Variations
- hīsilōmi ✧ PE17/133
- Hísilóme ✧ WJ/400
The Quenya name of NS. Hithlum (S/118). It is usually glossed “Land of Mist”, but it is a compound of hísë (hísi-) “mist” and lómë “dusk”, so a more literal translation would be “Mist-and-Dusk” (given as a translation of Hithlum on LR/406).
Conceptual Development: This name dates back to the earliest Lost Tales, where ᴱQ. Hisilóme was translated “Shadowy Twilights” (LT1/112) or “Misty-gloom” (PE15/63). It was a compound of ᴱQ. híse “dusk” and ᴱQ. lóme “gloom, darkness”, as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Hisilómë). In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, ᴹQ. Hisilóme was translated “Twilit Mist” (SM/4) and “Land of Mist” (SM/101). The name appeared in The Etymologies with the same form but a slightly different derivation, with its second element originally derived from ᴹQ. lumbe “gloom, shadow” (Ety/LUM).