celebrin

place name. Celebrin

An earlier name of Celebrant in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s (RS/434), apparently a variant of celebren “of silver” used as a name.

celebrin

adjective. like silver (in hue or worth), like silver (in hue or worth), [G.] of silver

An adjectival form of celeb “silver”. In notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien described it as: “celebrin, adj. from celeb ‘silver’, not implying ‘made of silver’ but ‘like silver’ in hue, or worth” (PE17/42).

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, G. celebrin meant “of silver” while G. celebriol meant “like silver” (GL/25). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s the form became ᴱN. celebren “of silver” (PE13/140). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien first equated N. celebren with ᴹQ. telpina “of silver” (Ety/KYELEP) but he revised the entry and updated its gloss to “like silver” (EtyAC/KYELEP). This new gloss did not appear in The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road (LR/367), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne provided it in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT45/25). This new gloss is consistent with the meaning of celebrin in Tolkien’s later writings (see above).

celebrin

adjective. not implying 'made of silver' but 'like silver' in hue

_ adj. _not implying 'made of silver' but 'like silver' in hue, or worth. Q. #telperin, #telpin. >> Celebrimbor

telperin

adjective. like silver (in hue or worth)

telperin

adjective. like silver (in hue or worth)

telpina

adjective. like silver (in hue or worth), like silver (in hue or worth), [ᴹQ.] of silver

An adjective implied by the name Q. Telpinquar “Silver-fist”, the Quenya equivalent of S. Celebrimbor in notes from the mid-1960s (PE17/42). In other writings Tolkien gave this name as (archaic) Tyelpinquar (PM/318; VT47/8). It is conceivable that this adjective is t(y)elpin, but both The Etymologies of the 1930s and the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, Tolkien had ᴹQ. telpina (Ety/KYELEP) and ᴱQ. telpina “of silver” (QL/91), so I think the late form of this adjective is more likely telpina as a combination of telpë “silver” with the adjective suffix -ina “silver”.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon, ᴱQ. telpina was glossed “of silver” and had variants ᴱQ. telpea, telpia and {telpeksa}, the last of which was deleted (QL/91). In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. telpina was equated to ᴹQ. telepsa “of silver”, but telepsa was deleted and no gloss was provided after these revisions (Ety/KYELEP). In the mid-1960s note mentioned above, Tolkien said of S. celebrin that it was “not implying ‘made of silver’ but ‘like silver’ in hue, or worth” (PE17/42), but it is not clear whether the same applies to Q. telpin[a].

Finally, there was a longer Quenya name Telperinquar for S. Celebrimbor in the mid-1960s note (PE17/42), implying a variant Quenya adjective telperin that was a more direct equivalent of S. celebrin. This alterate adjective form may be a loan for Telerin telperin since Quenya mostly uses -rin as a language suffix and not a general adjective suffix as in Telerin/Sindarin; hat-tip to Parmandil for this suggestion.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume telpina is a general adjective “silver” than can mean either “made of silver” or “like silver”, while longer telperin more specifically means “like silver in hue or worth”.

telemna

of silver

telemna adj. "of silver" (KYELEP/TELEP). Possibly this (like telpina and perhaps telepsa) describes something actually made of the metal silver, whereas telepta (q.v.) only refers to silver colour.%

telepsa

of silver

telepsa adj. "of silver" (KYELEP/TELEP).

telpina

of silver

telpina adj. "of silver" (KYELEP/TELEP). Compare telemna, telepta.