Hísilómë

hithlum

Hísilómë (þ) place-name "Hithlum", "Land of Mist", more literally *"Mist-night" (SA:hîth, LUM, [VT45:28])

hísilómë

place name. Land of Mist, (lit.) Mist-and-Dusk

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).

Cognates

• north S. Hithlum “Land of Mist” ✧ PE17/133; SA/hîth; SI/Hísilómë; SI/Hithlum; WJI/Hithlum; S/118; WJ/400; WJI/Hísilómë
• S. Hithlû “Hithlum” ✧ PE17/133

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

hísië

mist, mistiness

hísië (þ) noun "mist, mistiness" (Nam, SA:hîth, PE17:73), also hísë.

hísë

mist, fog

hísë (þ) (stem #hísi- because of the primitive form ¤khīthi, cf. hísilanya, Hísilómë) (1) noun "mist, fog" (KHIS/KHITH). According to VT45:22, hísë is also the name of Tengwa #11 in the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, but Tolkien would later call #11 harma/aha instead.

hísë

noun. mist, mist, [ᴹQ.] fog, [ᴱQ.] haze; dusk; bleared

A word for “mist” appearing as an element in several names. It is not directly attested in Tolkien’s later writings, but ᴹQ. híse “mist, fog” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶khīthi, indicating a stem form of hísi- [†híþi-] (Ety/KHIS). Its continued appearance in words like Q. Hísilómë “Land of Mist” (S/118) and Q. hísilanya “mist thread” (PE17/60) indicates its ongoing validity.

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. hīse appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√HISI alongside a variant ᴱQ. histe, but there it was glossed “dusk” (QL/40). In drafts of the Oilima Markirya written circa 1930 it was glossed “haze” (PE16/62) or “mist” (PE16/75; MC/221), but in the final 1931 iteration of the poem it appeared only in the very-loosely translated phrase ᴱQ. úri nienaite híse “a bleared sun”, perhaps literally “✱sun [with a] tearful mist” (MC/214). In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s it was “mist” (PE21/32) and in The Etymologies of the late 1930s “mist, fog” as noted above, so Tolkien seems to have stuck with the meaning “mist” thereafter.

Cognates

• S. hîth “mist”

Derivations

• √KHITH “mist, mist, [ᴹ√] fog”

Element in

• ᴺQ. hísëa “misty”
• Q. hísië “mist, mistiness”
• Q. hísilanya “mist thread, grey elvish rope” ✧ PE17/060
• Q. Hísilómë “Land of Mist, (lit.) Mist-and-Dusk”
• Q. Hísimë “November, *Misty-one”