tollă

noun. island

tol(l)

noun. island, (high steep-sided) isle

The most common Sindarin word for “island”, strictly speaking only for islands with sheer sides as opposed to [N.] caer for flat islands. It was a derivative of the root √TOL “stick up or out, stand up (out and above neighboring things)” (VT47/10-11). In most names it appears as tol, probably as a semi-prefix, but as an independent word it is probably toll (Ety/TOL), especially given its Quenya cognate Q. tollë (VT47/13, 28).

Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s where it appeared as G. tol “an isle (with high steep coasts)” (GL/71), probably already a derivative of the root ᴱ√TOLO as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Tol Eressëa; QL/94). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s it appeared as ᴱN. dol “island” (PE13/142), but that seems to have been a transient idea since it was N. toll “island” in The Etymologies of the 1930, again derived from the root ᴹ√TOL, more specifically from the primitive form ᴹ✶tollo (Ety/TOL²). The form tol appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings, and in several places he emphasized that it was for islands with steep sides (RC/333; VT47/28).

tol falas

place name. *Island of the Shore

An island at the mouth of the Anduin appearing on the maps of The Lord of the Rings (LotR/1185), a combination of tol(l) “island” and falas “shore”.

Conceptual Development: This island also appeared in draft maps for the Lord of the Rings (TI/298), but not appear in the main text.

tol morwen

place name. *Island of Morwen

The island where the bodies of Morwen and her children rested after the drowning of Beleriand (S/230), a combination of tol(l) “island” with her name.

tol sirion

place name. *Island of Sirion

An island in the river Sirion (S/120), a combination of tol(l) “island” and the river name.

Conceptual Development: In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this name appeared as Tolsirion (LR/128).

tol

noun. island, (steep) isle rising with sheer sides from the sea or from a river

toll

island

toll (i doll, o tholl, construct tol), pl. tyll (i thyll)

toll

island

(i doll, o tholl, construct tol), pl. tyll (i thyll)

tollë

noun. island, (steep) isle

The most common Quenya word for isle or island, appearing in both a short form tol (toll-) and longer form tolle, an element in many names. Strictly speaking it only “applied to those [islands] that rose up from the water with sudden and sheer sides” (VT47/28), but in practice it seems to have been used for all kinds of islands. Its short form tol was used as pseudo-prefix in names (VT47/13, 28) such as Tol Eressëa and Tol Uinen, and thus in more ordinary phrases its longer form tolle is more likely.

Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. tol (toll-) appeared with the gloss “an island, any rise standing alone in water, plain of grass, etc.” derived from the root ᴱ√TOLO (GL/94). It appeared as toll- “isle” in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/94) and as tolle “island” in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s beside its shorter form tol (PE16/139).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s it appeared as ᴹQ. tol “island” as a derivative of primitive ᴹ✶tollo (Ety/TOL²). It appeared several times in notes on Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals from the late 1960s, in one place as short tol < ✶tollă (VT47/26 note #35), but Tolkien gave a more complete description in the final version of these documents:

> TOL “stand up (out and above neighbouring things)” ... A frequent topographical application was to islands that rose up from the water (sea or river) with sheer sides ... Cf. Q. tolle “a steep isle”. This was used in form Tol- as a prefix to the isle’s name: as in Tol-eressea (VT47/10 and p. 13 note #14).

tol uinen

place name. *Island of Uinen

An island in the bay of Rómenna (UT/176). This name is a combination of tol “island” and the name of the Valië Uinen.

lóna

island, remote land difficult to reach

lóna (2) noun "island, remote land difficult to reach" (LONO (AWA) ). Obsoleted by #1 above?

lónë

noun. *isle, isle, [ᴹQ.] island, remote land difficult to reach

An element in the name Q. Avallónë “Outer Isle”, thus likely “[remote] isle”.

Conceptual Development: A similar form ᴹQ. lóna “island, remote land difficult to reach” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as the only derivative of the root ᴹ√LONO (Ety/LONO). This root was connected to the ablative element ᴹ√LŌ “✱from” (EtyAC/LŌ, LONO), so “remote land” is likely the original meaning. This word lóna was an element of the name ᴹQ. Avalóna “Outer Isle”, which ultimately became Q. Avallónë (S/260), a name that Tolkien said was “signifying the isle that lies nighest unto the Valar in Valinor” (MR/175 footnote). Thus lónë appears to be an updated version of ᴹQ. lóna, probably of similar meaning.

tol

island, isle

tol noun "island, isle" (rising with sheer sides from the sea or from the river, SA:tol, VT47:26). In early "Qenya", the word was defined as "island, any rise standing alone in water, plain of green, etc" (LT1:269). The stem is toll-; the Etymologies as published in LR gives the pl. "tolle" (TOL2), but this is a misreading for tolli (see VT46:19 and compare LT1:85). The primitive form of tol is variously cited as ¤tolla (VT47:26) and ¤tollo (TOL2).

tol

noun. island, (steep) isle

tolloquen

noun. islander

A neologism for “islander” created by Petri Tikka in PPQ (PPQ) from the early 2000s based on the 1930s primitive form ᴹ✶tollo for “island”, combined with Q. quén “person”. In theory this should be updated to tollequen to match the 1960s form Q. tollë for “island”, but I think tolloquen can stand as a variant formation.

toll

noun. island, isle

tol

noun. island, isle

toll

noun. island, (steep) isle rising with sheer sides from the sea or from a river