soron

noun. eagle

The Quenya word for “eagle”, appearing in a number of compounds, derived from primitive ✶thorono and the root ᴹ√THOR(ON) “come swooping down” (PE22/159; Let/427; Ety/THOR; PE21/33). It had couple variants such as sorno (Let/427) and sorne (Ety/THOR), but consistently appeared as soron- in compounds. Its stem form isn’t entirely clear: its most common plural form was sorni (Ety/THOR; SD/290), which is the expected result from the Quenya syncope, but in one place it had the plural soroni and the presence of the variant sorne muddies the waters.

Conceptual Development: This word appeared as ᴱQ. sorne or sor (sorn-) “eagle” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√ŠORO [ÞORO] (QL/86). The form sorn- “eagle” also appeared in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa where Tolkien indicated the primitive form was sorni- (PME/86). The form ᴱQ. soron appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s as a cognate of ᴱN. thorn “eagle” (PE13/154), and Tolkien mostly stuck with that form thereafter, though he occasionally used variants like sorne and sorno as noted above.

In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, Tolkien listed a large number of declined forms for ᴹQ. soron “eagle”, and those declensions used soron- (or sorun-) as their base. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, however, Tolkien gave plural sorni and genitive sornen indicating a stem form sorn-, but that document also gave sorne as an alternate form of soron “eagle”. Nevertheless, I think from the 1930s forward, it is more likely that Quenya syncope would have come into play in the declension of this word, so it would have plural sorni, dative sornen, ablative sornello, etc. The only noun case where the primitive stem would be preserved would be possessive soronwa.

soron

eagle

soron (or sornë) (þ) noun "eagle", before an ending sorn- as in pl. sorni, "gen.sg....sornen"; in LotR-style Quenya this would be the dative singular instead (THOR/THORON). SD:290 has the pl.soroni "eagles", changed to sorni as in the Etymologies. Early "Qenya" has the forms sor, sornë (LT1:266)

soronto

masculine name. Soronto

Son of Ailinel and Orchaldor (UT/173). The first element of his name seems to be the prefixal form soron- of soron “eagle”, but the full meaning of the name is unclear.

sorontar

masculine name. King of Eagles

The Quenya name of Thorondor, a compound of the prefixal form soron- of soron “eagle” and the word element -tar “king” used in compounds (SA/thoron; Ety/TĀ, THOR).

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, this character’s name once appeared as ᴱQ. Ramandur (LT2/203) but in this instance it was replaced by ᴱQ. Sorontur “King of Eagles”, which was his usual Qenya name in the early stories (LT1/73, LT2/192). His name appeared in The Etymologies from the 1930s as ᴹQ. Sorontar “King of Eagles”, and these entries are the source for the etymology given above (Ety/TĀ, THOR). This name appeared in Silmarillion revisions and notes from the 1950s (MR/410, WJ/272) and also in The Silmarillion appendix (SA/thoron), but Christopher Tolkien did not include it in the main text of the published version of The Silmarillion.

sorontil

place name. Eagle-horn

A mountain by the sea in Númenor which was “the abode of many eagles” (UT/167). Christopher Tolkien translated the name as “Eagle-horn” (UTI/Sorontil), and it is likely a compound of the prefixal form soron- of soron “eagle” and the word tildë “point” also seen in Taniquetil. If so, the stem form of this name was probably Sorontild-.

soronúmë

proper name. *Eagle of the West

Name of a constellation (S/48). It seems to be a compound of the prefixal form soron- of soron “eagle” and a shorter form of númen “west”, perhaps meaning “✱Eagle of the West”.

soronildi

proper name. Eorlingas

A Quenya translation of Eorlingas (PE22/159), apparently an elaboration on soron “eagle”.

Soronto

eagle

Soronto (þ?), masc. name, seems to incorporate soron "eagle"; the ending -to is rare (occurs in suhto, q.v.), here apparently used to derive a masculine name.

Soronúmë

eagle

Soronúmë (prob. þ) (name of a constellation, apparently incorporating soron "eagle") (SA:thoron)

sorno

eagle

sorno (þ) noun "eagle" (archaic thorno) _(Letters:427). Also soron. Early "Qenya" has sor, sornë (LT1:266)_

Sorontar

king of eagles

Sorontar (þ) masc. name "King of Eagles", Sindarin Thorondor, name of a great Eagle (SA:thoron, THOR/THORON, TĀ/TA3)

Soronildi

name. Eorlingas

sorno

noun. eagle

sor

eagle

sor, sornë noun "eagle" (LT1:266); rather soron in LotR-style Quenya

soroncë

noun. kite, (lit.) little eagle

A neologism coined by Luinyelle posted on 2024-01-14 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), a diminutive form of soron “eagle”.

ëa

eagle

ëa (3) "eagle" (LT1:251, LT2:338), a "Qenya" word apparently superseded by soron, sornë in Tolkien's later forms of Quenya.

ëaren

eagle

ëaren noun "eagle" or "eyrie" (LT1:251; this early "Qenya" word is evidently no more valid than ëa "eagle" in LotR-style Quenya.)

thoron

noun. eagle

thoron

noun. eagle

thorondor

masculine name. King of Eagles

thôr

noun. eagle

thôr

noun. eagle

thoron

noun. eagle

The Sindarin word for “eagle”, derived from ✶thoronō̆ (Let/427, PE23/141). In notes from 1969 Tolkien gave its plural form as theryn (PE23/139).

Possible Etymology: The form of this word is difficult to explain if it is derived from primitive ✶thoron(ŏ). Since final nasals vanished after vowels, in the ordinary phonetic development of Sindarin it should have become thôr, a form that did appear as variant in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/THOR, KIRIS). Tolkien himself suggested that the (Noldorin) word was a back-formation from the archaic genitive ON. thoronen (Ety/THOR). While this specific genitive form did not survive in (Old) Sindarin, there are plenty of other mechanisms that might result in such a back-formation in Sindarin. For example, David Salo suggested that it could be a back-formation from its plural theryn (GS/291), perhaps also influenced by ancient names where it still appeared, such as Thorondor “King of Eagles”.

A simpler explanation is that the primitive form is actual thoronō, as for example on PE23/141.

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s this word appeared as G. thorn (GL/73), which was also the usual form in names of this period. In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s it reappeared as ᴱN. thorn (PE13/154), but in The Etymologies of the 1930s it appeared as N. thoron beside the variant thôr as noted above (Ety/THOR, KIRIS). The names of this period also began to reflect this change, and names after the 1940s consistently show thoron, though the form þorn did appear at least once in later notes (PE22/159).

thoron

noun. eagle

thoron

eagle

thoron, pl. theryn, coll. pl. thoronath. The sg. may also appear as thôr (with stem thoron-); thôr is also an adjective ”swooping, leaping down”. In ”Noldorin”, the pl. was therein (LR:392 s.v. THOR).

thoron

eagle

pl. theryn, coll. pl. thoronath. The sg. may also appear as thôr (with stem thoron-); thôr is also an adjective ”swooping, leaping down”. In ”Noldorin”, the pl. was therein (LR:392 s.v. THOR).

thorondor

masculine name. King of Eagles

The King of the Eagles (S/110), his name is a combination of thoron “eagle” and the suffix -dor “king” (SA/thoron, Let/427).

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, this character was named Thorndor “King of Eagles” (LT2/192), a form that also appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (SM/34, 102; LR/126). The form Thorondor first appeared as a late change in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s (LB/292), and this new form gradually supplanted the old one in the Silmarillion drafts (LR/145, 256). N. Thorondor was the only form to appear in The Etymologies, where it was translated “King of Eagles” and given the derivation described above (Ety/THOR).

thoronath

noun. eagles

Thoron-hîn

name. Eorlingas

thorn

noun. eagle

thoronhîn

proper name. Eorlingas

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thôr

noun. eagle

roval

great wing

(pinion, wing), pl. rovail (idh rovail). – Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” *rhoval* pl. *rhovel*.

thorono

noun. eagle

narak

noun. eagle

A noun attested only in the plural subjective form Narīka “eagles” (SD/251). This formation is peculiar, because it seems to be a neuter subjective form, but the names of animals are generally common-nouns, as pointed out by Andreas Moehn (EotAL/NAR’K). If it were declined as a common noun, the subjective plural should be ✱narkim: compare Nimir “Elf” whose subjective plural form is nimrim (SD/436). Perhaps when Narīka was written, Tolkien had not finished working out the Adûnaic gender and case system.