Quenya 

Turambar

master of doom/fate

Turambar masc. name, "Master of Doom/Fate", name taken in pride by Túrin (Appendix A, SA:tur, TUR, MBARAT, VT49:42)

turambar

masculine name. Master of Doom, Master of Fate

A sobriquet adopted by Túrin in defiance of the curse set upon him by Morgoth translated “Master of Doom” (S/217). The first element of this name is tur “master”. The second element resembles the variant form ambar of umbar seen in the phrase a Túrin Turambar turún’ ambartanen “O master of doom by doom mastered”. Elsewhere, however, Tolkien stated that the second element was derived directly from the primitive form ✶ṃbart(ă), with the middle vowel a originally associated with the verbal element tur-: ✶tura-mbar (PE17/104, 124).

Conceptual Development: This name dates back to the earliest Lost Tales (LT2/70). The name ᴱQ. Turambar appeared in the Qenya Lexicon beside a variant form Turamarto (QL/95), but in all the narratives it consistently appeared as Turambar. At the earliest stage, this name was likely a compound of the root ᴱ√TURU (LT1A/Meril-i-Turinqi, QL/95) and ᴱQ. ambar “fate” (LTA2/Turambar, QL/34).

In The Etymologies from the 1930s, ᴹQ. Turambar appeared as a derivative of the roots ᴹ√TUR and ᴹ√MBARAT (Ety/TUR, MBARAT), but Tolkien revised the Quenya word for “fate” to ᴹQ. umbar, so that it could no longer be a direct element of this name. Tolkien considered but rejected a new form ᴹQ. Turumbar (Ety/TUR). Hereafter, Tolkien probably considered the name to be an older compound assembled from its primitive elements.

Tolkien did gradually alter the translation of this name, from ᴱQ. “Conqueror of Fate” (LT2/86) >> ᴹQ. “Master of Fate” (Ety/TUR) >> Q. “Master of Doom” (S/217).

Cognates

  • S. Turamarth “Master of Doom” ✧ SA/amarth; WJI/Turumarth

Derivations

  • tura-mbar “master of fate” ✧ PE17/104

Element in

Elements

WordGloss
-tur“master, lord, ruler, master, lord, ruler, [ᴹQ.] victor”
ṃbart(ă)“fate, doom; (orig.) permanent establishment”

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
tura-mbar > Turambar[turambar]✧ PE17/104

Variations

  • TURAMBAR ✧ S/226
Quenya [LotRI/Turambar; MRI/Túrin; PE17/104; PE17/124; PE17/164; PMI/Turambar; S/217; S/223; S/226; SA/amarth; SA/tur; SI/Turambar; UT/138; UTI/Turambar; WJI/Turambar; WJI/Turumarth] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ambar

fate, doom

ambar (2) noun "fate, doom" (variant of umbar?) in Turambar (SA:amarth); stem ambart- (PE17:66), instrumental ambartanen "by doom" (Silm ch. 21, UT:138, PE17:66). The early "Qenya" lexicon has ambar "Fate", also amarto (LT2:348)

umbar

fate, doom

umbar (umbart-, as in dat.sg. umbarten) noun "fate, doom" (MBARAT), also name of tengwa #6 (Appendix E).Cf. Umbarto. In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, umbar was the name of letter #18 (VT45:33), which tengwa Tolkien would later call malta instead changing its Quenya value from mb to m. In the word Tarumbar "King of the World" (q.v.), umbar appears to be a variant of Ambar (q.v.) instead.

amarto

fate

amarto noun "Fate" (also ambar) (LT2:348; in LotR-style Quenya rather umbar, umbart-)

marta

fate

marta (3) noun "fate" (VT45:33, VT46:13) Cf. marto.