A noun for a “werewolf” (PE17/39; PE19/107; SA/gaur; Ety/ÑGAW), as opposed to a more ordinary wolf which would be [N.] garaf or draug. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. gaur was derived from the root ᴹ√ÑGAW “howl” (Ety/ÑGAW), and a similar derivation appeared in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the 1950s (PE19/106-107), but in notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien said the meaning of its root was “falsify, deform, disguise” (PE17/39).
Conceptual Development: The first appearance of the word Gaurhoth (untranslated) was The Lay of Beleriand from the 1920s, already in reference to “Gaurhoth Ilse” as the home of Sauron the werewolf lord (LB/337).
A noun for a “werewolf” (PE17/39; PE19/107; SA/gaur; Ety/ÑGAW), as opposed to a more ordinary wolf which would be [N.] garaf or draug. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. gaur was derived from the root ᴹ√ÑGAW “howl” (Ety/ÑGAW), and a similar derivation appeared in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the 1950s (PE19/106-107), but in notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien said the meaning of its root was “falsify, deform, disguise” (PE17/39).
Conceptual Development: The first appearance of the word Gaurhoth (untranslated) was The Lay of Beleriand from the 1920s, already in reference to “Gaurhoth Ilse” as the home of Sauron the werewolf lord (LB/337).