Incanus

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

i was just wondering what incanus meant.
in lotr, faramir says that gandalf's name in the south was incanus,
yet i find it difficult to believe that gandalf went to harad or umbar, and we know that in gondor he was mithrandir, in the same form as the elves, so where was he called incanus, and what does it mean?

[Valandil]

Probably Umbar or Harad... since he was not called that in Gondor (as you point out) and yet says he was called that in the South.

Remember that he had been in Middle Earth for approximately 2000 years... perhaps he went there early on. For most of the first 400-500 years he was in ME, Umbar was still under Gondor's control... and some regions further south were also somewhat under their influence or at least friendly.

Don't believe Tolkien ever developed those southern languages. Can anyone else be helpful on the 'meaning' part?

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

ah, yes, i had forgotten the sorts of dates that the coinciding factors occur at, here's me thinking that gondor lost the southlands, and then gandalf comes along to have a look. my mistake. would still be interested on meanings, though ... maybe there is a small note somewhere in home ut or bolt, i will check ut tonight.

[Beren3000]

I read somewhere (probably UT) that Incanus (also Incanush) means "southern spy" or something like that.

[Artanis]

Not Southern Spy, but North-Spy. UT:

The name Incánus is apparently "alien," that is neither Westron, nor Elvish (Sindarin or Quenya), nor explicable by the surviving tongues of Northern Men. A note in the Thain's Book says that it is a form adapted to Quenya of a word in the tongue of the Haradrim meaning simply "North-spy" (Inkā + nūs).

[Michael Martinez]

Did you know that Incanus is also a Latin word meaning "quite gray"? A related word, incanto, means "to enchant". Incanesco means "to become gray".

The name is probably one of Tolkien's linguistic jokes (since he compares Quenya to Latin, calling it the "Elf-Latin").

The Indo-European root word is believed to be kan- ("to sing").

[Forkbeard]

Originally Posted by Michael Martinez

Did you know that Incanus is also a Latin word meaning "quite gray"? A related word, incanto, means "to enchant". Incanesco means "to become gray".

The name is probably one of Tolkien's linguistic jokes (since he compares Quenya to Latin, calling it the "Elf-Latin").

The Indo-European root word is believed to be kan- ("to sing").

While I agree that Tolkien is having a Linguistic joke here and is using incanus and Incanus in a semantic word play, it isn't related to incanto. Incanus in Latin is an intensification of canus, cana, canum, white, hoary, bright, and derives from incandesco, to glow and descends from the IE root "kand; whereas incanto and incantation are intensives of the root canto which means to sing, chant, speak, and are related to the Latin verb cano, which also means to sing, to make melodious sounds and derives from IE *kan-.

FB