Dwarf names & characteristics

[Alcuin]

Hammond and Scull point out in Reader's Companion that Glóin means (the) glowing one, while Gimli means Little Fire or Spark. (Notes for “Council of Elrond�) Since Dwarves don’t use their right names in public, perhaps that means his name translates as “Sparky�.

I recently saw that Óin means “Shy� – and in The Hobbit, Óin never has a line of his own. In fact, even when he steps into Bag End with his brother Glóin, it could be that Óin never says a word while he bows in greeting. I imagine he shouted with the others while lost in Mirkwood before being captured by the spiders; but nowhere does Tolkien mention that Óin says anything. (Check for yourself.) Óin was killed by the Watcher in the Water at the West Gate of Moria.

As for Glóin – well, “(The) Glowing One� and Óin are the best at making fire. I thought that was neat.

So I decided to check all the names and match them against characteristics.

• Thorin “Boldâ€�. That’s appropriate for Thorin. Come to think of it, that’s one of his chief characteristics.
• Dwalin “One lying in a tranceâ€� or “dawdlerâ€�; from dvalen “to sleepâ€� and dvelja “to delayâ€�. When Bilbo scuttles out of Bag End without a pocket-handkerchief, he explains, “I didn’t get your note until after 10:45 to be precise.â€� Dwalin responds, “Don’t be precise, and don’t worry!â€� He seems very laid-back throughout the tale. He is also the longest-lived Dwarf Tolkien tells us about: he lived to be 340 years old, much longer than the average 260 years. Ironically, Dwalin was the first to arrive at Bag End. Perhaps they sent him first to be sure he showed up.
• Balin Balin has no Norse etymology, but it rhymes with Dwalin. However in Sanskrit it means “Mighty Soldierâ€�. Besides serving as look-out, Balin was the first to check on Bilbo when the trolls caught him (and first to be captured), and he was the only Dwarf to accompany him (partway) down the passage when Bilbo first entered Smaug’s sumptuous “bedroomâ€�. It was Balin that seized the boat in the Enchanted Stream before it floated away, and Balin who led the Dwarves in their attack on the spiders after Bilbo rescued them. It was also Balin who resolved to help Bilbo when his torch went out in Smaug’s lair on his third visit to the hoard. Those things might be characteristic of a “Mighty Soldierâ€�. His attempt to retake Moria was remarkably courageous. Balin was only four years younger than Dáin Ironfoot, and like Dáin may have fought in the Battle of Azanulbizar.
• KÃ*li “Wedgeâ€� or “One who uses a wedgeâ€�. The only mention of a wedge is to the door of the secret passage into the Mountain; perhaps KÃ*li put it there. However, when Bilbo complains, “Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!â€�, KÃ*li and FÃ*li show up “before he could say knifeâ€�. Maybe that’s a kind of wedge.
• FÃ*li “Fileâ€� or “Filerâ€�. I’m pretty sure “fileâ€� refers to the tool, not a modern electronic collection or a collection of papers. I can’t find any mention of a file in The Hobbit. However when they came to Lake-town and the guards questioning them said their Master was at feast, an impatient FÃ*li burst out, “Then all the more reason for taking us to him… Now make haste and let us have no more words, or your master may have something to say to you.â€� Perhaps that is a little grating.
• Dori “Borerâ€� or “auger-manâ€�. Thorin remarked that Dori was strongest. Dori is also mentioned carrying Bilbo most often (and when he hit his head and was lost in the Goblin-tunnels), and helped Bilbo up the tree when the Wolves attacked; but I’m not sure how that might relate to an “Augerâ€� or “Drillâ€�. Exiting the Front Gate of Erebor, he remarked that he felt as if Smaug’s “eyes were on the back of my head.â€� That might relate to a “drilling glareâ€�, but I can’t find anything else.
• Nori “Little shaver, small bit of somethingâ€�. The only things I can find about Nori are that he and Dori shared Bilbo’s regard for regular meals, and he teased Dori about “leaving the Burglar behindâ€� when they scrambled up trees to escape Wolves. It sounds like a nickname his father or kinfolk might have given him (and probably was); the book does not say if he was smaller than the other Dwarves.
• Ori “Violentâ€�. I can’t find anything in particular about Ori, and nothing “violentâ€�. He was later the scribe who recorded the ruin of Balin’s ill-fated attempt to retake Moria, where he met a violent end.
• Óin and Glóin are already covered.
• Bifur “Beaverâ€�; by extension, “Hard Workerâ€�. His name is an English homonym. Bifur and Bomber fought hardest against the trolls; but later, when the Dwarves were released from the barrels near Lake-town, Bifur was particularly lazy and refused to help Bilbo release the others: maybe his name was given in irony.
• Bofur “Grumblerâ€�. There is a connection to his name: at Beorn’s house, Bofur tripped over a late-sleeping Bilbo, “and he was grumbling about itâ€�. And like his cousin Bifur, he refused to help Bilbo release the others from the barrels. (All the Dwarves grumbled though, especially Bombur.)
• Bombur “Fatâ€�. Enough said.

[tolkienfan]

Very interesting! Some of those connections seem too strong to be coincidence. Great find!

[Valandil]

So - we continue the pattern of Dwarves having "public" names that reflect their personality, or something else about them.

Just like; Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey... etc.

[Galin]

Hammond and Scull point out in Reader's Companion that Glóin means (the) glowing one, while Gimli means Little Fire or Spark. (Notes for "Council of Elrond")

I find this interesting Alcuin, as I hadn't noticed it yet in my copy. To dig a bit deeper about this name, Hammond and Scull quote Tolkien that poetic gim in archaic Old Norse is probably not related to gimm "gem" "... though possibly it was later asociated with it: its meaning seems to have been "fire" (JRRT, letter to Mr. Rang)...

... then they quote Manfred Zimmerman who writes: "Now if we treat Gimli as the diminutive of gim "fire", we would get a highy appropriate name for a son of the "Glowing One: "Little Fire" or "spark" Mythlore 11, no. 3

Tolkien's "gem" and "fire" are interesting with respect to a footnote from The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander...

I see a hall than the sun more fair,
thatched with red-gold, which is Gimlé* hight.
There will the gods all guiltless throne,
and live forever in ease and bliss

*"Gem-roof" or "Fire-shelter" It is worthy of note that in the corresponding passage in "Gylfaginning", Chapter 2. the abode of the blessed is called Gimlé, a fact which would lend strength to the former interpretation. It is difficult not to see in this stanza a reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse.

In my Prose Edda Gimlé is referred to as a hall, or seemingly the place of a hall, and is translated (J. Young) "Lee-of-fire". According to Carl Hostetter, Gimli is Old Norse for the site of the hall in which the righteous will dwell after the final conflagration, with a possible meaning 'Fire-lee'...

Not a Dwarf-name, but rather the site of the hall in which the righteous will dwell after the final conflagration. ?'Fire-lee' (...)

And one name, Gimle, if in fact the source of Gimli, is not even a Dwarf-name, but rather a place-name. (...)

If Gimlé is in fact the source of Gimli, Tolkien here changes an é (long upper-mid front unround) to i (short high front unround). Why? (As noted above, Cleasby-Vigfusson gives the reading Gimli; but Bellows uses Gimle, so this just defers the question.)

Cal Hostetter 1996, tolklang, X-Message-Number: 19.25

Anyway, not that that settles anything, but I'm interested in names

Interestingly Gimli was once the name of an Elf, and in the Gnomish language it meant "(sense of) hearing" with gim- "hear". The hearing of Gimli, the captive Gnome in the dungeons of Tevildo, "... was the keenest that had been in the world." Appendix, The Book of Lost Tales II

So there's that too