LL-L "Names" 2003.08.07 (11) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 07.AUG.2003 (11) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Anja Meyfarth <anja-meyfarth at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Names" 2003.08.07 (09) [E]

Hello!

Peter wrote:

> I have been catching up with email and I just came across the letter
> referring to the word "Golem". Immediately I thought of Gollum in The
> Hobbit. Am I being overly simplistic to think that Tolkien must have got
the
> name of his creature from the word "golem"? Or, knowing Tolkien's great
love
> of European languages, is there a source closer to home, in Finnish or
> Gothic, both of which he particularly loved?
>
> My money is on Golem. What do you lot think?

Interesting idea. I love Tolkien for what he did with european myths,
languages, and poetry. Nevertheless, in The Lord of the Ring he describes it
as a sound that Sméagol makes deep in his throat. So the "g" must be
laringal, which would be typical for hebrew or another semitic language. But
I don't know anything about the etymology of "golem". I'm not sure if it is
a hebrew word.

For the names in The Lord of the Ring it is very interesting to read the
appendix F "On translation" in the third part The Return of the King. He
gives as a source for some names Frankish and Gothic as well as Celtic
(Meriadoc's original name is Kalimac). Boromir is Slawish, I'm sure.

I for my part am deeply impressed by the poetry of Rohan: Very germanic!
Fantastic!

Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising
he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
Hope he rekindled, and in hope ended;
over death, over dread, over dom lifted
out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.

(The Return of the King; Chapter VI Many Partings)

I don't know if all the alliterations were used in the German translation.
To me it doesn't matter, I prefer the "first translation".

Greetings from Kiel!

Anja

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Names

Moin, Anja!

The word "golem" does indeed come from Hebrew via Yiddish.

Below please find a copy of what Wir Sandy and I posted under "Morphology"
just before you (happily) rejoined us.  (Couldn't stay away, eh?)

Regards from Seattle,
Reinhard/Ron

***

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Grammar"

I think this qualifies as an English language question, so
here goes...

I've been trying to decide on what best to use as the plural
of "golem" in English (as in "The Golem of Prague", or the
novel by Meyrink &c).

Unfortunately, my English language dictionaries don't list
the word and "the golem" tends to turn up alone in the
literature, so I've had to resort to a Google search on
"plural golem", the results of which are conflicting,
giving the plural as either "golems" or just "golem".

I was wondering if anyone could either give a more
authoritative source or tell me what the Hebrew or
Yiddish plural was (I believe the word originated as
the Hebrew for "foetus").

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Morphology

Hi, Sandy!

An interesting question above ...  I'll take a stab at it.

_Golem_ is Hebrew and means something like 'dummy', 'artificial man', often
specifically referring to the 16th-century legend in which the Maharal of
Prague created such a creature from clay. a creature that sleeps hidden in
some basement and only gets up to come to the rescue of the Jewish community
in times of utmost danger.

_Golem_ is a masculine noun and thus takes the plural suffix _-im_ (/-iym/):

Hebrew:
sg. גולם golem (/gowläm/) -> גולמים pl. golamim (/gowlâmiym/)

Yiddish:
sg. גולם goylem -> pl. גולמים goylomim

(In both cases, primary stress is on _-im_, pronounced like "-eem.")

In his English-Yiddish-English dictionary, Weinreich lists Yiddish גולמס
_goylems_ as a secondary plural variant.

I don't think you could go wrong with "golems."  "Golamim" would probably be
the preferred variant in more specialist circles.  Most well-educated
readers would probably figure out "golamim" in conjunction with "golem" on
the basis of accepted "kibbutz" -> "kibbutzim" (קיבוץ -> קיבוצים).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.: Incidentally, Yiddish for 'robot' is גולמאט _golmat_ (final stress,
Germanic pl. גולמאטן _golmatn_), a contraction of גולם _goylem_ and אויטומאט
_oytomat_ 'automat(on)', I assume.

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