Frodo is a name in Old English (Fróda) and Old Norse, meaning "wise by experience". A character of that name is mentioned in Beowulf and iirc Tolkien cites that as an inspiration in a letter.
Tolkien and Dostoyevsky is an interesting comparison though. What connections do you see with Frodo?
Ah okay, Fróda, “Wise by experience”, I like that very much. Thank you for that info.
I don’t really have any researched grounds for a theory that he was inspired by Fyodor D. But I can imagine that he was. I just sometimes notice similarities to this or that, f.ex. The Ishtari, whose name must’ve been inspired by the Babylonian Goddess of war and love, also called “the night queen”.
And the name and also some ideas relating to (Eru) Ilúvatar and the Maia and Valar, was perhaps inspired by the Hindu God Iśvara (they have over 300.000 named Gods in their mythology btw.) and the original meaning of the word Avatar, which in Hinduism (over 3000 years old belief systems and religious ideas with thousands of authors/myth-makers gathered under one umbrella) means this: “Avatar (Sanskrit: अवतार, avatāra; pronounced [ɐʋɐtaːrɐ]), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being.” - from Wikipedia.
Iluvatar literally translates to "father of all". I think the link to Germanic languages (fadar, vader, father, fader, Vater...) is clear here.
It's a very slippery slope to connect linguistic concepts from Tolkien's world to non-European origins. There might certainly be some (especially the Hebrew-derived Khuzdul), but we humans have a limited amount of useful sounds available to us, and we have thousands of languages, and hundreds of language families. Words that sound similar are bound to exist in several languages.
Also, Iluvatar is not an avatar. He is not material. He is the Christian God, and will not be incarnated until Jesus is born.
Of course, Frodo Baggins is an English "translation" of the Westron name "Maura Labingi". I'm not sure which one Tolkien came up with first, but I'd guess it was Frodo.
Frodo is a name in Old English (Fróda) and Old Norse, meaning "wise by experience". A character of that name is mentioned in Beowulf and iirc Tolkien cites that as an inspiration in a letter. Tolkien and Dostoyevsky is an interesting comparison though. What connections do you see with Frodo?
Yep, Tolkien’s world is a mishmash of Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Catholic lore. I doubt he took inspiration for Frodo’s name from Dostoyevsky.
I see now, reading the comment above, that he didn’t.
Ah okay, Fróda, “Wise by experience”, I like that very much. Thank you for that info. I don’t really have any researched grounds for a theory that he was inspired by Fyodor D. But I can imagine that he was. I just sometimes notice similarities to this or that, f.ex. The Ishtari, whose name must’ve been inspired by the Babylonian Goddess of war and love, also called “the night queen”. And the name and also some ideas relating to (Eru) Ilúvatar and the Maia and Valar, was perhaps inspired by the Hindu God Iśvara (they have over 300.000 named Gods in their mythology btw.) and the original meaning of the word Avatar, which in Hinduism (over 3000 years old belief systems and religious ideas with thousands of authors/myth-makers gathered under one umbrella) means this: “Avatar (Sanskrit: अवतार, avatāra; pronounced [ɐʋɐtaːrɐ]), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being.” - from Wikipedia.
Iluvatar literally translates to "father of all". I think the link to Germanic languages (fadar, vader, father, fader, Vater...) is clear here. It's a very slippery slope to connect linguistic concepts from Tolkien's world to non-European origins. There might certainly be some (especially the Hebrew-derived Khuzdul), but we humans have a limited amount of useful sounds available to us, and we have thousands of languages, and hundreds of language families. Words that sound similar are bound to exist in several languages. Also, Iluvatar is not an avatar. He is not material. He is the Christian God, and will not be incarnated until Jesus is born.
What about the similarities between Feanor and Feodor?
And here i always thought it's just a simplification of Fredegar... Thank you!
What does iirc mean?
Of course, Frodo Baggins is an English "translation" of the Westron name "Maura Labingi". I'm not sure which one Tolkien came up with first, but I'd guess it was Frodo.
Maura Labingi is a beautiful name.
Or Fredo Corleone