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The Lord of the Rings Family Tree
- olesya1979 3y ago[dead]
- olesya1979 3y ago[dead]
- readyplayernull 3y agoFor some reason none of them wanted to take the name of an ancestor. Antigraphiphobia?
- 082349872349872 3y agoDurin VII?
- mholt 3y agoAragorn II did.
- dsq 3y agoMaybe they called him AJ in his youth.
- icegreentea2 3y agoAs siblings noted, there are some sprinkled through, particularly as the ages advance. The out of universe answer is probably that Tolkien probably very much enjoyed making up these names, as an exercise in playing with and building his languages and world. He likely would have only fallen back to numbers either when truly and deeply stumped (I don't think this really would have happened often), or to signal something. I also believe you can also see some of the Old English influence on Tolkien here. If you look at the Anglo-Saxon Kings, you see relatively little re-use of names. Instead (going off the top) you get Egbert, Ethelwulf, Ethelbald, Ethelbert.
- Aeolun 3y agoI think it's pretty convenient that a name is unique. At least in living memory anyway.
- 082349872349872 3y agoIt's also convenient when they're one-to-one; russian names, nicknames, and patronymics in stories are infamous for failure to be injective.
- yobbo 3y agoThe hobbits have family names.
- epilys 3y agoTolkien (or his son Christopher) had said that names are meant to be unique in this world. See the matter of Glorfindel.
- hiccuphippo 3y agoIt would be inconvenient for the long lived races.
- huytersd 3y agoIt’s beautiful lore. At the same time it’s just so Nordic and old world, it’s hard to feel euphoric about it like a Northern European would.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoLaunched in 2012, Wired did a feature on it with some exclusive infographics: https://web.archive.org/web/20120911120029/http://wired.com/underwire/2012/09/st_hobbit_genealogy/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120911120029/http://wired.com/...
- olesya1979 3y ago[dead]
- incompatible 3y agoEvidently there are quite a few backstories waiting to be filled in.
- XeO3 3y agoBalrog is missing. Not sure, if it's its own race or belongs to demon category.
- julesnp 3y agoBalrogs would be under the Maiar category, but most have no recorded name. I suppose the one from the trilogy could have been listed as "Durin's Bane."
- zabzonk 3y agogothmog, lord of balrogs? not in lotr though.
- penteract 3y agoThe Balrogs were Maiar, a category that includes the wizards (Gandalf, Saruman, etc.) and Sauron. The Balrog Gothmog is there, but not the one that appears in the Fellowship of the Ring, possibly because it isn't given a name.
- lotrjohn 3y agoThe Balrogs (Sindarin for ‘Demon of Might’; Quenya Valarauko) were Maiar (“Ainur of lesser degree than the Valar”). Other Maiar were Gandalf, Sauron, Melian. Gothmog and “Durin’s Bane” are the only two named. Basically bad Maiar.
- deeg 3y agoTolkien created such a massive world. Languages, mythology, genealogies, and thousands of years of history. We are richer for it.
- Solvency 3y agoAs are LLMs.
- mholt 3y agoThis site makes me glad to have a 49" wide monitor. (Click around to the various projections: maps, statistics, etc. Very interesting!)
- geokon 3y agoDid Tolkein somehow keep track of all this in his head, or did he draw family trees himself? And are there any examples of mistakes in LOTR where he messes up the chronology or anything like that?
- allturtles 3y agoThere's a wiki page about inconsistencies: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Possible_inconsistencies_in_the_legendarium https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Possible_inconsistencies_in_...
- injb 3y agoWhenever that kind if thing happens, a wizard did it.
- labster 3y agoNo need to bring magic in. Tolkien might have made a mistake in translating the original Quenya, or perhaps there were transcription errors among the Noldorin scribes. Other histories have these same problems.
- epilys 3y agoAn inconsistency Tolkien "solved" is most notably Glorfindel. The name was used twice in early drafts so he decided to merge those two persons even though they appears eras apart, and the first one had died. He did it by introducing the concept of reincarnation for the elves.
- emmanueloga_ 3y agoKinda related, it looks like there are a few new(ish?) "world building tools" for fiction authors now. Would be cool if authors started using these and made the databases available together with the works. -- https://chronographer.net https://chronographer.net https://www.campfirewriting.com/ https://www.campfirewriting.com/ https://www.notebook.ai/ https://www.notebook.ai/
- lasc4r 3y agoIn like 15 mins I learned that Perin had a child that he named Farmir and that Aragorn (II) is a descendant of Elrond's twin brother who were both just half-elves themselves as their parents were both half-elven. And between Elrond and Aragorn there's like 60 generations of men. Never really been interested in LotR lore, but I've read them multiple times and seen the movies many more times. Never seemed worth the times and sounded like dry work compared to the novels, but yeah this is pretty cool!
- runarberg 3y agoSee also the Donald Duck Family Tree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_family_(Disney)#Family_tree_by_Don_Rosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_family_(Disney)#Family_tr... (though I prefer the illustrated version by Don Rosa)
- kelnos 3y agoThis is fantastic! I read the Silmarillion when I was in high school, and while it was a bit difficult to get through at times, I was in complete awe of the world Tolkien had built. Seeing it all laid out like this is amazing. (OT, but it looks like the page's character encoding is broken. And of course Firefox decided to ditch the ability to set the correct charset manually. The "Repair Text Encoding" button isn't working for me.)
- em500 3y agoThe trick to reading the Silmarillion is to not read it from front to back, but first part 3 (Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age), then part 2 (Akallabeth) and only then part 1 (Quenta Silmarillion). Part 3 is a super condensed version of LOTR.
- kelnos 3y agoI doubt I'll ever read it again, but if I do, I'll try to remember this :)
- satiric 3y agoWould you still read the Ainulindalë and Valaquenta first, or would you save those for last? I would also add that the chapter "Of Beleriand and its Realms" is OK to skip if it's not your thing, especially on a first read. It's mostly just describing what's on the map (of course it's still well written in Tolkien's prose). There are plenty of people that enjoy it, and there are plenty that don't.
- Aeolun 3y agoThe progenitors of Aragorn had a thing for the letter A.
- roydivision 3y agoBeautiful site!
- sandos 3y agoAs an (amateur) geneaologist I at once started looking for loops, and I was not disappointed. There seems to be some "endogamy" here, at least very distant cousin marriage. I wonder if any book has actual, believable endogamy due to geographical constraints?
- OscarCunningham 3y agoThe funny thing is that because he elves are immortal it's possible for Aragorn to marry his first cousin, sixty two times removed.
- danjl 3y agoAha! A free domain name generator! Not sure why this post was mis-titled?
- Octopodes 3y agoWhy is this so wide? It's barely usable.
- pvaldes 3y agoWow, Sam has been really busy after putting a ring on it