Subject: Looking at Rohirric horses...
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Posted on: 2021-04-14 08:02:11 UTC

... they seem to be split between Modern and Old English.

Modern: Shadowfax, Snowmane, Lightfoot, Firefoot

Old: Arod ("quick"), Stybba ("stubby"), Windfola ("wind-foal")

We can add Brego from the movies (OE, but named for a person), and Felaróf from before Eorl rode south. And 'mearas' itself is simply OE 'horses'.

There's some hint that the modern names are actually translations within the Red Book - Tolkien Gateway talks about Snowmane's "proper Rohirric name" being Snawmana, and cites Tolkien's "Guide to the Names...". So a plausible case is that they have Old English names which are routinely 'modernised' by and around outsiders.

Coming back to Alice... I don't know if J&A realised this, but it's actually a perfect name for a mearh. It apparently comes from Adelaide, which means 'noble kind'. Wiktionary is helpful in telling me that her OC "Rohirric" name should be made from cynn ("kin") and either Aethele or Haeleth (noble/hero). Aethelcynn or Cynaethele would work, being modernised as Athelkin or Kinathil.

She's probably best to stick with Alice, is what I'm saying.

hS

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