Subject: Okay, names first.
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Posted on: 2022-01-03 00:54:56 UTC

Momoka is fairly easy. There's no Quenya word for 'peach' (or 'pink'), but peach trees are noted for flowering very early, before their leaves even come out. Elves actually recognise six seasons, with the first being (in English) 'stirring' ; so she is Coirelótë, "Early (/Stirring) blossom".

Kaguya is... a decision. We can translate him directly: Lissui is Sindarin for "eternal fragrance". It comes very close to being the name of a flower from Eressea, Lissuin, so he might just be named that.

On the other hand... Middle-earth also has its stories of someone from the moon who keeps getting into trouble. That would be Tilion, the archer who drives the thing; there are at least two Hobbit songs about him getting stuck on the ground and having trouble at the inn.

As far as I can tell, Tilion is one of those names that is identical in both Sindarin and Quenya. But I'm not sure a literal god-name is a good idea! Instead, we could use "Tillon", swapping two male endings out (technically we go from "he of the horns" to "Horned man").

Oh, wait - why decide? His father named him Lissuin, his mother Tillon, and his friends dubbed him Tarthir.

So: backstory. If Kaguya knows two languages from his upbringing, then Lissuin Tillon Tarthir is mixed-race: probably Noldo father, Sinda mother (the Sindar like the moon, and an older Noldo would have actually seen Lissuin in flower). If not, he could be one or the other, but could still be a mix.

Customer service is an interesting one. I'm inclined to see both that and the maid thing as specifically their roles on Eressea: as a fluent Quenya-Sindarin translator, Tarthir is probably at least slightly in demand. If we assume elvish civilisation has inns, he could literally be an in-house translator at one.

Coirelótë, meanwhile, doesn't speak a word of Sindarin. Someone recommends she hire the new arrival as a translator, but, uh-oh - Valinor isn't much of a monetary economy, while Eressea has brought economics back from Middle-earth. Ultimately, they barter an agreement: Tarthir will act as Coirelótë's translator, but when he is out earning the miriain (plural of "mirian") they need to eat, she will keep house for him. She agrees, because it's a chance to get properly into this strange culture that's formed on the Lonely Isle.

It's probably mid-Third Age; that way Tarthir can be the first of his immediate family to arrive, and not have anyone other than this Light-Elf from out west to house-share with.

For a proper Tolkien joke, I suggest the inn he works at be named I Thoron a Chên.

hS

(Oh, all right... this inn. You can call it I Aew a 'Winig if you're feeling casual.)

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