It should be said that the word mamil is never categorically defined, but its meaning is not realistically in doubt. The relevant quote comes from Unfinished Tales Part Two II, Aldarion and Erendis, in which the young Ancalimë says to her father Aldarion, 'I should like to see the white house in the sheep-land that mamil tells of.' This 'white house' is the White House of Erendis her mother. The word apparently descends from the root am-, hence Quenya amil, 'mother'. In the definition for that root-word (in The Etymologies in volume V of The History of Middle-earth), the affectionate Sindarin form is given as nana rather than mamil. It seems clear, therefore, that more than one version of the word was in use. All we can say for sure is that mamil was the form preferred in Númenórean Sindarin, at least at the time of Ancalimë's youth.
|
SHARE
