Q: What Does The Name of Girion Mean?
ANSWER: Many readers of The Hobbit have inquired about the etymology of Girion, the name of the King of Dale who was (apparently) slain by Smaug in the Third Age year 2770. Some people have suggested that the name may be drawn from the Sindarin language, but that seems extremely doubtful.
There is a Girion family name of which J.R.R. Tolkien may have been aware. The name is found in Belgian and American genealogical records. It may also occur in England and other areas. Proposed variant spellings of the name include Ceryon and Gyrion.
So far as can be determined, all of the names that Tolkien used for characters associated with Dale, the Iron Hills, and Erebor are drawn from Norse sources. There is even a note that Christopher Tolkien published in The History of Middle-earth where his father indicated that he was using Old Norse as the language of Dale (just as he used modern English to represent the Westron or Common Tongue of Middle-earth and Old English to represent the language of the Rohirrim). The only other Germanic language that has been confirmed in Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythology is his use of Gothic (identified by Christopher Tolkien) for names of the kings and princes of Rhovanion from whom the later lords of the Eotheod (and the subsequent Kings of Rohan) were descended.
Bard the Bowman has a Norse name, possibly derived from Barði, which is associated with a high-prowed ship. Curiously, this name was borrowed into Norman French and from there was borrowed into English. Tolkien must surely have known something of the name’s etymology. On the other hand, there is a Bardi who is prominently featured in Heitharvega Saga. His mother, Thurid, drives Bardi and his brothers to avenge the murder of another brother. After many adventures, Bardi leaves his second wife and becomes a Vaering (a mercenary) for the king of Garthsrealm. Bardi falls in battle defending the kingdom.
An alternative etymology for Bard suggests it is derived from Old Norse Bardr, which according to one source combines two words that mean “protection from strife”. According to the page cited above, Bardr actually combines “battle” and “love, peace”.
Bain, son of Bard, probably owes his name to Old Norse Beinn, meaning “leg”. Some people have identified Bain with Old English bane (“killer, slayer, murderer, the devil”) but that seems unlikely given that Bain was a King of Dale who was NOT associated with evil or murder.
Brand, son of Bain, is probably named for the Old Norse term brandr (meaning “sword” or “sword-blade”). An alternative definition suggests the name could be mean “spur” as in a sharp point or prow (of a ship).
The names of the Dwarves of Erebor and Moria are, as many people know, drawn from the Elder Edda, a collection of Icelandic poems that preserve much ancient Norse mythology. Except for Durin, only the names of Dwarves from the First Age (Azaghal, Telchar, Gamil Zirak) appear to have been devised by Tolkien from his Khuzdul language.
So that leaves Girion. It would be very odd if this name were not associated with the Norse/Scandinavian lexicon. There are no easily located definitive or authoritative etymological sources for the name. However, it might be derived from Old Norse/Icelandic Geirr, meaning “spear”. One possible meaning for the name might therefore be “spear (scion)”, a warrior. Another possible root for the name could be Gyrðr, which is a contraction of an older name Guðrøðr, which could be translated as “God (is) beloved/beautiful” or “(a) beloved/beautiful god”.
The suffix -ion is not, so far as I can determine, Norse or Scandinavian or German. It appears to be derived from Latin -ion, which denotes action or condition.
Another possible root for Girion might be the Old High German word gir (“vulture”) through gyrfalcon but that seems unlikely.
Another possible root might be gird, from Old English gyrdan (Old Norse cognate gyrða) meaning “to encircle or surround”. Girion could thus mean “encircler” or “one who surrounds” or “one who embraces”.
The chief difficulty in deconstructing the name Girion is that, like the name Galion (the butler of the Elf king in The Hobbit), it seems more of a throwaway name, easily said and distinctive enough from other names not to be associated with the Dwarves. It could be that Tolkien did not create the close association between Dale (also an Old Norse word for “valley”) and the Old Norse naming convention until he was working on The Lord of the Rings.
Linguists seem to agree that Galion is probably not intended to be a Sindarin name, but rather one that sounds like Sindarin. It appears that they have not reached any consensus on Girion, which must (like Bladorthin — which has not been conclusively shown to be Sindarin in form despite several assertions that it must be) remain a name shrouded in mystery for Tolkien fans.
There is, by the way, another possible borrowing from Old Norse in the name of Mount Gram. “Gram” could be derived from gramr, meaning “resentful” or “irritated”. The name Gundabad could also be associated with the root word gunda, “war”. Hence, there is considerable evidence to suggest that Tolkien was heavily influenced by Old Norse words when composing names for The Hobbit.
See also:
- Did Girion Survive Smaug’s Attack on Erebor and Dale?
- Was Vidugavia the Ancestor of Girion and Bard?
- What Do the Names of the Kings of Dale Mean?
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