What Is the Meaning of Marach?

2 comments

Q: What Is the Meaning of Marach?

ANSWER: I do not know of any “in story” definition or etymology for Marach. The name (and character) enters into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion during the post-LoTR years (probably the mid-1950s) when he began revising and expanding the “Silmarillion” texts in anticipation of publishing that work as a sequel to The Lord of the Rings.

As with many names found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, there are several possible sources, including an Old German word marach with the given meaning of “horse”. However, I think it unlikely that Tolkien had the German word in mind when naming this character. There is a Hebrew word, MaRaCH (M+R+CH), which according to one source I found is the root verb ‘to rub in, anoint, spread’. Tolkien had a professional reason to delve into Hebrew in the 1950s, when he was invited to participate in the translation work for the Jerusalem Bible. He had to pull out, of course, and only made minimal contributions to the finished work.

In The Silmarillion Marach is presented as the most powerful of the leaders of Men who enter Beleriand and befriend the Eldar. His male-line descendants go on to become the Kings of Numenor. So the choice of a Hebrew inspiration for his name is logical but I don’t know of any way to confirm that hypothesis.

The names of Marach’s sons, Malach and Imlach, appear (to me) to be derived from Hebrew (“messenger”) and Scottish (“marginal land, marshy-shoreland”) respectively. Again, I cannot show that Tolkien made such deliberate borrowings but the usual suppositions that these may be Elvish names are not supported by the texts. Both of Marach’s sons entered Beleriand with their father.

Imlach‘s son Amlach may bear a Welsh name (aml, “multi” + ach, “ancestry, lineage, parentage”) — or not. Amlach is also given as a Gaelic word for “curl”. The Tolkien Gateway suggests that Amlach could be a Sindarin name based on am (“uprising”) + lach (“flame”). Of course, the name Imlach — if Sindarin — would mean “between flame”, or maybe “the middle flame”.

Another Welsh name that may strike Tolkien fans as familiar is Aml-iaith, “multi-lingual”. To the best of my knowledge no one has produced an authoritative translation for Amlaith. If the first element of the name is am as given above, -laith might be based on a root la- plus a modifier such as -ith used in Nen Girith and Lalaith, denoting a present-tense verbal state (e.g., “shuddering”, “laughing, laughter”).

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2 comments

  1. I’m not much of a linguist but these ,,word meaning” posts are interesting, after all it was Tolkien’s specialty :). In Middle Earth names are significant (and are often ways to interpret something about characters who bore them).

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