Q: Where Did Tolkien Get the Names Azog and Bolg?
ANSWER: I don’t know of any authoritative sources of information on where Tolkien might have derived the names Azog and Bolg. The name Bolg goes all the way back to the First Edition of The Hobbit. The reference to Dain Ironfoot’s slaying of Bolg’s father is also found in the earlier version of the story but according to John Rateliff’s The History of the Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien did not devise the name Azog until he began work on the 1960 Hobbit (some of which material, including Azog’s name, was incorporated into the 1966 Third Edition). Rateliff was unable to find a source for Azog in any of Tolkien’s invented languages.
Bolg is an actual Old Irish word meaning “belly”, “sack”, or “bag”. Hence, Bolg of the North might be a Bag of the North joke. Tolkien had already established a connection between hobbits, goblins, and humor with his Golfimbul joke earlier in the story (Bandobras “Bullroarer” Took knocked Golfimbul’s head off with one stroke, inventing the game of Golf). Golf is believed to have originated in Scotland in the Middle Ages; hence, a Gaelic connection to goblin names might be related to Tolkien’s golf-jest.
On the other hand, Azog may be a borrowing from the first edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam, which was published from 1913 to 1938 in English, German, and French. An entry for the city-name Almaden (an ancient town in southern Spain) suggests it may be derived from or connected to Arabic al-maʿdin (a mine). The full Spanish name of the town is given (in the encyclopedia) as Almadén de Azogue, translated as “quiksilver mine”. Mercury (quicksilver) has been mined in the region for at least 2,000 years. Azogue is attributed to an Arabic origin by linguists.
Rateliff points to a possible derivation of Bolg from the Fir Bolg, a race in Irish mythology who were defeated by the Tuatha de Danaan and exiled to the Aran Islands (or enslaved — there are several variations on the story).
It’s also conceivable (although I don’t know if it is provable) that Bolg is shortened from Boldog, an Orcish name Tolkien used in “Lay of Leithian” and one or two other works. David Salo suggests that Boldog may be constructed from one of Tolkien’s languages and could mean “warrior of torment”. When J.R.R. Tolkien was trying to establish the true origins of Orcs in his private essays he suggested that Boldog might have been a lesser Maia who had assumed Orcish form.
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Wasn’t Azog first mentioned in the LOTR Appendices? I’m not sure how these stand in relation to the “1960 Hobbit”. At any rate he is said there to be the father of Bolg, as he is in the third edition of “The Hobbit”.
Now Tolkien may have been rather casual in assigning the name “Bolg”, but it does seem possible that he had something specific in mind with “Azog”. Maybe it is this: in Saxon and Anglo-Saxon legend Woden had a son called (respectively) Baldag or Baeldaeg. They are equivalents of the Norse Odin and Balder, but thought of as historical figures rather than gods; the Anglo-Saxon kings derived their genealogies from them. However Odin (or Wotan or Woden) is often equated with the classical Hermes or Mercury. Thus, Bolg -> Boldog -> Baldag -> son of Woden -> Mercury -> the metal mercury -> Arabic “al zaug” (from Persian zhiwah, “quicksilver” – Chambers) -> Azogue -> Azog.
“Al zaug” is actually attested in Chambers as the origin of the alchemical name for quicksilver, “azoth”. Maybe there is some connection with mithril, “truesilver”, but I can’t offer anything specific.
I dunno, Patrick. That’s a long chain of transformations. Would a philologist appreciate the complexity? Maybe.
As for where “Azog” enters the published texts’ history, I defer to John Rateliff on the point simply because it’s not something I have time to research and verify.
My connections may seem far-fetched, but there is something strange about Boldog. For one thing, he is a cut above the average Orc-chieftain in having a spear which is good enough for Mablung (one of Thingol’s captains) to take as a prize, subsequently wielding it the hunt for the Wolf of Angband. He also rates a poetic mention, thus:
Boldog he sent, but Boldog was slain:
strange ye were not in Boldog’s train
– from the “Lay of Leithian”
It is almost regretful. Maybe the inspiration is this:
Balder has met his death, and ye survive
– from “Balder Dead”, by Matthew Arnold.
The Arnold poem has plenty about “Hela’s realm” (Hell) which is approached across sheets of ice, somewhat reminiscent of Tolkien’s “Helcaraxe” (the Grinding Ice). The Hermes-Odin correspondence is made explicit in the figure of “Hermod” who searches for the shade of Balder. It is something of a jumble, mythologically speaking, but there is enough to convince me that in some fashion it was working in Tolkien’s mind in the creation of Boldog, making plausible the later links.