Editing Nazgûl (section)

=== Etymological connotations ===

Tolkien was a [[philologist]]. [[Jason Fisher]], writing that "all stories begin with words", takes up [[Edmund Wilson]]'s "denigrating dismissal" of ''The Lord of the Rings'' as "a philological curiosity", replying that to him this is "precisely one of its greatest strengths".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher explores in detail the connotations of Tolkien's use of "Ringwraith" and its Black Speech translation "Nazgûl", both in languages that Tolkien knew and [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|those that he invented]]. "Wraith" in modern English means 'spectre'.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wraith |title=wraith, noun |work=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |accessdate=October 29, 2024}}</ref> Fisher notes that the word has a history in folktale and fantasy including usage by the [[Brothers Grimm]], [[William Morris]], and [[George MacDonald]].<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> The word "wraith" can be connected, Fisher writes, to English "[[wikt:writhe|writhe]]", [[Old English]] ''wrīþan'', to bend or twist, and in turn to Gothic ''wraiqs'', curved, crooked, or winding, and ''wraks'', a persecutor. There is also English "wreath", from Old English ''wrida'', meaning a band, a thing wound around something, and indeed a ring. Another cognate is Old Saxon ''wred'', meaning cruel; Fisher comments that all of these stem from Indo-European ''*wreit'', to turn, bend, or wind.<ref name="Fisher 2014">{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Fisher |chapter=Tolkien's Wraiths, Rings, and Dragons: An Exercise in Literary Linguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_rsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4766-1486-1 |editor-last=Houghton |editor-first=John Wm. |pages=97–114 |access-date=28 November 2021 |editor-last2=Croft |editor-first2=Janet Brennan |editor-link2=Janet Brennan Croft |editor-last3=Martsch |editor-first3=N.}}</ref>

"Nazgûl" has the Black Speech roots ''nazg'', ring, and ''gûl'', wraith. Fisher writes that the former may well be connected, unconsciously on Tolkien's part, to [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] ''nasc'', a ring. ''Gûl'' has the meaning "magic" in Tolkien's invented language of [[Sindarin]]. Fisher comments that this has an English [[homophone]] in "[[wikt:ghoul|ghoul]]", a wraith, which derives from [[Arabic]] غُول‎ ''ḡūl'', a demon that feeds on corpses. The Sindarin word is related to ''ñgol'', wise, wisdom, and to [[Noldor]], [[Fëanor]]'s elves who became in Fisher's words "bent and twisted" by the desire for the [[Silmaril]]s.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>

[[File:Nazgûl and Ringwraith.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.8|Diagram of [[Jason Fisher]]'s analysis of [[philological]] connections and [[Etymology|etymologies]] of ''Nazgûl'' and ''Ringwraith''. Both terms have connotations of being "bent and twisted".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>]]

The only one of the nine Ringwraiths to be named is Khamûl. Fisher suggests a link to [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''kam'', crooked, and ''kamy'', to bend. "Kam" made its way into English usage, including by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Dyce |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Dyce |entry=kam |title=A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works |date=1904 |publisher=Dana Estes and Company |location=Boston |quote='clean kam', ''[[Coriolanus]]'', iii. 1. 304. Quite crooked, quite wrong (or, as [[Brutus]] subjoins, 'Merely awry)', Compare clean.  |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0067%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DK}}</ref> as is recorded in [[Samuel Johnson]]'s 1755 ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher writes that this may have come to Tolkien by way of his time with the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] in the [[World War I|First World War]], with Lancashire dialect words like ''caimt'', crooked or bad-tempered. In short, Tolkien may have felt many [[philological]] associations between his "Nazgûl" and "Ringwraith" with the meanings of being bent and twisted as well as ghoulish.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>