Is Having A Last Name With The Word "Iron" In It, A Bad Thing?

[Roegue]

I don't really know too much of Tolkien Lore, saw the movies, that's about the extent of my knowledge. But someone told me that to have a name with the word 'Iron' in it was considered in some way to be connected to the Witch King.

From a role-playing perspective, what are your thoughts?

[Galadhloth]

I have little experience as a roleplayer so - maybe different groups have different thoughts, but I'm kind of a loremonkey so.... the answer is sort of no, sort of yes.

Back in the first age, Morgoth (Sauron's boss) had a massive fortress in the North of Middle Earth called Angband, which means "Iron-hell." He wore a crown made of iron as well; and even in the game now, there's the Iron Crown bad guys from Angmar, etc. (Ang = iron in Elvish). So I wouldn't go with a name like "Ironcrown" or "Servant of Iron" or "Angdir" or "Angmeleth" or anything like that unless you want to roleplay a baddie.

That being said, the associations aren't necessarily evil if you put them in context. "Ironfoot" or "Ironboots" or "Ironaxe," etc. would be perfectly respectable surnames for a Dwarf, for example. If you are a character who is a talented smith, Iron would work in that as well... or if you're a warrior who has decided that your goal in life is to destroy Angmar, you could call yourself "Ironcleaver" or something similar. It's really all in the context, I think.

[edeblack]

I don't really know too much of Tolkien Lore, saw the movies, that's about the extent of my knowledge. But someone told me that to have a name with the word 'Iron' in it was considered in some way to be connected to the Witch King.

From a role-playing perspective, what are your thoughts?

It is NOT an automatic association with the Witch-King. Excellent example: Dain II Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain upon the death of Thorin.

[Galadhloth]

It is NOT an automatic association with the Witch-King. Excellent example: Dain II Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain upon the death of Thorin.

Yep, definitely. I thought of Dain just after hitting "post". +rep

[Roegue]

Thank you all kindly for your input. I was thinking of the name Ironwolf. It's a name that has personal meaning to me. It was one of my husband's favorite names (he's passed away) which is why it's so important to me. In any case, in terms of rp, I certainly don't want a last name that might be misconstrued (I don't which to rp a baddie) which is why I'm glad to get your input. If it helps I'm playing a female elf hunter from Mirkwood.

Oh, and one more question, how long is one elven year as compared to a human year in terms of age?

[Mithfindel]

I'd expect that a lot of the iron-based names would be already taken. Also, a lot would depend on the history of the name, not just the words. But also a bit on the specific words. Personally, I would consider the word ang (iron) rather neutral. We know of three words for "wolf" in Sindarin, namely draug, garaf and gaur. Draug, purely judging from the sound of the word, would probably be negative. (Remember: the Professor first figured out words and names, then meanings: Elvish is almost literally designed by the "Rule of Cool".) On top of that, Ang+draug would have a great big consonant cluster in the middle. Gaur is werewolf, which are not good things in Middle-earth. Thus we'd have Angaraf left for "iron wolf" or Garafang for "wolf-iron".

Out-of-setting reference: Very early words may be loans from other languages. Probably most common example is "raud", meaning metal (and specially its Old Sindarin form "rauta", copper) from Finnish "rauta", meaning iron. It might be that some of the words for wolf are similarly developed. The words "gaur" and "garaf" might have received some influence from French "loup-garou" or werewolf. (The earliest version of the Elvish languages were developed while Tolkien was staying in a hospital in Frace during the World War I, as far as my memory serves.)

And finally, elven years. Elves do have a term for a solar year, and then there's the yén, which is 144 solar years. More information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_calendar However, after a brief glance to your other threat: Elves mature around the age of 80 - 100 years or so, and after that cease to age. There do exist some Elves who are older than the Sun within the setting. (In Middle-earth, Anor or the Sun is roughly 7,000 years old.) Calculating e.g. Galadriel's age in solar years boil down to "7,000 years and then some". There are some apocryphal (i.e. posthumously published) writings about a "third life cycle" for Elves, where they will slowly start to show signs of old age. This would happen some time after they turn 10,000.

(Minor editing for clarity and major editing to add content, specifically the last paragraph.)