Names
It is not clear from which of Tolkien's invented languages the names Alatar and Pallando are derived. A possible translation from Quenya for Alatar is after-comer and could be a reference to his being selected as the second Wizard, after Curunír (Saruman). Alatar could also mean "Noble, great one". Pallando can be translated from Quenya as far one from palan, meaning far or distant.
An alternate set of names in Quenya for both wizards is given in the 1968 The Peoples of Middle-earth as Morinehtar ("Darkness-slayer") and Rómestámo ("East-helper"). Like most names in Tolkien's works, these names are significant. Here, Rómestámo coming from the Quenya word rómen, meaning uprising, sunrise, east incorporates not only his relation to the East of Middle-earth, but also his mission there to encourage uprising and rebellion against Sauron. Tolkien does not make it clear which alternative name belongs to which wizard, however.
In Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, the Blue Wizards are instead named as Naurandir and Sûlrandir - Games Workshop, which created the game, does not have rights to any books other than the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, but was allowed to invent their own material to cover such areas.
Read more about this topic: Blue Wizards
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
“Men have sometimes exchanged names with their friends, as if they would signify that in their friend each loved his own soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Without infringing on the liberty we so much boast, might we not ask our professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them register their names in each ward, and then appoint certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those who feel no need of this envelopment of curling vapor, to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as disgusting to the olfactories as it is prejudicial to the lungs.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)