Here is a delightfully educational essay I was granted, by the author and a dear friend… the opportunity to read:

A Brief Look at the Fine Quality of Elven Names; and the Background of Yortus Ymor Elaldriath Ousseaëythermitore

Authored by

gardener, historian, and linguist Grongle de’ Vinchmallows; Silverymoon; 1375

In my many years of studying various race languages, I have found that in comparison to most other races, human names are the least fascinating. This is only my opinion of course, but the reason why I believe this is simply the fact that most human names tell very little about the individual and are usually nothing more than attempts at setting children apart in order to avoid confusing them with each other. These names are most often drab and about as nondescript as having no name at all. Middle names are nothing more than extra first names and so are no exceptions. Whatever meaning their names have are generally not known and thus not generally considered when human parents name their children. Last names are a bit of an exception in that they indicate familial ties, and perhaps they also relate regional or occupational familial influences.

Consider these admittedly interesting sounding, but in terms of individual characteristic meaning, mostly useless, human names: Alex Petterwent, Igor Vidal, Bruce Kensh, etc. Alex is of course short for Alexander, which means “defender of men”; Are most men named Alex defenders of men compared to men with other names? Of course not! And what does Petterwent mean? That the person who petted a cat went that way? Absurd! Etc.

Humans are given their full names at birth, and thus they are fixed, meaning or not. Oh sure, typical humans with typical names can become famous and their typical names may signify something atypical after the fact, but how notoriously drab and typical that is. Human literature is rife with contradictory sayings such as,

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

and

The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.

These kinds of sayings are so typical of humans I’ll not bore you by noting who said them.

Yet, humans do desire individual recognition, and they occasionally get around the limitations inherent to their names by way of nicknames, much to their oft very creative credit, but that is discussed in more detail in a different treatise.

Sometimes though, names are very interesting bits of information indeed. In my studying the importance of names and their meanings cross-culturally, I have found elven names to be some of my most favorite. The reason for this is that in addition to their innate complexity, they have a simplicity that unites them, in that they can be composed of aspects of more than just one dialect or sub-racial tongue without flaw regardless of sub-race. Also, the way they leap beautifully from the tongue when spoken by an elf as if the speaker’s mouth were a symphonic assemblage of supernatural musical instruments… and that they actually mean something!

As a matter of fact, elfin names carry quite a lot of meaning, and even without knowing anything other than an elf’s name… here’s an interesting one I came across recently, a young fellow I met right here in Silverymoon named Yortus Ymor Elaldriath Ousseaëythermitore (good luck pronouncing this one, human!)… even though we became friends and he told me of his life, assuming I knew nothing of him, we can determine much more about him than might at first seem possible, as I said before, by simply knowing his name! A most rhythmically handsome name to be sure, the sound of it; a bit difficult even for me to pronounce, but what a delight it was to hear Yortus say when we first met.

Now let’s discover what is all the meaning that I am making such a grand fuss about; but first let’s remind ourselves that no matter how eloquent and learned we are concerning the elven tongues, as non-elves, we can only really grasp some, and only very rarely most, but never all of what it is we are reading or hearing. If reading, it is either written in one or more elven language(s) that uses one or more elven alphabet(s), or it is written in a Commonized version of an elven language that uses the Common alphabet, or both; and if hearing, it is either one or the other as above, but if it is truly unadulterated elven, all I can most concisely say is that I don’t know of even one genuinely fluent non-elf, including yours truly.

The intricate subtlety of the ways of the elves is literally infused in their languages and we as scholars are yet still merely learning many of the “basics” concerning the languages of many of the sub-races, not to mention the specific dialectical inflections that may or may not be unique to many regional groups of elves. Elven languages are as alive as a butterfly on the breeze; they are windsong, seemingly in an everlasting rhythm of both stasis and change.

When a moon elf is born, usually the only name it has is the family name which is shared by all its family members. It is customary for moon elves to give their children a personal name within a few to several years after birth, which always signifies something characteristic of the young individual.

Upon reaching the age of consent, a moon elf is done with childhood and must give himself or herself a chosen or second personal name. Male personal names, first and second are usually more indicative of general characteristics than female personal names. After a male gives himself a second name, he pronounces it to the entire community and a celebration is held in his honor.

On the other hand, because female second personal names are thought to be sacred to her as an individual, as such, they do not pronounce their self-given names to the community and there is no celebration. While female moon elves are very reluctant to tell their first personal name to anyone outside of the community, they will only tell their second personal name to the male she knows she will have child with. She reveals her sacred name to the community only during the wedding ceremony and there is much celebration. As a note, it is said she is never wrong about who she tells, and it is considered to be a protective blessing bestowed upon the male, for a female moon elf to tell a male moon elf her second personal name… at least until she gives birth.

Now back to Yortus Ymor Elaldriath Ousseaëythermitore: Yortus [a personal name derived from Yort, a male elf personal birth name meaning “moonlight’s sacred seed” and “silver moonlight” + -us “kin (born of)”] literally means “born of Yort” [interestingly enough, even though the name Yort is a male’s name, and since “born of” does not exclude female descendency; technically speaking, according to a literal translation, Yortus can be a female name as well. But, assuming that Yort is an obviously masculine name, which it is, it is not appropriate for a female, and it would never be given to a female. Thus, the literal translation is deceiving, unless it is a last name, in which case gender is not a consideration. Perhaps a better interpretation, one more likened to human understanding, of the birth-name Yortus is “Yort’s son” , which might be translated into Common as Yortson, but then again, that would be a last name. This is a perfect basic example of how intricately confusing elf words can be for non-elves to fully understand]. Yortus was exceptional in that at birth he was given a name indicating his unbroken agnatic ancestry in addition to his family name. He was named Yortus Ousseaëythermitore at birth.

Ymor [derived from Y, referring to “Yortus” + –mor “figurative and actual blackness, darkness, night, or shadow” happens to be in reference to his darker skin color (the fact that his mother is half drow and half moon elf)] is translated into Common, meaning “His Father’s Moonlight’s Sacred Silver Shadow”; is a second personal name given to him during his childhood, when most other moon elves, as I mentioned earlier, are receiving their first personal names. The name Ymor sets him uniquely apart from the Yortus’ he descended from, who all have second personal names that set them uniquely apart as well. It is no coincidence that all of the descendents of Yort have second personal names that begin with the letter “Y”. A second personal (first) name is somewhat of a rarity among the elves in that they do not usually carry on ancestor first personal names.

Elaldriath [Yortus’ chosen personal name, derived from El “green” + -al “harmony” + driath (derived from a combination of -eath “eternal”, -dre “charm, charming”, and -ath “by, of, with”; and in not neglecting that there is an i between the r and the a, we must assume that more investigation into the name’s constituents must be done in order to enable us to fully understand what Yortus means by his chosen spelling of his chosen name; I will not go into any further detail here, as this is but a brief look] loosely translated, from the information we have here, means “(By, Of, or With; depending on the circumstance{s}) Eternal Green Harmonious Charm”.

Ousseaëythermitore [Yortus’ family’s place or house name, derived from Oussea “Heirs to” + ëythermitore (from Eythermitore {the ë signifies that a proper noun is being used after the first letter in a compound word}, which is derived from Eyther “The Forests of” + mitore “the Moon” {note that the capitalization of Moon in defining mitore is no mistake})] means “Heirs to The Forests of the Moon”. The Forests of the Moon, by the way, were once widespread and encompassed many woodlands, all of which were connected and each distinct only to the elves living in the Forests, including The Moonwood, The Cold Wood, and the vast multitude of smaller woodlands in between and surrounding. The Forests of the Moon were all the woodlands east of The River Surbin, north of the River Rauvin, including the forests on and around the Nether Mountains south to the northernmost boundaries of the High Forest, and as east to The High Ice as they reached.

(Image credit: TSR and/or WOC.)

Other than the fondness I have for his name, in my many conversings with Yortus Ymor Elaldriath Ousseaëythermitore, and in letters he sent since away, I was oft given the distinct impression that I was speaking with someone who would one day prove to be a very important and heroic person. So then, I will tell some more of the things I know about him here. Yortus is a hundred year old moon elf. He was born in a very small but ancient stronghold village named Saenodellaf Kiir (another very interesting name, see below) which lies in the heart of the northern portion of The Moonwood, right here in The Silver Marches of northwestern Faerûn. Saenodellaf (< sae “wood” + nodellaf “moon” [shortened to nodel or laf when referring to a waxing or waning moon] + kiir “gem”), which loosely translates into Common meaning Moonwood’s Gem, or, The Gem of Moonwood. To reiterate, Saenodellaf Kiir is Saenodel Kiir before a full moon and Saelaf Kiir after a full moon.

Yortus is the older of his father’s two sons, and as such the heir and youngest living descendant of the uninterrupted agnatic ancestry of his 9th-great-grandfather Yort, from whom Yortus obviously bears his name, as his father does, and as his grandfather does, etc. Yortus’ brother’s first personal name is Broglhin, another wonderful name which is a combination of bro + glin “to shine brightly with reflected light” + hin “child”. Interestingly enough, Broglhin’s mother is a human, and so he is half-elf, and thus he is also known affectionately as Blhin (a coupling of bhin and glin, which translates to mean “human boy shining brightly with reflected light”) and during his childhood at times not so affectionately by other children as Bhin (slang for “young human male” ). There is so much to elven names… for example in further studying the meaning of Broglhin, we might take into consideration that lin means “mere” and that bro as used here is borrowed from Common… are we delving into elven subconscious acknowledgment of their superiority over humans?

Generally, I have found that casually guessing at the emotional characteristics that might be inherent to whatever word combinations comprise the elven languages, especially in regards to proper names, is something akin to a mistake concerning polite manners and etiquette except perhaps amongst elves themselves. Opinions will vary, but it is mine that elves have proven themselves to be amongst the most respectable if they are not in fact the most respectable of races of people… it really all comes down to respect and an attitude composed of anything less will not result in much, if any, learning of their ways.

Yort was a wise and charismatic leader of a tribe of moon elves from many centuries past, who is said to have established Saenodellaf Kiir as a favored summer refuge in between winter migrations, believing its site to be the best place in all of The Forests of the Moon to raise a family, whenever living the ‘still-life’ seemed at all desirable, which it increasingly did the older he got. Yort eventually settled permanently at the spot and founded Saenodellaf Kiir, at the age of 500. Yort had ten wives and thirty children after he built his house in Saenodellaf Kiir (the same house Yortus grew up in and which is still being lived in by family), and he lived to be 1000 years old, and his gravestone was the first to be erected in the cemetery, which was a human custom Yort sometimes spoke in admiration of. Although most of the family ancestry before Yort has long been forgotten, heroic and inspirational and often humorous stories and songs of Yort and his loyal troupe of moon elves are still told and sung in Saenodellaf Kiir. Throughout the years, Saenodellaf Kiir has been fortified against several enemies, in ages past against marauding orcs, but much more recently against attack from the People of the Black Blood.

Yortus enjoyed an especially wild and carefree childhood. Compared to most elves in the region, he was entrusted with a great deal of freedom at an early age, as it was quite apparent early on that he was a very quick-witted and bright young elf, probably more naturally intelligent than anyone in the village. As he grew into a young adult, his curiosity toward the world grew immensely, and his wanderlust took a firm hold of him. Saenodellaf Kiir was simply not “big” enough to satisfy his cravings for knowledge, especially of things magical and exotic. So, at the age of 77 (a bit young, relatively speaking, for a moon elf to be on one’s own), with the blessings of his family and fellow villagers, he walked south of Saenodellaf Kiir through The Moonwood to Quaervarr, and eventually made his way to the capitol city Silverymoon to learn the ways of wizards, where he spent many joyful years; Yortus entered the University of Silverymoon as a descryant and spent much of his spare time in libraries and conversing with mages and sages, studying all he could about magic. He frequently traveled between Silverymoon and Everlund, where he also advanced his skills in longbow crafting and hunting to levels conducive enough that he began making a good living. He loved exploring and wandering; and so he spent a considerable amount of time adventuring in the wilds between and surrounding the two cities until he felt the need to discover new lands.

Yortus then set out on and along the road to The City of Splendors (Waterdeep), a place, despite its large size and commercial success, he found to be benevolently encouraging of his continued interests in arcane lore. While a resident of Waterdeep, Yortus was a member of The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, as per city regulations of course.

Yortus also spent a decent amount of time wandering amongst the peaceful trees of Ardeep Forest, living with its native elven inhabitants and, for a while at least, shrugging off entirely the binds of responsibility inherent to the civilized life he learned to grow somewhat fond of in Waterdeep.

It wasn’t long, however, before the intoxication of wanderlust caught up with him again and he decided to spend the last of his Waterdeep earnings on a journey south to Baldur’s Gate in search of more, and even more, adventure…

I have not yet received additional word from him.

Notes on author:
Grongle de’ Vinchmallows is a 198 year old forest gnome. In addition to his hobbies and other specialities, he is a 6th level illusionist; a fact he delightfully keeps primarily to himself.

The new version of this story is found in my book…

TBoan’s Tales of the Fantastic 1: Fragments of Mind (CENSORED Edition)

TBoan’s Tales of the Fantastic 1: Fragments of Mind is a collection of fantasy genre short stories. The author calls them fragments because some of them are excerpts from larger bodies of unfinished works in progress. They are a mere taste of more yet to come! Yet, they stand on their own, each an escape from your everyday life into worlds of the fantastic… the epic, the paranormal, the magical, the mythical, and the macabre! Explore these new worlds, experience their different cultures and lifeways, and learn about characters and situations far different from your own! If you’re into RPGs (Role Playing Games), and especially if you like fantasy anthologies in general, you’ll love TBoan’s Tales of the Fantastic 1: Fragments of Mind. Look forward for more to come from the TBoan’s Tales of the Fantastic series!