Yes, there is (if you mean Adunaic), but that doesn't help much since
_Athelas_ is Sindarin in form. Sindarin has a 'th' sound, and Greek came
to have one, but that's about it; _Althaea_ (I think that's the plant
meant, though it's not in my Greek dictionary) has a sequence "ea" which is
very unlikely in Sindarin.
I think it's pretty clear that Sierra borrowed the word _athelas_ from
Tolkien.
David Salo
Gary Hendrickson wrote:
> I was recently playing (for the trillionth time) Sierra's 'Quest For
> Glory.' There is a puzzle near the beginning of the game which involves
> a talkative medicine lady (think Ioreth) who has lost her ring, which
> she describes as 'shaped in gold like the herb Athelas with entwined
> leaves.' This time I read it I stopped and blinked. Athelas! Healing!
> Tolkien! Just to make sure that Athelas wasn't a real herb I had my mom
> (a gardener) look it up... and she found a reference to the herb
> 'Althea' (if that's the spelling, I lost the reference), which is Greek
> for 'Healing Herb' (or something like that). Is there any kind of
> similarity between Greek and Adunic?
Fasinating! Although "athelas" is Sindarin, not Adunaic (Numenorean).
The herb was known to the Noldor, who termed it "athea" from *ATHAYA
"helpful, kindly, beneficial." A later sound shift rendered it "asea"
(cf. Aragorn's "asea aranion" in "The Houses of Healing.") In
Middle-earth the word was converted into regularized Sindarin form as
athe- plus -las "leaf."
--
_________________________________________________
William Cloud Hicklin "And he named him craven,
soli...@gamewood.net and lord of slaves"
_________________________________________________
A classic shift of sounds! th -> s. This happens in some Greek dialects
e.g. the Spartan version of Dorian, _theos_ (god) -> _sios_
JRR sure knew his linguistics
GR
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