Drughu and Rokbeigalm [long] (was: Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers...)

On Sun, 22 Dec 2002 13:40:48 -0500 Robert B Wilson <han_solo55@...>
writes:
> On Sun, 22 Dec 2002 12:07:30 -0500 Steg Belsky
> <draqonfayir@...> writes:
> > I just hope the third movie includes a scene or two with the
> Drughu
> > (Woses), because after all they are an offshoot of the Rokbeigalm
> > :-P .
> i also hope it includes a scene or two (or more) with the Drughu
> (perhaps
> related to PIE *druhyu-?).  i'd like to know more about your
> Rokbeigalm.
> Robert Wilson
-

Well, the Rokbeigalm are a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who live in
the wild south-eastern regions of Middle-Earth, primarily concentrated on
islands in the oceans and (to a lesser extent) settlements on the coasts
of the continents.  They're mostly humans, but early in their history
they were joined by a number of Avarin and Nandorin elves.  They barely
had any contact at all with the rest of the world - apart from the
original elves who joined them, the Rokbeigalm had never had any
significant contact with Morgoth or the Valar, and never had contact with
Sauron.  They did have limited contact with the Numenoreans during their
age of exploration, however, mostly at the end of the second age once
Numenor had been evilified (which explains the condescending attitude
they held towards the more 'civilized' Numenoreans after their fall, as
exemplified by the poem in my sig).

The original (human) Rokbeigalm were part of one unified human ethnic
group that awoke at Hildorien among the others.  This proto group (i
don't have a name for them yet, they may not have had a name for
themselves) ended up splitting, when half of them - the proto-Rokbeigalm
- discovered seacraft and left Hildorien south-east into the ocean, while
the other half - the proto-Drughu - began migrating westwards overland.
Both the names "Rokbeigalm" and "Drughu" are descriptive (which leads me
to think that the proto-R/D had no ethnic name of their own),
"Rokbeigalm" comes from |^rokvmei^galm-a| "riders of the waves", and
"Drughu" means "stonecarvers".

The idea for the Rokbeigalm and their language (Rokbeigalmki) came about
when i wanted to create a new character on ElendorMUSH, the online
Tolkien-themed roleplaying game.  My first character, Elnar, had been an
elf from Imladris/Rivendell, and when he got boring i decided that i'd
love to play a Drughu character, but since there was no way to do that, i
ended up inventing Stygius (in proper Rokbeigalmki: Stíígiyus
/sta:jgijus/), who was an immigrant to Northwest Middle-Earth from
somewheres far away, from a semi-stone-age, Drughu-like society known as
the Rokbeigalm.  It was only a while later that i 'realized' that the
Rokbeigalm and the Drughu were originally one people after all.

According to Ardalambion, all we know canonically about the Drughu
language is:
"The wild men of the Drúadan Forest used a tongue wholly alien to the
Common Speech. In ancient times, their race was called |Drûg| by the
people of Haleth, "this being a word of their own language" (UT:377). Its
actual form in Drúedainic is quoted in UT:385 as |Drughu| ("in which the
|gh| represents a spirantal sound"). Their voices were "deep and
guttural" (UT:378); indeed Ghân-buri-Ghân's voice is so described even
when he spoke Westron (LotR3/V ch. 5). He repeatedly used the word
|gorgûn|, evidently meaning "Orcs" (see WJ:391)."

I think i 'realized' that the Rokbeigalm and the Drughu are the same
people after all because of the name of Ghân-buri-Ghân, whose "-buri-"
reminded me of the Rokbeigalmki p/m-atronymic prefixes |bre'| and |bra'|.
 So then i decided to make more connections, and |drug| became the
Rokbeigalmki word for "stonecarving (of large forms)", and if Drughu has
the same /g/ to /G/ shift as Rokbeigalmki, then |drugh| means
"stonecarver" in both languages.  So where would the |u| at the end of
"Drughu" come from?  I decided that whereas Rokbeigalmki uses a plural
marker |-m|, Drúedainic lost the consonant but developed a plural marking
system based on vowel echoing:

Rokbeigalmki: drug /drug/ ~ drugh /druG/ ~ drughm /druGm=/
Drúedainic: drûg /drug/ ~ drûgh /druG/ ~ drughu /drUGU/ (earlier
/drUGUm/)

Now, the word |gorgûn| is problematic, in that it is obviously a plural
(meaning "Orcs") but it seems to use the archaic Rokbeigalmki
*singularity* marker |-n|.  So i decided to interpret that so as unlike
Rokbeigalmki, which lost its singularity marker, Drúedainic developed the
original singularity marker into a post-plurality collectivity marker:
gorgu = orc
gorgû = orcs (from |gorgu+u| by vowel-echo)
gorgûn = troop of orcs, the orc species, etc.
Rokbeigalmki uses a completely unrelated word, |urkud| (from
Proto-Elvish) for "Orc".

But back to the Rokbeigalm themselves:
a bit of Rokbeigalmki culture...
They are at more or less a stone-age technology level, but they are
skilled shipbuilders, sailors and navigators.  Every few generations they
pick up from wherever they're living, build a huge fleet of ships and
migrate to a new homeland.  Sometimes people don't want to move, so there
are remnants of Rokbeigalmki communities scattered across the southern
hemisphere of Middle-Earth.

The Rokbeigalm are monotheists with strong animist tendencies.  In other
words, they believe in a supreme creator deity, known as |khada-a
oolu-kabak dwim-a sudglendm-a| "the One who founded the great waters", or
|kabakh-a| "the Founder" for short, but they also believe that the world
is inhabited by an unknown number of 'powers', or |ailzhm|.  These
|ailzhm| can be anything from a personification of a powerful natural
force to a gremlin-like force that unravels the strands of your fishing
nets at the worst possible time.  But what distinguishes |ailzhm| from
|kabakh-a| is that the Rokbeigalm believe that |ailzhm| are 'just there',
like any other part of the world: animals, plants, rocks, etc., and
therefore praying or worshipping them is stupid and/or a waste of time.
That kind of relationship is only for the creator.

Unlike many of the religions in our world (including my own), the
Rokbeigalm don't believe in worshipping their deity.  Periodic prayer at
important times is perfectly fine, but if a Rokbeigalmkidh heard that i
talk to God 3 times a day, sometimes more, they would be shocked.  In
fact, the Rokbeigalmki word for "worship" (as distinct from "prayer") is
|peres|, which comes from a Proto-Elven root meaning "annoy" or "bother".

The Rokbeigalm believe in 5 "life elements", which are essential for the
survival of the life-force, or soul |ailtz|.  These 5 elements are
connected to the five life-cycle ceremonies the Rokbeigalm observe:
being born: |dwi| water
puberty: |zek| fire
marriage: |reiyug| blood
giving birth: |aurez| wood
death: |amal| earth

Although each of the elements is utilized at each ceremony, the important
one has the most important function.  For instance, the most important
part of a Rokbeigalmki funeral involves scattering at least a handful of
dirt over the body, and the most important part of a Rokbeigalmki
marriage involves the bride and groom slicing open their palms and
grasping hands so that their blood mixes with eachother's.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "numyenaurkim uhmzu-elyeb,  /  numenoreans came,
  numyenaurkim oolu-sfãs,  /  numenoreans who were selfish,
  i uhmzu-peiwang ga'eilosm uhmzú.  /  and thought that they were gods.
  akh báhhihr uzu-ghalub wa'laur uhmsh,  /  but ocean rose up over them,
  i uzu-brodak uhmsh wa'sháíl -  /  and traded them to underworld -
  fa'zanlm i fa'pyetikm,  /  for murex-shells and pebbles,
  i fa'^ganmei^charzad."  /  and for glitterings of light.