Sigelwara Land
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Sigelwara Land is the title of an essay in two parts by J. R. R. Tolkien, appeared in Medium Aevum Vol. 1, No. 3. December 1932 and Medium Aevum Vol. 3, No. 2. June 1934. It treats the etymology of the Old English word for Ethiopians, Sigelhearwan. Tolkien concluded that, while the meaning of the first element was evidently sigel "Sun", the meaning of the second element hearwan was not recoverable:
- "a symbol ... of that large part of ancient English language and lore which has now vanished beyond recall, swa hit no wære."
- .. be suðan Sigelwara land, forbærned burhhleoðu, brune leode, hatum heofoncolum.
- "... southward lay the Ethiop's land, parched hill-slopes and a race burned brown by the heat of the sun ..."
The main thrust of Tolkien's argument in this two-part paper seems to have been that "Sigelwara" was a corruption of "Sigelhearwa", and had come to mean something different in its later form than it had in its original. He begins by pointing out that Ethiopians in the earliest writings are presented in a very positive light, but by the time they written of as "Sigelwarans", the perception has become the opposite. He does not speculate why, but instead demonstrates a clear relationship between "sigelwara" and "sigelhearwa" and shows how discovering the original meaning of the word "Sigelhearwa" is almost impossible; that trying to do so must be "for the joy of the hunt rather than the hope of a final kill".
He finishes on a distinctly more tentative note, postulating that the original never referred to human beings but to a mythical demon, and that its later form is used, incorrectly and in a pejorative sense, to represent Ethiopians.
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