Gothic
A dead language from a second-hand primer — decisive, Tolkien said
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Around 1908 a schoolfriend sold Tolkien a copy of Joseph Wright's Primer of the Gothic Language, having bought it by mistake for a missionary tract. Gothic is the oldest Germanic language on record, surviving almost only in Bishop Wulfila's 4th-century Bible, and Tolkien was fascinated: he later called the accident decisive, because it was the first language he studied out of pure love, and he began to invent 'unrecorded' Gothic words to fill the gaps. In Middle-earth the language surfaces where the Northmen of Rhovanion are named — Vidugavia is the Gothic Widugauja, 'wood-dweller' — as Christopher Tolkien notes in Unfinished Tales.
What became of it
The name is Gothic in form: Widugauja, 'wood-dweller'. Christopher Tolkien points this out in his notes to the history of Cirion and Eorl, together with the other Gothic names of the Northmen.
- Unfinished Tales — Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan
Sources
- The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 272
- The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 163
Cite this page
Legendarium (2026): „Gothic“. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/gothic/
APA
Legendarium. (2026). Gothic. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/gothic/
MLA
„Gothic“. Legendarium, 2026, https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/gothic/. Last updated September 3, 2026.
BibTeX
@misc{legendarium-gothic-en,
title = {Gothic},
author = {{Legendarium}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/gothic/}},
note = {Last updated September 3, 2026}
}