ladyofastolat | Pronunciation

It used to be a rite of passage for new members in the Oxford Tolkien Society. At some point, innocently, they would say "SORE-on" or "MINE-as Tirith," and get loudly corrected by everyone present. Okay, so it didn't happen to everyone, but it happened enough to be - in my memory at least - something of an in-joke. I certainly pronounced both words wrong until I was told.

The Hobbit was a book I had read to me, aged 8 (although I illicitly reached the book down from its "out of reach" place on top of the wardrobe and read ahead) so I can blame my original mispronunciation of Smaug on my Mum. (She also said "Fylie and Kylie," which I stubbornly persist with, despite the Kylie Minogue connotations (that didn't exist back then, of course) because I think the alternatives sound even sillier. Or sylie. Or seelie.) The Lord of the Rings names I read to myself at 9, so have only myself to blame.

Not that I feel that guilty, really. How important is it that people pronounce fantasy names "correctly," do you think? Do you study and inwardly digest pronunciation guides - if such things exist - and try your utmost to get things right? If you encounter confusing names, do you turn to the end to see if there's a pronunciation guide to help you?

What if you don't find the pronunciation guide until the end? Do you read it at all? If if reveals that you've pronouncing key names "wrong," do you change your mental pronunciation, or just shrug and ignore it? Or does it depend on how likely you are to reread the book and talk about it to other people: other people who might laugh at you if you get it wrong?

What if the author suggests a pronunciation that you think is plain silly. I once listened to Stephen King reading aloud from his Dark Tower series, and he gave the character Cuthbert - a normal real world name - a pronunciation that, in my accent at least, was just wrong. I resolved to completely ignore him.

Or do you bother with pronunciation at all? To be honest, I often don't. I recognise the names visually, and often don't pay that much attention to what they might sound like. This is why I get so horribly confused if two characters in a book have made-up names of similar lengths, starting with the same letter. I just constantly and consistently get them mixed up. And some characters, especially those with long names, I never bother pronouncing at all. If the names are particulaly long and non-English looking, I can even reach the end of a long series of books, yet still be unable to answer the simple question "what's the name of the hero."