Did you know that J.R.R. Tolkien was heavily influenced by an eleventh-century French epic poem called The Song of Roland when writing Lord of the Rings? The similarities are striking – from the character of Roland resembling Boromir to the sword Anduril being inspired by Roland’s sword Durendal. But one of the most interesting connections is the inclusion of an animal called an oliphaunt, which in Tolkien’s books is essentially a larger elephant.
The term oliphant is actually a twelfth-century variant spelling of elephant, borrowed from Old French olifant, which could refer to elephants, ivory, or ivory horns. This word ultimately comes from Latin elephantus, which is derived from Greek elephas, meaning both “ivory” and “elephant”. Interestingly, the origin of this word is thought to be non-Indo-European, with proposed etymologies ranging from Phoenician to Berber and Egyptian.
