Ok, a bit of explanation. This whole thing started as a complaint on the Tolkien_Slash yahoogroup that there were too many characters whose names started with "G," so one could never be sure who was meant by the pairing labels at the top of a story. Somebody suggested using two-letter abbreviations, and voila, an idea was born. Being the sick sort of art/science nerd I am, I volunteered to put the thing together and illustrate it, so three weeks and a couple of Czech photo gallery searches later, here it is.
Just like the real thing, the abbreviations and the Elements don't always seem to go together at first glance. In chemistry, W stands for tungsten. In my version of Middle Earth, it's Gandalf. Here's a list of the stranger matches, along with my reasoning for them-- or the reasoning of the person who came up with them.
Al for Galadriel: Picks up on the second and third letters of her name; also, this character was originally called Altariel.
Fe for Elanor: Stands for "Fair Elanor"/ "Elanor the Fair."
Zn for Dimrill Dale: The Dwarvish name for this place is Azanulbizar.
Ge for Gimli: Gimli Elf-Friend.
Kr for Mirkwood: Reversal of the middle of the word. Ok, so we were getting desperate.
Y for Eowyn: Y not? She's the only one we could think of with a Y in her name.
Ru for Eomer: Actually, I don't know. Somebody else suggested this one, and it never occurred to me to ask until now. Hmm...
Rh for Elrohir: From the middle of his name.
Pd for Elladan: For "Peredhil," "Half-Elven." It's actually a coincidence that the twins ended up next to each other.
Sb for Lobelia: Sackville-Baggins, of course.
Cs for Lotho: In the original manuscripts, this character was called Cosimo.
W for Gandalf: Because he's a great Wizard, naturally, and because I refused to let W stand for anything sensible like, say, Wormtongue.
Au for Goldberry: For the non-scientists among us, Au is the chemical symbol for gold.
Hg for the Gaffer: Hamfast Gamgee.
Nd for Bag End: Taken from the end of the name.
Sm for Gollum: From his true name, Smeagol.
Yb for Quickbeam: Because after we'd used Eowyn for Y, there was no way we were coming up with another one.
Bk for Balin: Balin, Lord of Khazad-Dum.
No for Pipeweed: Does not refer to the "Just Say No" campaign, although we all know now that smoking is Bad For You (ahem: Elijah...) :) It's actually taken from the botanical name for the plant, which is Nicotiana.
