Famous minstrel and loremaster of Thingol (LotR/1123, S/95). In his essay on The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor, Tolkien stated that the first element of this name was daer¹ “great” (VT42/11), although Christopher Tolkien suggested the initial element might be dae “shadow” in the Silmarillion Appendix (SA/dae), probably unaware of this essay when he was compiling The Silmarillion. The second element is probably the personal suffix -on¹ often used in masculine names (WJ/400).

Conceptual Development: In the very earliest Lost Tales, this character first appeared as G. Kapalen, soon revised to Tifanto and finally Dairon (LT2/49), the last of these glossed “The Fluter” in the Gnomish Lexicon (GL/29). The form remained Dairon in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s and Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (LB/104, SM/113, LR/292). In The Etymologies, Ilk. Dairon was designated as Ilkorin, derived from dair “shadow of trees” (Ety/DAY), which is likely the source of Christopher Tolkien’s derivation in the Silmarillion Appendix (see above).

The form Daeron emerged towards the end of the 1930s (LR/301), but Tolkien continue to use Dairon in the drafts of the Lord of the Rings appendices and the initial Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s (PM/76; WJ/13, 110), not committing to Daeron until fairly late in his writings.