Squee!

[DanielH]

And if you click on the first part you see “Nelyafinwë Maitimo (Circle) (Maedhros)”, which includes the relevant True Identity tag.

[PlainDealingVillain]

"The fact a lot of strange things have happened doesn't mean we should put particular weight on lots of equally strange things happening, I don't think." Shrug. "Maybe someone'll walk through the door with an explanation."

Hey Glass, that's your cue!

[jalapeno_dude]

The plural form of the Sindarin "orch" (anglicized as "orc") is "yrch." This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence.

So I finally got around to looking this up, and Wikipedia says this was intentional:

One of the author's favorite books, The Lord of the Rings, lent several words and images to Animorphs: the elvish word for Orc, "yrch", became Yeerk; the flaming red Eye of Sauron inspired the Crayak, and Ax's middle name, "Esgarrouth", is based on a town in the books called Esgaroth. The human name of Ax's brother, Elfangor, is Alan Fangor and his last name is in reference to the Fangor region or Fangorn Forest. Also there was a minor reference to Gondor, in the form of a fictional company named "Gondor Industries" in the 14th book. (It may also be significant that Visser Three's host is named Alloran, a rough homonym of Gandalf's Valinorean name "Olórin", and that one of the minor alien races is called "the Five", which is also a term used in The Lord of the Rings for the Istari.)

[Kappa]

that's adorable

[DanielH]

Many of those are things that happened after the First Age, so most of the worlds wouldn't notice the similarities.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Except that the worlds are in contact, so if someone from third-age Arda points a finger and goes WTF they can explain it to the others

[Nemo]

Wow. I was so sure that was a coincidence.

[Unbitwise]

ALL HAIL IMPERATRIX BELLA AND HER HORS D’OEUVRES!

[jalapeno_dude]

It would be interesting if Silmaril could make Alloran as an alt of Olórin work out. Saruman/Curumo would work better, honestly (subverted by the enemy, etc.), but then you don't get the names thing...

[Kappa]

I feel like Alloran and Olorin are too dissimilar personality-wise, but I guess it could be made to work...