The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor

The names of the Rivers

The essay begins with the lengthy excerpt and author's note given in UT:264-65 (and so not reproduced here). A few variances between the published text and the typescript are noteworthy: where the published text has Enedwaith the typescript reads Enedhwaith (this was an editorial change made in all excerpts from this essay containing the name in Unfinished Tales; cf. XII:328-29 n. 66); and where the published text has Ethraid Engrin, the typescript has Ethraid Engren (but note (Ered) Engrin, V.348 s.v. ANGĀ-, V.379 s.v. ÓROT-, and many other places beside). In addition, a sentence referring to the ancient port called Lond Daer Enedh was omitted before the last sentence of the author's note on UT:264; it reads: "It was the main entry for the Númenóreans in the War against Sauron (Second Age 1693-1701)" (cf. LR:1058; and UT:239, 261-65). Also, against the discussion of the approach to Tharbad that closes the first paragraph on UT:264, Tolkien provided the cross-reference"I 287,390".{10}

Following the passage ending at the top of UT:264, the essay continues with this etymological discussion, in reference to the name Glanduin:

glan: base (G)LAN, ‘rim, edge, border, boundary, limit'. This is seen in Q. lanya verb ‘bound, enclose, separate from, mark the limit of; lanwa ‘within bounds, limited, finite, (well-)defined'; landa ‘a boundary'; lane (lani-) ‘hem'; lantalka ‘boundary post or mark'; cf. also lanka ‘sharp edge (not of tools), sudden end', as e.g. a cliff-edge, or the clean edge of things made by hand or built, also used in transferred senses, as in kuivie-lankasse, literally ‘on the brink of life', of a perilous situation in which one is likely to fall into death.

It is debated whether gl- was an initial group in Common Eldarin or was a Telerin-Sindarin innovation (much extended in Sindarin). In this case, at any rate, the initial gl- is shared by Telerin and Sindarin and is found in all the derivatives in those languages (except in T. lanca, S. lane, the equivalents of Q. lanka): T. glana 'edge, rim';{11} glania- ‘to bound, limit'; glanna ‘limited, bounded'; glanda ‘a boundary': S. glân, ‘hem, border' (of textiles and other hand-made things), gland > glann ‘boundary'; glandagol ‘boundary mark';{12} gleina- ‘bound, enclose, limit'.{13}

Tolkien then comments: "The names of the Rivers give some trouble; they were made up in a hurry without sufficient consideration," before embarking upon a consideration of each name in turn. Significant portions of this section of the essay have been given in Unfinished Tales. Extended passages are not repeated here, but their places in the essay are indicated.

Adorn

This is not on the map, but is given as the name of the short river flowing into the Isen from the west of Ered Nimrais in App. A, III 346.{14} It is, as would be expected in any name in the region not of Rohanese origin, of a form suitable to Sindarin; but it is not interpretable in Sindarin. It must be supposed to be of pre-Númenórean origin adapted to Sindarin.{15}

Of this entry, Christopher Tolkien notes: "On the absence of the name on the map—referring of course to my original map to The Lord of the Rings, which was replaced long after by the redrawing made to accompany Unfinished Tales—see UT:261-62, footnote."

Gwathló

Of the next entry, headed "Gwathlo (-ló)", Christopher Tolkien writes: "The long discussion arising from this name is found in UT:261-63, with the passage concerning the Púkel-men removed and cited in the section on the Drúedain, UT.383-84. In the latter passage the sentence ‘Maybe even in the days of the War of the Ring some of the Drú-folk lingered in the mountains of Andrast, the western outlier of the White Mountains' contains an editorial change: the original text has ‘the mountains of Angast (Long Cape)’,{16} and the form Angast occurs again more than once in the essay. This change was based on the form

Andrast communicated by my father to Pauline Baynes for inclusion, with other new names, on her decorated map of Middle-earth; see UT:261, footnote." A further editorial change may be noted: where the published text has Lefnui (UT:263, repeated in the extracted note on Púkel-men, UT.383) the typescript reads Levnui; cf. the entry for Levnui below.

An unused note against "the great promontory ... that formed the north arm of the Bay of Belfalas" (ibid.) reads: "Afterwards called still Drúwaith (Iaur) ‘(Old) Pukel-land', and its dark woods were little visited, nor considered as part of the realm of Gondor" Also, a sentence struck through by Tolkien, following "huge trees ... under which the boats of the adventurers crept silently up into the unknown land", reads: "It is said that some even on this first expedition came as far as the great fenlands before they returned, fearing to become bewildered in their mazes."

The discussion originally continued with the following etymological note, struck through at the same time as the deleted sentence:

So it was that the river was called in Sindarin Gwathlo (in Adunaic Agathurush) ‘the flood under shadow'. Gwath was a Sindarin word from a Common Eldarin base Wath or extended Wathar. It was much used; though the Quenya relative waþar, later vasar, was not in daily use.{17} The element -lo was also of Common Eldarin origin, derived from a base (s)log: in Common Eldarin sloga had been a word used for streams of a kind that were variable and liable to overflow their banks at seasons and cause floods when swollen by rains or melting snow; especially such as the Glanduin (described above) that had their sources in mountains and fell at first swiftly, but were halted in the lower lands and flats, *sloga became in Sindarin lhô; but was not in later times much used except in river or marsh names. The Quenya form would have been hloä.

This passage contains a note, also struck through, on the name Ringló, occurring after "Sindarin lhô", given in the discussion of that entry below.

The deleted passage was replaced with that given at UT:263 starting at "So the first name they gave to it was ‘River of Shadow', Gwath-hîr, Gwathir". It may be noted that the word lo in this passage was corrected on the typescript from lhô. A note on the name Ringló, omitted from the passage in Unfinished Tales, occurs after the words "Gwathlo, the shadowy river from the fens" For this note, and its development, see the entry for Ringló below. After this note, an etymological statement intervenes before the last full paragraph of the excerpt published in Unfinished Tales:

10

I.e., LR:267,365.

11

Altered on the typescript from glâna.

12

Comparing Q. lantalka ‘boundary post or mark’ (?= lan-talka) with S. glandagol ‘boundary mark" (?= glan-dagol) suggests the possibility of a common primitive element *takala ‘post, mark", realized as Q. *talka (with regular syncope of the second a and metathesis of the contact -kl- to -lk-), S. *tagol. Cf. TAK- ‘fix, make fast' (V:389).

13

The Telerin cognate glania- and the vowel mutation of a > et suggest that this form is perhaps to be corrected to gleinia-. However, Tolkien was exceedingly careful to correct errors in his citation of elements from his languages, so if gleina- here is an uncorrected error, it would be most unusual. Moreover, the phonological development of some of the Telerin and Sindarin ordinals originally ending in -ya discussed at the end of the appendix of this essay suggests that T. glania- and S. gleina- maybe plausible cognates: cf. T. nelya ‘third’, (archaic S.?) *neil(a), S. neil, nail.

14

I.e., LR:1040. Isen here is an editorial replacement for Gwathlo on the typescript since, as Christopher Tolkien notes, that river must be intended.

15

Cf. UT:416 s.v. Adorn.

16

Angast ‘Long Cape' appears to consist of an(n)- ‘long' and *cast ‘cape, headland', the latter evidently a derivative of KAS- ‘head' (V:362). Cf. English cape ‘promontory, headland', ultimately derived from Latin caput 'head'.

17

Older Q. waþar ‘veil' may also occur in the place-name Avathar, said in the later Quenta Silmarillion (of the late 19505) to mean ‘The Shadows" in "Ancient Quenya," referring to the land beneath the eastern feet of the Pelóri where "the shadows were deepest and thickest in the world" (X:284). Note, however, that in Quendi and Eldar (of 1959-60) Pengolodh says that Avathar was a name derived anciently from the language of the Valar, stating flatly: "This is not Elvish" (XI:404).