The portion given in Unfinished Tales begins here (p. 242). The final sentence of the first extract from the discussion of Gilrain in UT:243 omits the ending; the whole sentence reads: "This legend [of Nimrodel] was well-known in the Dor-en-Ernil (Land of the Prince) and no doubt the name [Gilrain] was given in memory of it, or rendered in Elvish form from an older name of the same meaning" Also omitted was the paragraph following this sentence, which reads: "The flight of Nimrodel was dated by the chronologists at Third Age 1981. An error in Appendix B appears at this point. The correct entry read (still in 1963): "The Dwarves flee from Moria. Many of the Silvan Elves of Lorien flee south. Amroth and Nimrodel are lost.’ In subsequent editions or reprints ‘flee from Moria .. ' to ‘Silvan Elves has been for reasons unknown omitted." The correct reading of this entry has been restored in the latest edition (LR:1061). In addition, the first sentence of the following paragraph, introducing the passage with which the extract given in Unfinished Tales resumes (p. 243), reads: "At that time Amroth was, in the legend, named as King of Lorien. How this fits with the rule of Galadriel and Celeborn will be made clear in a precis of the history of Galadriel and Celeborn." Finally, the last sentence of the last paragraph given on UT:244 was omitted; it reads: "Communication was maintained constantly with Lorien."
A typescript note appended after the first sentence on UT:245, against the phrase "the sorrows of Lorien, which was left now without a ruler", and subsequently struck through by Tolkien, reads: "Amroth had never taken a wife. For long years he had loved Nimrodel, but had sought her love in vain. She was of Silvan race and did not love the Incomers, who (she said) brought wars and destroyed the peace of old. She would speak only the Silvan Tongue, even after it had fallen into disuse among most of the people. But when the terror came out of Moria she fled away distraught, and Amroth followed her. He found her near the eaves of Fangorn (which in those days drew much nearer to Lorien). She dared not enter that wood, for the trees (she said) menaced her, and some moved to bar her way. There they had long converse; and in the end they plighted their troth, for Amroth vowed that for her sake he would leave his people even in their time of need and with her seek for a refuge of peace. ‘But there is no such". The deleted note ends here, in mid-sentence. As Christopher Tolkien notes (UT:242), this passage is the germ of the version of the legend of Amroth and Nimrodel given in UT:240-42.
The discussion of Gilrain concludes (following the first paragraph given on UT:245) with this note:
The river Gilrain if related to the legend of Nimrodel must contain an element derived from C.E. RAN ‘wander, stray, meander'. Cf. Q. ranya 'erratic wandering', S. rein, rain. Cf. S. randír ‘wanderer' in Mithrandir, Q Rána name of the spirit (Máya) that was said to abide in the Moon as its guardian.
Uncertain, but probably from KIR ‘cut'. It rose in Lamedon and flowed westward for some way in a deep rocky channel.
For the element -ló see discussion of Gwathló above. But there is no record of any swamps or marsh in its course. It was a swift (and cold) river, as the element ring- implies.{30} It drew its first waters from a high snowfield that fed an icy tarn in the mountains. If this at seasons of snowmelting spread into a shallow lake, it would account for the name, another of the many that refer to a river's source.
Cf. the entry Ringló in the index to Unfinished Tales. This explanation of the name Ringló only arose in the course of the writing of this essay; for in the discussion of Gwathló that Tolkien struck out he had originally added this note:
It [the element ló] appears also in the name Ringló, the fourth of the Rivers of Condor. It may be translated Chillflood. Coming down cold from the snows of the White Mountains in swift course, after its meeting with the Ciril and later with the Morthond it formed considerable marshes before it reached the sea, though these were very small compared with the fens of the Swanfleet (Nîn-in-Eilph) about Tharbad.
In the revised discussion of Gwathlo (UT:263) this note was replaced by the following:
A similar name is found in Ringló, the fourth of the rivers of Gondor. Named as several other rivers, such as Mitheithel and Morthond (black-root)) after its source Ringnen 'chill-water’, it was later called Ringló, since it formed a fenland about its confluence with the Morthond, though this was very small compared with the Great Fen (Lô Dhaer) of the Gwathló.
Tolkien then struck out the latter part of this note (from "since it formed a fenland" through the end), replacing it with a direction to see the final explanation of Ringló given above, in which the element lo is not derived from fenlands near the coast ("there is no record of any swamps or marsh in its course") but from the lake that formed at the river's source "at seasons of snowmelting" in the mountains.
Similarly the Morthond ‘Black-root', which rose in a dark valley in the mountains due south of Edoras, called Mornan,{31} not only because of the shadow of the two high mountains between which it lay, but because through it passed the road from the Gate of the Dead Men, and living men did not go there.
There were no other rivers in this region, "further Gondor", until one came to the Levnui, the longest and widest of the Five. This was held to be the boundary of Gondor in this direction; for beyond it lay the promontory of Angast and the wilderness of ‘Old Púkel-land' (Drúwaith Iaur) which the Númenóreans had never attempted to occupy with permanent settlements, though they maintained a Coast-guard force and beacons at the end of Cape Angast.
Levnui is said to mean ‘fifth' (after Erui, Sirith, Semi, Morthond), but its form offers difficulties. (It is spelt Lefnui on the Map; and that is preferable. For though in the Appendices f is said to have the sound of English f except when standing at the end of a word,{32} voiceless f does not in fact occur medially before consonants (in uncompounded words or names) in Sindarin; while v is avoided before consonants in English).{33} The difficulty is only apparent.
Tolkien then immediately embarks on a lengthy and elaborate discussion of the Eldarin numerals, which has been removed to an appendix below.
Following this discussion, Tolkien (continuing westward on the map from Levnui) reintroduced the name Adorn, and repeated the substance of his earlier remarks: "This river, flowing from the West of Ered Nimrais into the River Isen, is fitted in style to Sindarin, but has no meaning in that language, and probably is derived from one of the languages spoken in this region before the occupation of Gondor by Númenóreans, which began long before the Downfall." He then continued:
Several other names in Gondor are apparently of similar origin. The element Bel- in Belfalas has no suitable meaning in Sindarin. Falas (Q. falasse) meant ‘shore'—especially one exposed to great waves and breakers (cf. Q. falma ‘a wave-crest, wave). It is possible that Eel had a similar sense in an alien tongue, and Bel-falas is an example of the type of place-name, not uncommon when a region is occupied by a new people, in which two elements of much the same topographical meaning are joined: the first being in the older and the second in the incoming language.{34} Probably because the first was taken by the Incomers as a particular name. However, in Gondor the shore-land from the mouth of Anduin to Dol Amroth was called Belfalas, but actually usually referred to as i·Falas ‘the surf-beach' (or sometimes as Then-falas ‘short beach',{35} in contrast to An-falas ‘long beach', between the mouths of Morthond and Levnui). But the great bay between Umbar and Angast (the Long Cape, beyond Levnui) was called the Bay of Belfalas (Côf Belfalas) or simply of Bel (Côf gwaeren Bêl ‘the windy Bay of Bêl').{36} So that it is more probable that Bêl was the name or part of the name of the region afterward usually called Dor-en-Ernil ‘land of the Prince': it was perhaps the most important part of Gondor before the Númenórean settlement.
33
In other words, the name is pronounced
34
This not uncommon phenomenon of place names is exemplified further in
35
With
36