The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor by J.R.R.Tolkien

Author:J.R.R.Tolkien [J.R.R.Tolkien]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

Eilenach and Eilenaer

This entry is given in the same note in Unfinished Tales, but in this case slightly reduced. In the original the passage begins:

Eilenach (better spelt Eilienach). Probably an alien name; not Sindarin, Númenórean , or Common Speech. In true Sindarin eilen could only be derived from *elyen, *alyen, and would normally be written eilien. This and Eilenaer (older name of Halifirien: see that below) are the only names of this group that are certainly pre-Númenórean. They are evidently related. Both were notable features.

The name and parenthetical note on Eilenaer entered here, as alterations to the typescript. Christopher Tolkien writes: “The name Eilenaer does not in fact occur in the account of Halifirien in this essay: my father intended to introduce it, but before he did so he rejected that account in its entirety, as will be seen.”

At the end of the description of Eilenach and Nardol as given in Unfinished Tales, where it is said that the fire on Nardol could be seen from Halifirien, Tolkien added a note:

The line of beacons from Nardol to Halifirien lay in a shallow curve bending a little southward, so that the three intervening beacons did not cut off the view.

There follow statements concerning Erelas and Calenhad, elements of which were used in the index to Unfinished Tales.

Erelas

Erelas was a small beacon, as also was Calenhad. These were not always lit; their lighting as in The Lord of the Rings was a signal of great urgency. Erelas is Sindarin in style, but has no suitable meaning in that language. It was a green hill without trees, so that neither er- ‘single’ nor las(s) ‘leaf seem applicable.

Calenhad

Calenhad was similar but rather larger and higher. Galen was the usual word in Sindarin for

‘green’ (its older sense was ‘bright’, Q. kalina). -had appears to be for sad (with usual mutation in combinations); if not misspelt this is from SAT ‘space, place, sc. a limited area naturally or artificially defined’ (also applied to recognized periods or divisions of time), ‘divide, mark off’, seen in S. sad ‘a limited area naturally or artificially defined, a place, spot’, etc. (also sant ‘a garden, field, yard, or other place in private ownership, whether enclosed or not’; s a id ‘private, separate, not common, excluded’; seidia- ‘set aside , appropriate to a special purpose or owner’); Q. satì- verb, with sense of S. seidia- (< satya-); [Q. adj.] satya [with same sense] as S. said; also [Q.] asta a division of the year, ‘month’ ( sati- was in Quenya applied to time as well as space).44 Calenhad would thus mean simply ‘green space’, applied to the flat turf-covered crown of the hill. But had may stand for S. -hadh (the maps do not use dh, but this is the only case where dh might be involved, except Caradhras which is omitted, and Enedhwaith which is misspelt [? ened].45 -hadh would then be for sadh (in isolated use sâdh) ‘sward, turf’ – base SAD ‘strip, flay, peel off’, etc.46

Halifirien

The essay ends

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