Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [157]
9 Galadriel cannot have made use of the powers of Nenya until a much later time, after the loss of the Ruling Ring; but it must be admitted that the text does not at all suggest this (although she is said just above to have advised Celebrimbor that the Elven Rings should never be used).
10 The text was emended to read ‘the first White Council’. In the Tale of Years the formation of the White Council is given under the year 2463 of the Third Age; but it may be that the name of the Council of the Third Age deliberately echoed that of this Council held long before, the more especially as several of the chief members of the one had been members of the other.
11 Earlier in this narrative (p. 306) it is said that Gil-galad gave Narya, the Red Ring, to Círdan as soon as he himself received it from Celebrimbor, and this agrees with the statements in Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings and in Of the Rings of Power, that Círdan held it from the beginning. The statement here, at variance with the others, was added in the margin of the text.
12 On the Silvan Elves and their speech see Appendix A, p. 331.
13 See Appendix C, p. 337, on the boundaries of Lórien.
14 The origin of the name Dor-en-Ernil is nowhere given; its only other occurrence is on the large map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor in The Lord of the Rings. On that map it is placed on the other side of the mountains from Dol Amroth, but its occurrence in the present context suggests that Ernil was the Prince of Dol Amroth (which might be supposed in any case).
15 See Appendix B, p. 333, on the Sindarin princes of the Silvan Elves.
16 The explanation supposes that the first element in the name Amroth is the same Elvish word as Quenya amba ‘up’, found also in Sindarin amon, a hill or mountain with steep sides; while the second element is a derivative from a stem rath- meaning ‘climb’ (whence also the noun rath, which in the Númenórean Sindarin used in Gondor in the naming of places and persons was applied to all the longer roadways and streets of Minas Tirith, nearly all of which were on an incline: so Rath Dínen, the Silent Street, leading down from the Citadel to the Tombs of the Kings).
17 In the ‘Brief Recounting’ of the legend of Amroth and Nimrodel it is said that Amroth dwelt in the trees of Cerin Amroth ‘because of his love for Nimrodel’ (p. 311).
18 The place of the Elvish haven in Belfalas is marked with the name Edhellond (‘Elf-haven’, see the Appendix to The Silmarillion under edhel and londë) on the decorated map of Middle-earth by Pauline Baynes; but I have found no other occurrence of this name. See Appendix D, p. 339. Cf. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), p. 8: ‘In the Langstrand and Dol Amroth there were many traditions of the ancient Elvish dwellings, and of the haven at the mouth of the Morthond from which “westward ships” had sailed as far back as the fall of Eregion in the Second Age.’
19 This chimes with the passage in The Fellewship of the Ring II 8, where Galadriel, giving the green stone to Aragorn, said: ‘In this hour take the name that was foretold for you, Elessar, the Elfstone of the house of Elendil!’
20 The text here and again immediately below has Finrod, which I have changed to Finarfin to avoid confusion. Before the revised edition of The Lord of the Rings was published in 1966 my father changed Finrod to Finarfin, while his son Felagund, previously called Inglor Felagund, became Finrod Felagund. Two passages in the Appendices