Misty mountains; hîth (“mist, fog”) + aeg (S aegas “mountain peak”) + lîr (“range, row”)
Sindarin
aeglir
noun. range of mountain peaks
aeglir
noun. line of peaks, line of peaks, [N.] range of mountain peaks; [ᴱN.] peak, mountain top
Element in
- S. Hithaeglir “Misty Mountains, (lit.) Line of Misty Peaks” ✧ RC/011
Elements
Word Gloss aeg “sharp, sharp, [N.] pointed, piercing” lîr “line, line, [N.] row”
hithaeglir
name. hithaeglir, the misty mountains
aegas
noun. mountain peak
orod
noun. mountain
orod
mountain
pl1. ered or eryd, pl2. #orodrim _n. _mountain. Tolkien notes that "eryd > ered by late change, but y unstressed remained in certain circumstances, e.g. before nasals" (PE17:33). >> dol, doll, Thangorodrim
orod
noun. mountain
The Sindarin word for “mountain”, a derivative of √RŌ/ORO “rise” (PE17/63). Its proper plural form is eryd; the plural form ered in The Lord of the Rings is a late [Gondorian only?] pronunciation (PE17/33).
Conceptual Development: The singular form of this noun was extremely stable. It first appeared as G. orod “mountain” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s beside variant ort (GL/63), and it reappeared as N. orod “mountain” in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√OROT “height, mountain” (Ety/ÓROT). It appeared in a great many names in the sixty year span that Tolkien worked on the Legendarium.
The development of its plural form is a bit more complex. Its Gnomish plural was orodin (GL/63), but by the Early Noldorin of the 1920s, its plural was eryd (MC/217). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, however, Tolkien gave its plural form as oroti > ereid > ered (Ety/ÓROT). This fits with normal Noldorin plural patterns of the 1930s: compare plurals N. eregdos → eregdes, N. golodh → geleidh, N. doron → deren, N. thoron → therein. Sindarin plural patterns consistently show o → y in final syllables, such as S. golodh → gelydh or S. Nogoth → Negyth.
This Noldorin plural for orod “mountain” made it into Lord of the Rings drafts, and Tolkien never corrected it before publication. This meant Tolkien was stuck with this remnant of Noldorin plural patterns, which was contradicted by other plural forms in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was forced to contrive an explanation for this phenomenon:
> S. Ered. This is used always in L.R. as plural of orod, mountain. But Emyn, pl. of Amon. Cf. also Eryn Forest (oron originally plural = trees?) in Eryn Lasgalen. Rodyn, pl. of Rodon = Vala. It seems necessary to assume that: eryd > ered by late change, but y unstressed remained in certain circumstances, e.g. before nasals. † Use Eryd in Silmarillion (PE17/33).
Despite his statement that y only remained before nasals, ered is the only Sindarin word that retains the Noldorin plural pattern: see the examples golydh and nogyth above, neither involving nasals. Also, despite J.R.R. Tolkien’s intent to use eryd in The Silmarillion, his son Christopher Tolkien retained the form ered in The Silmarillion as published, most likely to avoid confusing readers when they compared this plural to the plural forms in The Lord of the Rings.
Neo-Sindarin: Most knowledgeable Neo-Sindarin writers assume o → y in final syllables is the correct Sindarin plural pattern, and orod → ered is an aberration. I personally assume it is a late Gondorian-only (mis)pronunciation. See the discussion of Sindarin plural nouns for more information.
Cognates
- Q. orto “mount, mountain, hill, [ᴹQ.] mountain-top; [Q.] mount, mountain” ✧ PE17/064
Derivations
Element in
- S. alae! ered en Echoriath, ered e·mbar nín “[?behold!] the mountains of Echoriath, the mountains of my home!” ✧ UT/040; UT/040; UT/054
- S. Erebor “Lonely Mountain”
- S. Ered Engrin “Iron Mountains” ✧ SA/orod
- S. Ered Gorgoroth “Mountains of Terror”
- S. Ered Lindon “Mountains of Lindon” ✧ SA/orod
- S. Ered Lithui “Ashen Mountains” ✧ RC/765
- north S. Ered Lómin “Echoing Mountains” ✧ S/118
- S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains”
- S. Ered Mithrin “Grey Mountains”
- S. Ered Nimrais “White Mountains, (lit.) White-horns Mountains”
- S. Ered Wethrin “Mountains of Shadow, (lit.) Shadowy Mountains”
- S. Eryd-wethion “Mountains of the Region of Shadows”
- S. Eryd Echor “Encircling Mountains” ✧ RC/621
- S. Eryd Lammad “*Echoing Mountains” ✧ WJ/192
- S. Orchorod “High Mountain Circle”
- S. orodben “mountaineer, one living in the mountains”
- S. Orod-na-Thôn “Mount of the Pine Tree(s)” ✧ LotR/0469
- S. Orodreth “Mountaineer”
- S. Orodruin “Mountain of Fire” ✧ SA/orod
- S. Orthanc “Mount Fang, Forked Height”
- S. Thangorodrim “Mountains of Tyranny” ✧ SA/orod
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √OR/ORO > orod [oroto] > [orot] > [orod] ✧ PE17/063 √OR/ORO > eryd/ered [oroti] > [oruti] > [œryti] > [œryt] > [œryd] > [eryd] ✧ PE17/063 Variations
- Orod ✧ LotR/0469
aeglir
range of mountain peaks
(no distinct pl. form). See also
aeglir
range of mountain peaks
aeglir (no distinct pl. form). See also HORN.
aeglir
range of mountain peaks
aeglir (no distinct pl. form);
aegas
mountain peak
aegas (pl. aegais) (suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” oeg, pl. oeges).
aegas
mountain peak
aegas (pl. aegais) (suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” *oegas, pl. oeges).
aegas
noun. mountain peak
aegas
mountain peak
(pl. aegais) (suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” oeg, pl. oeges).
tilias
line of peaks
tilias (i dilias, o thilias), pl. tiliais (i thiliais), coll. pl. tiliassath.
orod
mountain
1) orod (pl. ered, eryd; coll. pl. #orodrim isolated from Thangorodrim), 2) ôr (stem orod-), also with pl. eryd, ered. (Names:178). Archaically, the plural forms were öryd, öröd.
orod
mountain
(pl. ered, eryd; coll. pl. #orodrim isolated from Thangorodrim)
ôr
mountain
(stem orod-), also with pl. eryd, ered. (Names:178). Archaically, the plural forms were öryd, öröd.
amon
steep-sided mount
(hill), pl. emyn.
orodrim
range of mountains
(itself a coll. pl. of orod ”mountain”)
A word for a mountain range, a compound of S. aeg “sharp” and S. lîr “line”, or more literally “line of (mountain) peaks”, most notably as an element in S. Hithaeglir “Misty Mountains, (lit.) Line of Misty Peaks” (Let/180; RC/11).
Conceptual Development: The earliest iteration of this word was ᴱN. aiglir “peak, mountain top” in Early Noldorin Word-lists from the 1920s, but there it was a singular rather than collective noun, an elaboration of ᴱN. aig “high, steep” (PE13/136, 158). In this period it had a distinct plural form eiglir as in ᴱN. Eiglir Engrin “Iron Mountains” (LB/33, 49). In The Etymologies of the 1930s it appeared as N. oeglir “range of mountain peaks” with essentially the same etymology as given above, except with the Noldorin word N. oeg “sharp” instead of later Sindarin word S. aeg. It appeared as aiglin or aeglin in some earlier versions of the name Hithaeglir (TMME/379; Let/180), but was corrected to aeglir in later versions of The Lord of the Rings.