carn dûm

place name. ?Red Valley

Chief settlement of Angmar (LotR/146). The language and meaning of this name is unclear, but it is often suggested this it is Sindarin, a combination of caran “red” and a lenited form of tum “valley” (as suggested by David Salo, GS/371). The name may be debased Elvish, like the name of its kingdom Angmar, since a noun would not ordinarily be lenited in this position. The name also resembles an early (rejected) name N. Caron-dûn or Carndoom “Red Valley” found in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, and could be a re-emergence of that name (RS/419, 433).

Elements

Word	Gloss
caran	“red”
tum	“valley, vale, (deep) valley, vale; [ᴱN.] flat vale”