Highlands near Nargothrond, described as the “Hills of the Hunters” in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s (SA/faroth, LB/214). This earlier description does not seem to be a proper translation, since the initial element of this name is clearly taur “forest”, followed by en “of the” and faroth. The last word is untranslated, but it probably has something to do with hunting, as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (SA/faroth).
Conceptual Development: In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, the first Elvish name for this region was N. Duil Rewinion (SM/225), later revised to N. Taur-na-Faroth (LR/262). A similar form Taur-na-Faras appeared in The Etymologies under the root ᴹ√SPAR “hunt, pursue”, where faras is glossed “hunting” (Ety/SPAR). This is the best evidence for the meaning of Faroth.
An element in the name S. Taur-en-Faroth (S/168), untranslated in Tolkien’s later writings, though this location was described as the Hills of the Hunters in the Lays of Beleriand of the 1920s (LB/61). In The Etymologies of the 1930s the name was given as N. Taur-na-Faras, where N. faras was a noun for “hunting” under the root ᴹ√SPAR “hunt, pursue” (Ety/SPAR). It seems likely that S. faroth also means “hunting”, as an abstract noun form of the verb [N.] fara- “to hunt”.
Conceptual Development: In the first map of The Silmarillion, the Elvish name for “The Hills of the Hunters” was N. Duil Rewinion (SM/225). The word N. rewinion “of the hunters” seems to be a genitive plural, perhaps connected to N. rhui(w) “hunt, hunting” from The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/ROY¹).