minas tirith

place name. Tower of Guard, Tower of Watch

The name of Minas Anor after the resurgence of Mordor, translated “Tower of Guard” (LotR/245) or “Tower of Watch” (PE17/31). The name was also used for a stronghold of the Noldor on Tol Sirion in Beleriand (S/120). This name is a combination of minas “tower” and tirith “watching, guarding” (SA/minas, tir; PE17/31).

Conceptual Development: As a tower of the Noldor, Tolkien first used the name N. Inglormindon, but revised it to N. Minnastirith (LR/146), translated “Watchtower” (LR/264). The form Minnas-tirith also appeared in The Etymologies (Ety/TIR). In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, Tolkien considered a variety of names for the capital of Gondor before settling on N. Minas Tirith (TI/115-6), which he initially translated as “Tower of Guard” (TI/127).

Cognates

• Roh. Mundburg “Guardian Fortress” ✧ LotRI/Minas Tirith; PMI/Minas Tirith; PMI/Mundburg

Element in

• S. a Pherhael ar am Meril suilad uin aran o Minas Tirith nelchaenen ned Echuir “to Samwise and Rose the King’s greeting from Minas Tirith, the thirty-first day of Stirring” ✧ SD/129; SD/129

Elements

Word	Gloss
minas	“tower, fort, city (with a citadel and central watch tower)”
tirith	“watching, guarding, watch, ward, guard”

Minas Tirith

noun. tower watch

minas (“tower, fort”), tirith (“watch, guard, vigilance”)

Minas Tirith

place name. 'Tower of Watch'

topon. 'Tower of Watch', the great 'home' of Finrod, a fort built on an island in Sirion and intended to command access into Beleriand from the North. >> Minas Morgul

ostirion

watchtower, fortress with a

(pl. ostiryn). The name of the city Minas Tirith may be interpreted as ”watchtower” or ”tower of guard”.