morgulduin

place name. Morgulduin

Name of the stream through Morgul Vale (LotR/697), a combination of morgul “sorcery” and duin “river”.

Conceptual Development: When it first appeared in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this stream was given two names: N. Duin Morghul with the elements in reverse order, or Ithilduin with the alternate element N. Ithil “Moon” (TI/312).

Elements

Word	Gloss
morgul	“black arts, sorcery, necromancy”
duin	“(large) river, (large) river; [N.] water”

Morgulduin

noun. black magic river

morn (“dark, black”) + (n-)gûl (“magic, necromancy”) + duin (“long and large river”)