Thangorodrim

noun. mountains of tyranny

thang (“compulsion, oppression”) + orod (“mountain”) + rim (class plural suffix)

Thangorodrim

place name. 'Mountains of Tyranny'

topon. 'Mountains of Tyranny'. >> thang

thangorodrim

place name. Mountains of Tyranny

The mountains around the stronghold of Morgoth, translated “Mountain(-chain) of Tyranny” (PE17/116, RC/230) or “Mountains of Oppression” (MR/298). This name is a combination of thang “oppression”, orod “mountain” and the class-plural suffix -rim (SA/thang, orod, rim).

Conceptual Development: The name ᴱN. Thangorodrim first appeared in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s (LB/8) and the name N. Thangorodrim was translated “Mountains of Duress” in The Etymologies from the 1930s, with the same derivation as given above (Ety/STAG).

Elements

Word	Gloss
thang	“oppression, pressure, oppression, pressure; [N.] compulsion, duress, need; [G.] crowd, crush, herd”
orod	“mountain”
-rim	“collective or group plural”

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

• ᴹ√OROT “height, mountain”
• √RŌ/ORO “up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount, up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount; [ᴹ√] high, [ᴱ√] steepness, rising” ✧ PE17/063

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

noun. range of mountain peaks

aegas

noun. mountain peak

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)

amon

steep-sided mount

(hill), pl. emyn.

ôr

mountain

(stem orod-), also with pl. eryd, ered. (Names:178). Archaically, the plural forms were öryd, öröd.