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The Tip of the Iceberg: New Information About Middle-Earth - Page 3

© Michael Martinez

Another name which merits special attention is "Gilrain", which is the name of a river in Gondor. Tolkien compares it to "Gilraen", the name of Aragorn's mother. "The meaning of Gilraen as a woman's name is not in doubt. It meant 'one adorned with a treasure set with small gems in its network,' such as the treasure of Arwen described in L.R. I 239." (This treasure is the "cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittering white" which Arwen wears to the feast held in Frodo's honor in Rivendell.) Tolkien suggests that Gilraen could have earned this name as a nickname, but "more likely, it was her true name, since it had become a name given to women of her people, the remnants of the Numenoreans of the North Kingdom of unmingled blood. The women of the Eldar were accustomed to wear such tressures; but among other peoples they were only used by women of high rank among the 'Rangers', descedants of Elros, as they claimed. Names such as Gilraen, and others of similar meaning, would thus be likely to become first names given to maid-children of the kindred of the 'Lords of the Dunedain'." The strong implication of this passage is that the Rangers were a subset of a larger people, and that they were all of noble blood, descended of Elros, and perhaps were the only Dunedain of pure blood left in Arnor. But whether that was Tolkien's intent or merely a rough note which he never reworded, we cannot say. As a side note, Tolkien reveals that the root for -raen in Gilraen, denoted a knitwork and that the adornment Arwen and other Elven-women -- as well as the noble women of Aragorn's people -- wore was woven with a single thread. The story of Amroth and Nimrodel is slightly elaborated, too. And we learn the full extent of the note which suggests that Edhellond may have been established by former Doriathrim who left Mithlond. It is abandoned in mid-sentence because, Christopher Tolkien guesses, his father realized that his assertion of Cirdan as a Noldo whom the Sindar wanted to get away from was entirely inconsistent with other texts. Hence, the legend of Edhellond's founding by former Doriathian Elves should be discarded. The haven must have been founded for other reasons, and perhaps the legend concerning the ships fleeing from the doomed Brithombar and Eglarest is the most authoritative after all. Nonetheless, the abandoned note does agree with another source published in The Silmarillion concerning where the Nandor may have settled in Eriador. That is, the note fragment says the Eldar of Lindon "found scattered settlements of the Nandor" on both sides of the Misty Mountains. The Silmarillion includes a passage in "Of the Sindar" where the Dwarves tell Thingol that "your ancient kindred that dwell [in the land east of the mountains] are flying from the plains to the hills." It would appear, therefore, that Melkor's creatures drove the Nandor east toward the Misty Mountains before Melkor himself returned to Middle-earth.

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