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In "The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor", J.R.R. Tolkien added new elements to the complex pseudo-history of Middle-earth. He invented whole histories for words which explained their ancientness for no reason other than to give plausible explanations for why certain landmarks in Gondor possessed the names they had been given. Arnach is said to be of pre-Numenorean origin in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings (LoTH), and that assumption is repeated in the "Rivers and Beacon-hills" essay. But a remarkable history is asserted for the name Arnen, and just as quickly a more intuitive explanation is offered as a correction. Arnen, it appears, was a name bestowed upon all the land which Isildur took as his demesne (Ithilien). But it eventually became only associated with the hills that were properly called Emyn Arnen, which the annoymous author of a Gondorion document called Ondonore Nomesseron Minaþurie (the þ symbol is called a "thorn" is associated with a sound similar to "th-" in "thank you"). The Ondonore Nomesseron Minaþurie essay is translated as "Enquiry into the Place-names of Gondor", and is attributed to the period during the reign of Meneldil, since "no events later than that reign are mentioned." The documented is only cited briefly (and may not exist, although the "Rivers and Beacon-hills" text -- as published in Unfinished Tales and Vinyar Tengwar No. 42 -- says nothing about whether Tolkien actually composed such a docunent). The name Arnen, this anonymous Gondorian scholar argues, must have been an erroneous Quenya-Sindarin composite made by the Numenoreans who explored and settled in the region (they were mariners, soldiers, and colonists -- presumably frontier folk from the fringes of Numenorean society). These people, although derived principally from the Faithful Numenoreans of western Numenor, where many Sindarin-speaking Beorians had settled, possessed little skill or knowledge of Sindarin and Quenya. Hence, the author deduces, Arnen probably originally meant "beside the water" (of Anduin), and Emyn Arnen simply meant "the hills rising in Arnen". Because the Faithful Numenoreans, in an apparent act of rebellion against the Adunaic-speaking Kings, bestowed Elvish names upon landmarks in northern Middle-earth, the new rulers (the House of Elendil) accepted the erroneous place-names that "had become current". That is, the rulers and loremasters accepted any place-names which were in widespread use upon the establishment of the kingdom of Gondor. The House of Elendil brought some order to the linguistic chaos which reigned in Middle-earth. In the region of Gondor, for example, the Numenoreans found "many layers of mixed peoples, and numerous islands of isolated folk either clinging to old dwellings, or in mountain-refuges from invaders." The "many layers of mixed peoples", unfortunately, are referred to in an unfinished note on the name Bel- which places Cirdan among the Noldor. Christopher speculates that his father realized the gaffe and decided the entire passage was unsalvageable. It is this note which offers the alternative history for the haven of Edhellond, here said to have been founded by Sindar of Doriath who resented the Noldor.

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