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Nonetheless, despite the clear indication that Tolkien abandoned the etymological note on Bel-, it seems clear that he was attempting to remain faithful to the information he had provided in the LoTR appendices. It also appears that he was drawing upon two historical influences as models for early Gondor. One of these models had to be post-Roman, pre-medieval Britain (circa mid-5th century). It was during this time when the entire area was in upheaval, and languages migrated freely with peoples. Romano-Celts, believed by some scholars even in Tolkien's lifetime to have been only partially indoctrinated into Roman culture after 400 years, possessed the lowlands and dwelt along the coasts of Britain proper. More primitive, or less Romanized, Celts dwelt in Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland. And, of course, there were still Celts in Ireland whose contacts with Rome had been few (at least, in Tolkien's lifetime, there was darned little evidence of Roman intrusion into Ireland). Into these various groups of Celts (some of whom had arrived only just before the Romans, some of whom had absorbed or wiped out yet older peoples) came the German mercenaries from Saxony and Denmark, the followers of Hengist and Horsa. Latin was thus mingling freely with Celtic and Germanic dialects, and eventually Latin was shunted aside by the Germanic invaders, although it survived in place-names (such as London from Londinium, Colechester, etc.) which the Germans adopted. The Germans accepted the place-names which were in current use for regions and towns, but they gave their own names to their towns, fortresses, kingdoms, and landmarks. A parallel development, of which Tolkien was keenly aware, occured in North America in the 17th and 18th centuries. As English colonists spread along the coast of North America, they mingled with Native American, Spanish, French, and Dutch populations. The English settlers brought with them the foundations of English language and culture, but they were often little more than outcasts and rebels fleeing oppression in the homeland, particularly religious oppression. The Puritans who settled New England in some ways must have resembled Numenorean Faithful, who eschewed less doctrinaire beliefs adopted by their kings. North America, like England before it, and like Gondor, is riddled with place-names given in numerous languages. The oldest European settlement on the east coast, for example, is St. Augustine, founded by the French, stolen by the Spanish, and ultimately ceded to the United States as a part of Florida. But there are place-names

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