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were such dwellings numerous. But Caras Galadhon was itself a fortress, and
only a small part of the Galadhrim dwelt within its walls. Living in such
lofty houses was no doubt at first thought remarkable, and
Amroth was probably the first to do so. It was thus from his living in a high
talan that his name the only one that was later remembered in legend was
most probably derived.
A note to the words "Amroth was probably the first to do so" states:
Unless it was Nimrodel. Her motives were different. She loved the waters and
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the falls of Nimrodel from which she would not long be parted; but as times
darkened the stream was too near the north borders, and in a part where few of
the Galadhrim now dwelt. Maybe it was from her that Amroth took the idea of
living in a high flet
.
17
Returning to the legend of Amroth and Nimrodel given above, what was the
"haven in the south" where Amroth awaited for Nimrodel, and where (as he told
her) "many of his own people had come long ago" p.253)? Two passages in
The Lord of the Rings bear on this question. One is in
The Fellowship of the Ring
II 6, where Legolas, after singing the song of Amroth and Nimrodel, speaks of
"the Bay of Belfalas, whence the Elves of Lórien set sail. " The other is in
The Return of the King
V 9, where Legolas, looking on Price Imrahil of Dol Amroth, saw that he was
"one who had
Elven-blood in his veins, and said to him: "It is long since the people of
Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all
sailed from Amroth's haven west over water." To which Prince Imrahil replied:
"So it is said in the lore of my land."
Late and fragmentary notes go some way to explaining these references. Thus in
a discussion of linguistic and political interrelations in Middle-earth
(dating from 1969 or later) there is a passing reference to the fact that in
the days of the earlier settlements of Nmenor the shores of the Bay of
Belfalas were still mainly desolate "except for a haven and small settlement
of Elves at the south of the confluence of Morthoad and Ringló" (i.e. just
north of Dol Amroth).
This, according to the traditions of Dol Amroth, had been .established by
seafaring Sindar from the west havens of Beleriand who fled in three small
ships when the power of Morgoth overwhelmed the
Eldar and the Atani; but it was later increased by adventurers of the Silvan
Elves seeking for the sea who came down Anduin.
The Silvan Elves (it is remarked here) "were never wholly free of an unquiet
and a yearning for the Sea which at times drove some of them to wander from
their homes." To relate this story of the "three small ships" to the
traditions recorded in
The Silmarillion we would probably have to assume that they escaped from
Brithombar or Eglarest (the
Havens of the Falas on the west coast of Beleriand) when they were destroyed
in the years after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad
(
The Silmarillion p.196), but that whereas Crdan and Gil-galad made a refuge
on the Isle of Balar these three ships'
companies sailed far further south down the coasts, to Belfalas.
But a quite different account, making the establishment of the Elvish haven
later, is given in an unfinished scrap of the origin of the name
Belfalas
. It is said here that while the element
Bel-
, is certainly derived from a pre-
Nmenórean name, its source was in fact Sindarin. The note peters out before
any further information is given about
Bel-
, but the reason given for its Sindarin origin is that "there was one small
but important element in Gondor of quite exceptional kind: an Eldarin
settlement." After the breaking of Thangorodrim the Elves of Beleriand, if
they did not take ship over the Great Sea or remain in Lindon, wandered east
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over the Blue Mountains into Eriador; but there appears nonetheless to have
been a group of Sindar who in the beginning of the Second Age went south. They
were a remnant of the people of Doriath who harboured still their grudge
against the Noldor; and having remained a while at the Grey Havens, where they
teamed the craft of shipbuilding, "they went in the course of years seeking a
place for lives of their own, and at last they settled at the mouth of the
Morthond. There was already a primitive harbour there of fisherfolk, but these
in fear of the Eldar fled into the mountains."
18
In a note written in December 1972 or later, and among the last writings of my
father's on the subject of Middle-
earth, there is a discussion of the Elvish strain in Men, as to its being
observable in the beardlessness of those who were so descended (it was a
characteristic of all Elves to be beardless); and it is here noted in
connection with the princely house of Dol Amroth that "this line had a special
Elvish strain, according to its own legends" (with a reference to the speeches
between Legolas and Imrahil in
The Return of the King
V 9, cited above).
As Legolas' mention of Nimrodel shows, there was ancient Elvish port near Dol
Amroth, and a small settlement of Silvan Elves there from Lórien. The legend
of the prince's line was that one of the earliest fathers had wedded an
Elf-maiden: in some versions it was indeed (evidently improbably) said to have
been Nimrodel herself. In other tales, and more probably, it was one of
Nimrodel's companions who was lost in the upper mountain glens.
This latter version of the legend appears in more detailed form in a note
appended to an unpublished genealogy of the line of Dol Amroth from Angelimar,
the twentieth prince, father of Adrahil, father of Imrahil, prince of Dol
Amroth at the time of the War of the Ring:
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