The Encyclopedia of Arda - Ithil (original) (raw)
The Sindarin name for the Moon
The common name for the Moon in the Sindarin tongue, closely related to the Quenya name Isil, and ultimately deriving from a root word meaning 'shining with white or silver light'.
Isildur, the elder son of Elendil, was named for the Moon, and when he settled the lands east of Anduin they acquired names based on Sindarin Ithil. Hence Gondor's possessions east of Anduin were named Ithilien ('Land of the Moon'), and the shining fortress city of Isildur on the shoulders of Ephel Dúath was Minas Ithil ('Tower of the Moon'). Long after Isildur's time, that city was later captured by the Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul, but even at the end of the Third Age it still shone with a pale light mirroring that of its original namesake, the Moon.
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- Updated 20 March 2015
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