407 – River of Dreams

The river Celebrant, Silverload, was within the borders of the realm of Lorien, and the effective bounds of the kingdom of Gondor in the north, west of Anduin, was the river Limlight.

The whole of the grasslands between Silverload and Limlight, into which the woods of Lorien formerly extended further south, were known in Lorien as Parth Celebrant.

that is, the field or enclosed grassland of Silverload, and regarded as part of its realm, though not inhabited by its Elvish folk beyond the eaves of the woods.

In later days, Gondor built a bridge over the upper limelight and often occupied the narrow land between the lower limelight and Anduin as part of its eastern defences, since the great loops of the Anduin, where it came down swiftly past Lorien and entered low flatlands before its descent again into the chasm of the Imanmul, had many shallows and wide shoals over which a determined and well-equipped enemy could force a crossing by rafts or pontoons, especially in the two westward bends known as the north and south undeeps.

It was to this land that the name Parth Celebrant was applied in Gondor, hence its use in defining the ancient northern boundary.

In the time of the War of the Ring, when all the land north of the White Mountains save Anorien, as far as the Limlight, had become part of the Kingdom of Rohan, the name Parth, Field of, Celebrant, was only used of the great battle in which Aeol the Young destroyed the invaders of Gondor.

And at this point, Christopher briefly interjects.

In another essay, my father noted that whereas east and west the land of Lorien was bounded by Anduin and by the mountains, and he says nothing about any extension of the realm of Lorien across the Anduin, it had no clearly defined borders northward and southward.

And we return to Tolkien's words.

Of old, the Galadhrim had claimed to govern the woods as far as the falls in the Silverload, where Frodo was bathed.

Southward it had extended far beyond the Silverload into more open woodland of smaller trees that merged into Fangorn Forest, though the heart of the realm had always been in the angle between Silverload and Anduin, where Karas Galadhon stood.

There was no visible borders between Lorien and Fangorn, but neither the Ents nor the Galadrim ever passed them.

The legend reported that Fangorn himself had met the King of the Galadrim in ancient days, and Fangorn had said, I know mine, and you know yours.

Let neither side molest what is the other's.

But if an elf should wish to walk in my land for his pleasure, he will be welcome.

And if an Ent should be seen in your land, fear no evil.

Long years had passed, however, since Ent or Elf had set foot in the other land.

So we skipped reading the first paragraph, which is Christopher's introduction to Appendix C, and apparently this appendix is a fix to an error in Appendix A14.

That's the part about Gondor in The Lord of the Rings.

That's where we read about the summit of Gondor's power, which took place back around Third Age 1100, when the borders of Gondor are said to have extended northwards to Celebrant and the southern eaves of Mirkwood.

Now, Christopher says that the professor repeatedly said this was a mistake and that it should have read not to Calabrant, but to the field of Calabrant.

Aha.

Then he proceeds to provide what Tolkien wrote about this, sourcing it from late writing on the interrelations of the languages of Middle-earth.

another late philological essay surprise surprise is that it sounds almost like he's talking about of dwarves and men but i couldn't find it do we know what writing this is i wasn't

able to find it either and again this is this is exactly the sort of thing it could be quite frustrating as we've seen with unfinished tales that christopher had not yet really established his his means of of referencing these things he hadn't developed a