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Places in Middle-earth

Nardol

Type: Mountains, Hills, Promontories

Region: Gondor

Meaning: Fire-hilltop or fiery head

Location: A foothill of the White Mountains near the western outskirts of the Drúadan Forest in Anórien, holding the third of the seven beacons of Gondor.

Description:

Map of Anórien.
Map of Anórien, showing Nardol on the western edge of the Drúadan Forest.
'The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid.... See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.'

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 1, Minas Tirith

Eilenach... could be seen far to the West...; but it was not suitable for a large beacon-fire, there being little space on its sharp summit. Hence the name Nardol "Fire-hilltop" of the next beacon westward; it was on the end of a high ridge, originally part of the Drúadan Forest, but long deprived of trees by masons and quarriers who came up the Stonewain Valley. Nardol was manned by a guard, who also protected the quarries; it was well-stored with fuel and at need a great blaze could be lit, visible on a clear night even as far as the last beacon (Halifirien) some hundred and twenty miles to the westward.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: Notes, Note 51

And so King Théoden departed from his own realm, and mile by mile the long road wound away, and the beacon hills marched past: Calenhad, Min-Rimmon, Erelas, Nardol. But their fires were quenched.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 3, The Muster of Rohan

[It] had taken time for the Riders... to find paths... down into the hidden Stonewain Valley. It was late in the afternoon when the leaders came to wide grey thickets stretching beyond the eastward side of Amon Dîn, and masking a great gap in the line of hills that from Nardol to Dîn ran east and west. Through the gap the forgotten wain-road long ago had run down, back into the main horse-way from the City through Anórien....

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 5, The Ride of the Rohirrim


Etymology
nár  'fire' in Narsil, Narya; present also in the original forms of Aegnor (Aikanáro 'Sharp Flame' or 'Fell Fire') and Fëanor (Feanáro 'Spirit of Fire'). The Sindarin form was naur, as in Sammath Naur, the Chambers of Fire in Orodruin. Derived from the same ancient root (a)nar was the name of the Sun, Quenya Anar (also in Anárion), Sindarin Anor (cf. Minas Anor, Anórien).

The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names

dol 'head' in Lórindol; often applied to hills and mountains, as in Dol Guldur, Dolmed, Mindolluin (also Nardol, one of the beacon-hills of Gondor, and Fanuidhol, one of the Mountains of Moria).

Ibid.

Contributors:
Lyllyn 13Feb04
Elena Tiriel 10Aug10

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