Caras Galadhon
Caras Galadhon | |
---|---|
City | |
File:Peter Jackson's Caras Galadhon.jpg | |
General Information | |
Other names | City of the Trees |
Location | The Naith |
Type | City |
Regions | Lothlórien |
Inhabitants | The Galadhrim, including Celeborn and Galadriel |
Gallery | Images of Caras Galadhon |
Caras Galadhon (pronounced [ˈkaras ˈɡalaðon]) the city and fortress of the Galadhrim of Lothlórien.[1]
Overview
Caras Galadhon was in the Naith of Lórien, in the angle between the rivers Celebrant and Anduin known as Egladil.[1]
The city was located on a green hill surrounded by a fosse and a wall whose gates lay to the south-west. The inhabitants dwelled in large flets in the trees, reached by white ladders. On the top of the hill, in the greatest of trees, were the house of Celeborn and Galadriel.[1] In the same tree were the highest point in the land.[2]
History
The city was founded in the second millennium of the Third Age due to the growing threat of Dol Guldur.[2]
During the events of the War of the Ring, the Fellowship of the Ring was brought through Lórien to Caras Galadhon, and there met the lords of the Galadhrim. They stayed in the city for a month, recovering from their journey through Moria.
In the Fourth Age, after Galadriel had gone into the West, Caras Galadhon was ruled by a lonely Celeborn as capital of a Lórien which now spanned both sides of the river Anduin. Later Celeborn left for Valinor as well, and Caras Galadhon became an empty place.
Etymology
Caras Galadhon means "moated fortress of the trees". Although the word caras is also Sindarin, the name is said to be Silvan Elvish.[2]
The genitive plural form galadhon "of trees" shows a case ending not existing in Sindarin but known from Quenya. Tolkien's earliest version of Sindarin, called Goldogrin, also possessed this ending.
In the first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, Caras Galadhon was misspelled "Caras Galadon".