Celos

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The Celos was a lesser river or stream that flowed out of the White Mountains into the Gondorian land of Lebennin, a little to the west of Minas Tirith. It was a tributary of the larger River Sirith.

Location

The smaller-scale map that accompanies The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales shows the Celos flowing into the Sirith from the east,[1] while the large-scale contour map of Gondor shows it flowing from the west.[2] A brief reference in Unfinished Tales suggests that the Celos was the next river eastward from the Gilrain, which would make the large-scale map correct.[3][note 1] Christopher Tolkien noted the error of the small-scale map in The Treason of Isengard; the correct location of the Celos is thus being the western tributary.[4]

Etymology

The Sindarin name Celos derives from the root KELU- ("flow out swiftly") + ending -sse, -ssa. The Quenya cognate is kelussë ("freshet, water falling out swiftly from a rocky spring").[5][6]

Notes

  1. The river's name on that map, incidentally, is spelled Kelos, but the pronunciation is the same in either case.

References