Places in Middle-earth
Naith of Lórien
Type: Forests, Fields, Plains
Region: Rhovanion/Misty Mtns
Meaning: spearhead, narrow wedge
Other Names
the Gore
Location: The wedge-shaped section of Lothlórien between the rivers Celebrant on the southwest and Anduin on the east; the narrow apex at the confluence of the two rivers is Egladil.
Description:
[At] length all the Company was gathered on the east bank of the Silverlode....
'Now, friends,' said Haldir, 'you have entered the Naith of Lórien or the Gore, as you would say, for it is the land that lies like a spear-head between the arms of Silverlode and Anduin the Great. We allow no strangers to spy out the secrets of the Naith. Few indeed are permitted even to set foot there.'
'As was agreed, I shall here blindfold the eyes of Gimli the Dwarf. The others may walk free for a while, until we come nearer to our dwellings, down in Egladil, in the Angle between the waters.'
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 6, Lothlórien
[Frodo] could smell the trees and the trodden grass. He could hear many different notes in the rustle of the leaves overhead, the river murmuring away on his right, and the thin clear voices of birds in the sky. He felt the sun upon his face and hands when they passed through an open glade.
As soon as he set foot upon the far bank of Silverlode a strange feeling had come upon him, and it deepened as he walked on into the Naith: it seemed to him that he had stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the Elder Days, and was now walking in a world that was no more. In Rivendell there was memory of ancient things; in Lórien the ancient things still lived on in the waking world. Evil had been seen and heard there, sorrow had been known; the Elves feared and distrusted the world outside: wolves were howling on the wood's borders: but on the land of Lórien no shadow lay.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 6, Lothlórien
Etymology
Quenya nehte, Sindarin naith was applied to any formation or projection tapering to a point: a spearhead, gore, wedge, narrow promontory (root nek 'narrow'); cf. the Naith of Lórien, the land at the angle of the Celebrant and Anduin, which at the actual junction of the rivers was narrower and more pointed than can be shown on a small-scale map. [Author's note.]
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Notes, Note 16
Contributors:
Lyllyn 25Aug03
Elena Tiriel 14Feb10
