Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
Given the Neldoreth simply means "Beechwood," it could easily have been used twice at different times by different populations without reference to one another. Vide the very common placenames Blackwater, Beaverdam etc.
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Entirely possible! My theory that it isn't is based on two (maybe three) points:
1. There's no text placing a Sindarin-speaking population in that area. Gondor exerted at least theoretical authority up to the Sea of Rhun at one point, but I don't think anything hints that they encircled the lake. Note that other features in the area - the River Running, Lonely Mountain, Lake Town, Mirkwood - may
have Sindarin names, but they are
known by their Common Speech names. There's no evidence of Westron equivalents for the regions around the Sea of Rhun.
2. Neldoreth isn't the only Beleriandic name reused around the Sea of Rhun: there's also Dorwinion. One instance may be coincidence, but two starts to look like a conspiracy.
3. There's an actual canonical statement that the Teleri stopped for a while on the shores of the Sea of Rhun. Given their habit of splitting off at random times, a splinter population is entirely plausible - and all the
other known Silvan populations after the First Age wound up with Beleriandic Sindar ruling them.
hS