Babes in the Wood

[doug*platypus]

Starting on the thread, What Does Elrond Mean?, a discussion popped up about the meaning of Elrond's name. I got the following from Letters of Tolkien.

The El- part is star (of course), from the same root that produced Elbereth or Eldar. -rond is used for a cave, such as Aglarond or Nargothrond. -ros is the spray from a waterfall (can't think of any other examples - Henneth Annûn is something to do with curtains). After Elrond and Elros were abandoned in the woods by Maedhros and Maglor, the twins were found in a cave with a waterfall coming down the front of it. Elros was playing in the fall, and Elrond was in the cave behind.

Although Tolkien later changed the meaning of Elrond to "vault of the stars", the similarity to Nargothrond and Aglarond stands. Regardless, anyway, Inderjit asked,

Why did the Sons of Fëanor abandon them in the woods?

I just assumed it was because they were all around bad guys, although they were clearly starting to reform. Eluréd and Elurín, the sons of Dior, starved to death after being abandoned by the Fëanorians. Elros and Elrond seem to have been left in a slightly better position, and so maybe in the future the Sons of Fëanor would be fully rehabilitated and perhaps not even abduct children in the first place!

I'm a little unclear on what the final version of the story was. Letters of Tolkien covers a pretty big timeframe. Also, being abandoned in the woods is a theme that occurs in old mythologies as well. Can anyone shed some light on a possible significance?