Q: Where is the Red Hill of Cardolan?
ANSWER: Cardolan is usually translated as “Land of Red Hills” or “Red Hill Land” (as in the title for the previous question “Who ruled Cardolan, Land of Red Hills?”). The meaning of Cardolan has bothered fans for years.
In my essay “Razing Arnor: How Real Were the Dunadan Conspiracies?” I wrote:
Numerous possible meanings have been suggested for Cardolan. The three I favor (knowing literally nothing of these matters) are CAR + DOL + AN (red + head + great), which might mean “the great red top” (a possible reference to a hill, as Amon Sûl is called Weathertop); CARAK + DOL + LHANN, which might mean “the province of the red (head/top)”, possibly a reference to a hill, or a famous (red-haired) leader; and CAR + DO(ME) + LHANN, which might mean “House of the Twilight”, “Shire of the Twilight”. Recall that the Gwathuirim were so named (Shadowy Folk) because they lived along the Gwathlo, which name was derived from Gwathir, “river of shadow”.
The Sindarin word for “house” is cardh and the more I think about this, the more I favor any translation that uses that word as a root. The notion that Cardolan must mean “land of red hills” or “red hill land” is not supported by any textual reference to red hills. Christopher Tolkien did not provide a translation for Cardolan in The Silmarillion. I don’t know if there have been any etymological discussions of the name in the Elvish newsletters such as Parma Eldalamberon or Vinyar Tengwar. I cannot find references to any such discussions on the Web, but it’s possible they are such obscure points people simply don’t talk about them on the Internet.
It is the middle part of the name, I think, that causes the most confusion. People cannot seem to think of anything other than dôl comprising that part of the name. Dôl is translated as “hill, head” in all references, but there are other words that could be represented by a do transformation. I am just not a linguist and don’t know if any known or theoretical rules would allow that. In other words, one cannot simply plug a word into a position and then say, “Well, it transforms like this“. All of the transformations (such as th- to d-) conform to rules.
In his book A Gateway to Sindarin David Salo simply translates Cardolan as “country of red hills”. This is in a section discussing “unchangeable mediate suffixes”, where he includes Cardolan with Rohan under -an (itself a variant or derivation of -nd, -n(n)). The element do is suggested for the middle of a few words, such as Nel+do+reth, translated as “forest of beeches” (variant form Neldor+reth is noted in the sources) and Gondolin (“hidden rock”). Ancient words beginning with du- seem to transform to use do-, such as dolin (from dolen, “hidden, secret”).
There are also unattested transformations which might be derived by following the known rules. For example, there is a Quenya word carassë which means “a built fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks”. While one might be easily derailed by the question of why Quenya should need such a word, it is reasonable to ask if there isn’t a Sindarin equivalent for it. I am pretty sure such a word would begin with car-. Hence, Cardolan could (if my guess about the Sindarin cognate for carassë is correct) mean something like “fortress + hill + land”, “land of the fortified hills” or “hill-fort land”.
Such a translation makes better sense than “red hills” because there ARE references to fortifications on hills in Cardolan. Tyrn Gorthad (the Barrow-downs) contained the remnants of old towers and even a dike that the Hobbits had to cross in order to reach the East-West road after leaving Tom Bombadil’s house. I don’t believe anyone has made a convincing argument that Cardolan can ONLY mean “red hill land” — I think “red hill land” was simply the easiest and most obvious translation for most people and probably goes back to Robert Foster or some other early Tolkien researcher of the 1960s and 1970s.
So while it may seem cheeky for me to question the meaning of Cardolan, I’m not convinced by the repetitious stipulation that it must mean “red hill country” or “red hill lands” or anything at all relating to red hill(s) because there are no references to red hills in Eriador. The only real description we have of the region beyond Tyrn Gorthad (which is described as a land of green hills) is provided when Aragorn, Frodo, and Merry look out at Eriador from the summit of Weathertop:
Standing upon the rim of the ruined circle, they saw all round below them a wide prospect, for the most part of lands empty and featureless, except for patches of woodland away to the south, beyond which they caught here and there the glint of distant water. Beneath them on this southern side there ran like a ribbon the Old Road, coming out of the West and winding up and down, until it faded behind a ridge of dark land to the east. Nothing was moving on it. Following its line eastward with their eyes they saw the Mountains: the nearer foothills were brown and sombre; behind them stood taller shapes of grey, and behind those again were high white peaks glimmering among the clouds.
There will probably never be a wholly convincing answer to this question, unless someone comes up with a red hill or can explain a transformational rule that produces a name like Cardolan from words that are relevant to what (little) is known about the region.
See also …
- When Was Lond Daer Enedh Abandoned?
- Was Tharbad Ever an Independent City-state?
- What was the Capital of Cardolan?
- Who Was the Last Prince of Cardolan?
- What Is the History of Tharbad?
- Who Ruled Cardolan, Land of Red Hills?
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