J.R.R. Tolkien describes in his unfinished index (for The Lord of the Rings) the Brown Lands as a 'translation' of Berennyn (containing Sindarin baran 'brown, yellow-brown') "a devastated region, east of Anduin, between Lórien and the Emyn Muil".
Sindarin
berennyr
place name. Brown Lands
Elements
Word Gloss baran “brown, golden-brown, brown, golden-brown; [N.] swart, dark brown” dôr “land, land, [N.] region where certain people live, [ᴱN.] country; [G.] people of the land” Variations
- Berennyn ✧ RC/343
Berennyn
Brown Lands
Sindarin name of the “Brown Lands”, appearing in Tolkien’s “Unfinished Index” of The Lord of the Rings (RC/343). The initial element is clearly the plural of baran “brown”, and the second element is probably a mutated plural of dôr “land”. The form was (incorrectly) published as Berennyn in RC, with a correction appearing in Addenda and Corrigenda to The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion.