_ n. _built fort or dwelling surrounded by bulkwarks. Q. carasse. >> Caras Galadon
Sindarin
caras
noun. city, fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks, circular earthwall with dike, city, [N.] city (built above ground); [S.] (orig.) fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks, circular earthwall with dike
caras
noun. built fort or dwelling surrounded by bulkwarks
caras
noun. circular earthwall with dike
caras
noun. city (built above ground)
caras galadhon
place name. City of the Trees
Name of the city of Lórien (LotR/355), translated “City of the Trees” (LotR/353). This name is an adaptation of Nan. Caras Galadon of the same meaning (LotR/1127), replacing Nan. galad “tree” with S. galadh. In pure Sindarin, it would S. Caras i-Ngelaidh (PE17/60). Its initial element is S. (or Nan.) caras “moated fort” and its final element has the Nandorin genitive plural suffix -on.
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s and in the 1st edition of The Lord of the Rings, this name appeared as N. Caras Galadon (TI/245, RC/311). In between the 1st and 2nd editions, Tolkien became disatisified with this name, which was clearly different from S. galadh “tree”. In his Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien considered changing the meaning of this name so that it, like Galadriel had nothing to do with trees (PE17/84). Ultimately, though, he decided that the form Caras Galadon was Nandorin (PE17/60), and changed the name to its Sindarized form in the 2nd edition of The Lord of the Rings.
caras i-ngelaidh
place name. City of the Trees
The pure Sindarin form of Caras Galadhon, appearing in notes from the mid-1960s (PE17/60). In these notes, it appears as Caras (i)Ngelelaið, but Christopher Gilson suggested the final word was probably a slip for Ngelaið, which would be the ordinary nasal mutation of the plural of galadh “tree”. Its initial element is S. (or Nan.) caras, and the i is the elided form of the plural definite article in, whose elision causes the nasal mutation of the final word.
Caras (i)Ngelelaidh
pure S
{ð} topon. pure S. form of Caras Galadon (used by the Silvan Elves of Lórien). >> Caras Galadon
Caras Galadhon
noun. fortress of the trees
caras (#Nan. “moated fortress”), galadh (“tree”) + #on (#could be Nan. genitive suffix [HKF])
Caras Galadon
place name. not actually related to trees
caras
caras
An element in the name Caras Galadhon “City of the Trees” (LotR/353, 355), adapted from Silvan Elvish: Caras Galadon (PE17/60). Tolkien said the proper meaning of this word was “a built fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks” (PE17/84) or a “circular earthwall with dike” (RC/311), derived from the root √CAR “make, build” (PE17/84). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. caras was glossed “a city (built above ground)” under the root ᴹ√KAR “make, do” (Ety/KAR).
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would use this word principally in the sense “city”, and would assume its meaning “earthwall, bulwark” was archaic.