Gondor

noun. stone land

gond (“great stone, rock”) + (-n)dor (“land, dwelling”)

Gondor

'Stone-land'

topon. 'Stone-land'. A name given because of the abundance of gond, stone in Ered Nimrais, and the great use made of it by the Southern Dúnedain. Q Ondonóre. >> gond

gondor

place name. Stone-land

Southern kingdom of the Dúnedain (LotR/242), a combination of gond “stone” and dôr “land” (SA/gond, dôr).

Conceptual Development: This land was first mentioned as ᴹQ. Ondor in the 1930s in drafts of the tale of the Fall of Númenor (LR/33). While this name could be Noldorin, linguistic notes from the 1940s indicate it was Quenya (PE22/125). In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, it first appeared as ᴹQ. Ond (R/381), revised to Ondor (TI/146) and finally Gondor (TI/423).

Cognates

• Q. Ondonórë “Gondor, (lit.) Stone Land” ✧ PE17/028; RC/347

Derivations

• ✶Gondo-ndor- “Stone-land” ✧ PE17/028

Element in

• S. aran Gondor ar Arnor ar Hîr i Mbair Annui “king of Gondor and Arnor and Lord of the Westlands” ✧ AotM/062; SD/129
• S. Harondor “Southern Gondor” ✧ TI/310

Elements

Word	Gloss
gond	“stone, rock, stone, rock, [N.] stone (as a material), [G.] great stone”
dôr	“land, land, [N.] region where certain people live, [ᴱN.] country; [G.] people of the land”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶Gondo-ndor- > Gondor	[gondondor] > [gondndor] > [gondor]	✧ PE17/028

Variations

• Gon-ndor- ✧ PE17/028

Gondor

Gondor

In earlier times, it was called the South Kingdom, or Hyaralondie, Hyallondie and Turmen Hyallondiéva in Quenya, and Arthor na Challonnas in Sindarin from the Númenórean point of view: the elements londie and lonnas mean "harbour, landing". The name Gondor was likely adopted from the lesser people's terminology and translates from Sindarin as "Stone-land", from the words gond, "stone", and (n)dor, "land". The (generally not used) Quenya form of the name was Ondonóre. Gondor received its name because of the abundance of stone in the Ered Nimrais, and the usage of it in great stone cities, statues, and monuments, such as Minas Tirith and the Argonath. In Rohan, it was known as Stoningland (a modernization of Old English Stāning-(land)), and Ghân-buri-Ghân of the Drúedain also recognized their use of stone.