limhír

place name. Clear/Sparkling River

A name Tolkien considered as a replacement for the river Celon (WJ/320), appearing with both short i and long î in the final syllable and translated “clear/sparkling river” (WJ/337). He indicated it was a repetition of a name appearing in The Lord of the Rings, which Christopher Tolkien suggested might be a reference to the river Limlight. Indeed, Tolkien indicated in notes from the late 1960s that Límhir (earlier †Limphîr) was the Sindarin name for “Limlight”, but the English name was an adaptation rather than a translation. Its elements were limp “clear, sparkling; (bright/clear/gleaming) liquid” the soft mutation of sîr “river” (NM/284). Elsewhere Tolkien gave the other Sindarin forms for “Limlight”, such as S. Limlint.

Derivations

• S. Limphîr “Limliht” ✧ NM/284

Elements

Word	Gloss
limp	“clear, sparkling; (bright/clear/gleaming) liquid”
sîr	“river, stream”

Variations

• Limhîr ✧ WJ/337
• Limhir ✧ WJI/Limhir