Sindarin 

Nen Hithoel

noun. mist-cool water

nen (“water”), hîth (“grey”) + oel (“cool”) [HKF] oel was reinterpreted by Tolkien from earlier “lake” when he decided that primitive ai yielded ae, not oe; #[His.] - “[hithoel] seems to show that words beginning with an h may resist the lenition”.

Sindarin [Tolkiendil] Group: Tolkiendil Compound Sindarin Names. Published by

nen hithoel

place name. Mist-cool Water

The lake above the falls of Rauros, translated “Mist-cool Water” in Tolkien’s “Unfinished Index” of The Lord of the Rings (RC/327-8). This name is a combination of nen “water”, hîth “mist” and oel “cool” (SA/nen, hîth).

Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, Tolkien first considered the names N. Kerin-muil and Nen-uinel (TI/364), only later settling on Nen Hithoel.

It may be that when Tolkien first conceived of this name, the final element was N. oel “lake”. Prior to the publication of The Lord of the Rings: a Reader’s Companion, this was a common theory for the meaning of this name. When Noldorin became Sindarin, the word N. oel became S. ael, as in S. Aelin-uial “Meres of Twilight”, at which point Tolkien may have then revised the etymology for Nen Hithoel as given above. Since Nen Hithoel was a comparatively late composition, however, it may be that meaning “Mist-cool Water” was always Tolkien’s intent.

Elements

WordGloss
nen“water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, [ᴱN.] stream”
hîth“mist”
oel“cool”
Sindarin [LotRI/Nen Hithoel; PMI/Nen Hithoel; RC/327; SA/hîth; SA/nen; TII/Nen-uinel] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Nen Hithoel

Nen Hithoel

Nen Hithoel is a Sindarin name, translated by Tolkien as "Mist-cool Water" in his unfinished index of the Lord of the Rings. The elements are nen = "water", hîth = "mist" and oel "cool" (not otherwise attested). Note that the (Noldorin) word oel appeared in the earlier Etymologies of the 1930s with the meaning "pool, lake", but this word had changed to (Sindarin) ael by the time that the Lord of the Rings was written, and therefore could not have been an element of the name Nen Hithoel. Compare, for example, Aelin-uial with its earlier form Oelin-uial.

Sindarin [Tolkien Gateway] Published by