echoriath

place name. Encircling Mountains, (lit.) Encircling Fence

The mountains around Gondolin, translated “Encircling Mountains” (S/138). This name is a compound of echor “encircling” (SA/echor) and iath “fence”, hence its literal meaning is “Encircling Fence”.

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, these mountains were called G. Heborodin “Encircling Hills” (LT2/166). In the tale “The Wanderings of Húrin” from the late 1950s, Tolkien changed the name to Echoriad (meaning unclear), but Christopher Tolkien retained the earlier but more common form Echoriath in the published version of The Silmarillion (WJ/271, 302 note 27).