Now follow some place names containing the colour ’red’, best described by Gandalf:
’Well, anyone who did look at the map,’ said Gandalf, ’would see that away there stands Taragaer or Ruddyhorn, – that mountain with the red side. The Misty Mountains divide there and between their arms lies the land of Caron-dûn the Red Valley. Our way lies there: over the Red Pass of Cris-caron, under Taragaer’s side, and into Caron-dûn and down the River Red-way – to the Great River, and . . .’ He stopped. (RS:419)
§ Crandir ’Redway’ (RS:432)
§ Rathgarn >> Rathcarn (RS:433)
§ Caradras ’Redway’ (RS:433,438)
§ {Nenning} (RS:433)
§ Narosîr ’Redway’ (RS:433) – see 1.6
§ Caradras dilthen ’the Little Redway’ (RS:462)
§ Celebrin (RS:434)
The river ’Redway’ (a tributary of Beleghir >> Anduin) later becomes Ruinnel (see 2.7) and eventually ’Silverlode’ or Celebrant in The Lord of the Rings. Caradras dilthen is a narrow watercourse in a deep channel on the western side of the Misty Mountains, before the Moria Gate. It was dry, and there was now no water among [the] reddish stones in the bed (RS:445). It appears later as Sirannon, the ’Gate-stream’ (ibid., LotRII ch.4).
In Crandir, the first element is obviously the result of a syncopation in the stem KARÁN-, cf. N. crann ’ruddy (of face)’ (LR:362). The second element may be lenited *tîr, from the stem TER-, TERES- ’pierce’, whence e.g. N trī ’through’ (VT46:18), prefix tre-, tri. This stem may have produced the word for a way or path (see also Terch Ungol below (3.20)). It is notable that an Early Noldorin poem given in MC:217 begins with dir avosaith, which, judging by the translation, should mean ’through gloomy places’, so that one would have dir *’through’ < *DIR, *DER (?).
The next form Rathcarn contains rath ’course, river-bed’ (RAT-) and #carn, now a syncopation of the second vowel in KARÁN-, similar to Q. karne; lenited in Rathgarn.
Caradras contains N. caran ’red, blush, red [?part] of face’ (VT45:19) or ’red, ruddy’ (PE17:36) without syncopation. This name was later assigned to the mountain ’Redhorn’, see RAS- in The Etymologies and VT45:10, but before r(h)as must have meant ’way’ (in this context see also Ered Nimrath below (3.14)). The combination -dr- probably stands for -ðr-, compare Maidhros (anglicized Maidros) (MAD-). At least in The Lord of the Rings the mountain’s name is Caradhras (PE17:36).
Nenning is difficult to interpret – it also appears later as a river in The Silmarillion, where it is said to contain nen ’water’, but the latter element is obscure – maybe related to ING- ’first, foremost’?
The adjective dilthen ’little’ looks similar to N tithen ’little, tiny’ (TIT-) and is thus perhaps lenited from *tilthen, being derived from a parallel or changed root *TILIT-.
Finally, Celebrin (substituted in red ink) is plainly the adjective ’of silver’ (KYELEP-, TELEP-). However, this was changed to celebren in The Etymologies with a-affection i > e in the final syllable.