Dol Amroth...a history

[Parador~J]

“.... Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout. And from the walls an answering shout went up; for foremost on the field rode the swan-knights of Dol Amroth with their Prince and his blue banner at their head.. 'Amroth for Gondor!' they cried. 'Amroth to Faramir!'” - The Return of the King


Dol Amroth is the chief city and port in the fiefdom of Belfalas in southern Gondor.

The name, Dol Amroth, means "Hill of Amroth," referring to the high promontory on which the city was built and to the legend of the Elf-lord Amroth who was lost off the coast in the Bay of Belfalas. Dol Amroth was located on the coast of the Bay of Belfalas on a high promontory overlooking the inlet called Cobas Haven. The Blackroot River flowed into the inlet north of Dol Amroth, and the Elf-haven of Edhellond was located near the mouth of the river.

Sea-walls protected Dol Amroth from the waves in the windy bay, and within the city were the tall Sea-ward tower - Tirith Aear - and the castle of the Princes of Dol Amroth, who ruled Belfalas.

The emblem of Dol Amroth was a silver swan-prowed ship on a blue background, representing the maritime tradition of the city. Dol Amroth was also noted for having the most skilled harpists in the land; they were invited to play at the coronation of Aragorn, King Elessar, on May 1, 3019.

Many of the people of Dol Amroth were of Numenorean descent; they were tall with dark hair and grey eyes and could speak Elvish. There are two different accounts of the origin of Dol Amroth. According to one story, the first Prince of Dol Amroth was one of the Faithful who left Numenor before it was destroyed and settled in Belfalas. It was said that Elendil granted him the title of Prince after Gondor was founded in 3320 of the Second Age.

According to another story, the first Lord of Dol Amroth was Galador, who lived from 2004 to 2129 of the Third Age. He was the son of a Numenorean named Imrazor and an Elf-maiden named Mithrellas - one of the companions of Nimrodel of Lothlorien who became lost while travelling to the Elf-haven of Edhellond. Nimrodel's lover Amroth drowned in the Bay of Belfalas trying to return to shore to find her. This version accounts for both the name of the city and the belief that the Princes of Dol Amroth had Elvish blood.

The Princes of Dol Amroth ruled Belfalas independently for the most part, but they maintained allegiance to Gondor. As a coastal city, Dol Amroth was on guard against the threat of the Corsairs. The 15th Prince of Dol Amroth was slain by the Corsairs of Umbar in 2746. His successor also died in battle in unknown circumstances in 2799.

Two women of Dol Amroth made important marriages to leaders of great realms in Middle-earth. Finduilas was the wife of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, and the mother of Boromirand Faramir. Lothiriel married King Eomer of Rohan and from them were descended the Third Line of Kings.

During the War of the Ring, Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth led a company of his Knights along with 700 men-at-arms to the defense of Minas Tirith. They rode to the aid of Faramir during the siege and fought in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields on March 15, 3019. After the battle, Prince Imrahil was given temporary command of Minas Tirith by Aragorn, and the banner of Dol Amroth flew for a time from the Tower of Ecthelion. At the Battle of the Morannon on March 25, the Knights of Dol Amroth fought on the front line.

When Gondor had a King once more, the Princes of Dol Amroth were among the King's chief commanders and counsellors, and the city of Dol Amroth continued to flourish into the Fourth Age.

The swan-knights of Dol Amroth were considered the most elite of Gondor's army, riding on grey horses and wielding great lances and swords, they did not give in easily to fear or intimidation and are on the front line of every battle. Though their numbers were few compared with the other more numerous horsemen, however, they were still one of the most feared cavalrymen in all of middle-earth. -- Rhovanion Alliance

[EntwifeLost]

Sharing with you some noted Dol Amroth history direct from the Unfinished Tales.

Dol Amroth Notes from “The Unfinished Tales”

In a note written in December 1972 or later, and among the last writings of my father’s on the subject of Middle-Earth, there is a discussion of the Elvish strain in Men, as to its being observable in the beardlessness of those who were so descended (it was characteristics of all Elves to be beardless) ; and it is here noted in connection with the princely house of Dol Amroth, that ‘this line had a special Elvish strain, according to its own legends’ (with a reference to the speeches between Legolas and Imrahil in The Return of the King V 9, cited above)

As Legolas’ mention of Nimrodel shows, there was and ancient Elvish port near Dol Amroth, and a small settlement of Silvan Elves there from Lorien. The legend of the prince’s line was that one of their earliest fathers had wedded and Elf-maiden: in some versions it was indeed (evidently improbably) said to have been Nimrodel herself. In other tales and more probably, it was one of Nimrodel’s companions who was lost in the upper mountain glens.


This latter version of the legend appears in more detailed form in a note appended to an unpublished genealogy of the line of Dol Amroth from Angelimar, the twentieth prince, father of Adrahil, father of Imrahil, prince of Dol Amroth at the time of the war of the Ring.

In the tradition of his house Angelimar was the twentieth in unbroken descent from Galador, the first Lord of Dol Amroth (c. Third Age 2004-2129). According to the same traditions Galador was the son of Imrazor the Numenorean, who dwelt in Belfalas and the Elven-lady Mithrellas. She was one of the companions of Nimrodel, among many Elves that fled the coast about the year 1980 of the Third Age, when evil arose in Moria; and Nimrodel and her maidens strayed in the wooded hills, and were lost. But in this tale it is said that Imrazor harboured Mithrellas, and took her to wife. But when she had borne him a son, Galador, and a daughter, Gilmith, she slipped away by night and he saw her no more. But though Mithrellas was of the lesser Silvan race (and not of High Elves or the Grey) it was never held that the house and kin of the Lords of Dol Amroth was noble by blood as they were fair in face and mind.


…. Galadriel and Celeborn together with Celebrian departed from Imladris and went to the little inhabited lands between the mouth of the Gwathlo and Ethir Anduin. There they dwelt in Belfalas, at the place that was afterwards called Dol Amroth; there Amroth their son at times visited them, and their company was swelled by Nandorin Elves from Lorinand. It was not far on in the Third Age, when Amroth was lost and Lorinand was in peril, that Galadriel returned there, in the year 1981.


Notes Involving Dol Amroth from selected stories (see index)


(History of Galadriel and Celeborn)

6. (Sir) Angren was the Elvish name of the river Isen. Ras Morthil, a name not otherwise found, must be the great headland at the end of the northern arm of the Bay of Belfalas, which was also called Andrast (Long Cape).
The reference to the ‘country of Amroth where the Nandor Elves still dwell’ can be taken to imply that the tale of Aldarion and Erendis was written down in Gondor before the departure of the last ship from the haven of Silvan Elves near Dol Amroth in the year 1981 of the Third Age.


(History of Galadriel and Celeborn)

14. The origin of the name Dor-en-Ernil is nowhere given; its only other occurrence is on the large map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor in The Lord of the Rings. On that map it is placed on the other side of the mountains from Dol Amroth, but its occurrence in the present context suggests that Ernil was the Prince of Dol Amroth (which might be supposed in any case)

16. The explanation supposes that the first element in the name Amroth is the same Elvish word as Quenya amba ‘up’, found also in Sindarin amon, a hill or mountain with steep sides; while the second element is a derivative from a stem –rath, meaning “climb” (whence also the noun rath, which in the Numenorean Sindarin used in Gondor in the naming of places and persons was applied to all the longer roadways and street of Minas Tirith, nearly all of which were on an incline: Rath Dinen, the Silent Street, leading down from the Citadel to the Tombs of the Kings).

(Cirion and Eorl)

17. On the presence of Adrahil of Dol Amroth, see note 39.

39. The Lord of Dol Amroth had this title. It was given to his ancestors by Elendilm with whom they had kinship. They were a family of the Faithful who had sailed from Numenor before the Downfall and had settled in the land of Belfalas, between the mouths of the Ringlo and Gilrain, with a stronghold upon the high promontory of Dol Amroth (named after the Last King of Lorien) [authors note.] – Elsewhere it is said (pg.248) that according to the tradition of their house the first Lord of Dol Amroth was Galador (c. Third Age 2004-2129) m the son of Imrazor the Numenorean, who dwelt in Belfalas, and the Elven-lady Mithrellas, one of the companions of Nimrodel. The note just cited seems to suggest that this family of the Faithful settled in Belfalas with a stronghold on Dol Amroth before the Downfall of Numenor; and if that is so, the two statements can only be reconciled on the supposition that the line of the Princes, and indeed the place of their dwelling, went back more that two thousand years before Galador’s day, and that Galador was called the first Lord of Sol Amroth, because it was not until his time (after the drowning of Amroth in the year 1981) that Dol Amroth was so named. A further difficulty is the presence of an Adrahil of Dol Amroth (clearly and ancestor of Arhail the father of Imrahil, Lord of Dol Amroth at the time of the War of the Ring) as a commander of the forces of Gondor in the battle against the Wainriders in the year 1944 (pp.293-4); but it may be supposed that this earlier Adrahil was not called ‘of Dol Amroth’ at that time.
While is not possible, this explanation to save consistency seem to me to be less likely that than of tow distinct and ‘independent ‘traditions’ of the origins of the Lords of Dol Amroth.


Im only putting in partial notes from The Unfinished Tales for I enourage you to get the book and read it. Especially pages 246-248 which note Amroth, and the name and lands. The Princes of Dol Amroth are also explored here and mentioned in many places. See Angelimar, Adrahil, Imrahil

- EntwifeLost