Celos

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The Celos was a lesser river or stream that flowed out of the White Mountains into the Gondorian land of Lebennin, a little to the west of Minas Tirith. It was a tributary of the larger River Sirith.

Location

The smaller-scale map that accompanies The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales shows the Celos flowing into the Sirith from the east,[1] while the large-scale contour map of Gondor shows it flowing from the west.[2] A brief reference in Unfinished Tales suggests that the Celos was the next river eastward from the Gilrain, which would make the large-scale map correct.[3][note 1] Christopher Tolkien noted the error of the small-scale map in The Treason of Isengard; the correct location of the Celos is thus being the western tributary.[4]

Etymology

The Sindarin name Celos derives from the root KELU- ("flow out swiftly") + ending -sse, -ssa. The Quenya cognate is kelussë ("freshet, water falling out swiftly from a rocky spring").[5][6]

Portrayal in Adapations

2014: The Lord of the Rings Online:

The river Celos is found in Upper Lebennin in the region of Eastern Gondor. It flows through the fortified valley of Tumladen before turning west to meet the Sirith below the beacon Sirthanc. The village of Erynos stands across from the mouth of the Celos. The Celos is the domain of the lighthearted River-maid Silverfroth, one of the Five Sisters, though she and her sisters were widely considered a myth by the time of the War of the Ring.

Notes

  1. The river's name on that map, incidentally, is spelled Kelos, but the pronunciation is the same in either case.

References