Stonewain Valley

From Tolkien Gateway
Stonewain Valley
Valley
General Information
LocationEastern White Mountains
TypeValley
DescriptionLong, narrow valley, traversed by ancient road
People and History
InhabitantsGondorians
EventsRide of the Rohirrim to Pelennor Fields

Stonewain Valley was a long narrow straight valley in the eastern White Mountains, deep within the Drúadan Forest. Its eastern end opened just to the north-west of the Rammas Echor that encircled Minas Tirith.[1]

History[edit | edit source]

A road, four horses wide, had been made in ancient days by the Men of Gondor,[2] as a route from the quarries beneath Min-Rimmon to Minas Anor.[3]

By the time of the War of the Ring, it was overgrown and all but forgotten. However, on 13 March T.A. 3019, King Théoden met with Ghân-buri-Ghân in the Drúadan Forest[4] and the headman of the Woses revealed the existence of the old road. During the next day the Rohirrim used the road in Stonewain Valley to avoid the Orcs blocking the main road to come to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.[2]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The name was given because of the "wains (sleds or drays) passed to and fro from the stone-quarries" along the long, narrow defile.[5]

Other names[edit | edit source]

In Quenya it was called Nand' Ondolunkava or Ondolunkanan(do), in Sindarin Nan Gondresgion and in Rohanese Stānwægna Dæl.[3] Another Sindarin name, a translation of "Stonewain Valley", was Imrath Gondraich, where imrath meant "a long narrow valley with a road or watercourse running through it lengthwise."[6][7] Another Sindarin translation was Tum Gondregain.[8]

References