Talk:Citadel of Gondor

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Latest comment: 24 May 2022 by Akhorahil

I do not think that "Citadel of Gondor" was the full name of the citadel. Should this page be moved to a page called "Citadel of Minas Tirith" or "Citadel (of Minas Tirith)" with a redirect from Citadel to one of those pages? The index of the 50th anniversary edition of The Lord of the Rings has an entry "Citadel of Gondor, but the foreword of the index mentions that it was written by Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond and not by J.R.R. Tolkien. In the whole text of The Lord of the Rings, the only person who ever mentions "the Citadel of Gondor" is Éomer, a lord of the Rohirrim and thus a foreigner who probably does not use the official name. It seems odd to call a citadel within a city the citadel of a country instead of the citadel of that city. The text of The Lord of the Rings does not use "Citadel of Minas Tirith". The text of The Lord of the Rings uses "the Citadel" or "the citadel". If someone just enters Citadel or citadel in the Search field, it currently proposes "Citadel of Gondor" as one of the pages, but it could then propose "Citadel of Minas Tirith" or "Citadel (of Minas Tirith)" instead and "Citadel of Gondor" page could simply redirect to the "Citadel of Minas Tirith" or "Citadel (of Minas Tirith)" page. It is a small matter, but I think it is a speculation and probably an error that its full name in Gondor was "the Citadel of Gondor". An entry in the unfinished index that was prepared by Nancy Smith and reviewed by J.R.R. Tolkien for the Tower of Ecthelion seems to read "The White Tower, the chief tower of the Citadel of Minas Tirith", also called the "Tower of Denethor" (J.R.R. Tolkien, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion p. 514). The entry for the Place of the Fountain in the unfinished index mentions that it is "the square about the feet of the White Tower in the Citadel of M[inas] T[irith]" (J.R.R. Tolkien, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 515). These entries seem to suggest that the name was the Citadel of Minas Tirith although that name is never used in the text of The Lord of the Rings. --Akhorahil 12:05, 24 May 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]