A translation of Elvish Dor-en-Ernil, the name given to a southern region of Gondor. Though its boundaries are not clearly established, it appears to have been part of - or perhaps synonymous with - the mountainous coastland fief known as Belfalas. Extending out from its western shores was smaller peninsula on which was built Dol Amroth, the seat of the Princes of Dol Amroth in the later Third Age.
The reason that this region was named 'Land of the Prince' is not explained in detail, but it should be noted that we have no reference to a Prince of Belfalas extant at the time of the War of the Ring. We do, however, have a single oblique reference to a former Prince of Belfalas, and to the fact that that Prince shared a bloodline with the Princes of Dol Amroth.1 The implication is that the line of the Princes of Belfalas gave way to the Princes of Dol Amroth at the time of Galador, though the sequence of historical events here is far from clear.
Notes
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Our only direct evidence comes from a note reproduced in Unfinished Tales regarding Morwen Steelsheen, a lady of Gondor who became queen to Thengel of Rohan (and was thus Théoden's mother). This note tells us that her father came originally '...from Belfalas; he was a descendant of a former Prince of that fief, and thus a kinsman of Prince Imrahil.' (Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Three I, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields, Appendix).
This establishes that there were at one time Princes of Belfalas, and the reference to Imrahil shows that they were related to the Princes of Dol Amroth. These were presumably the people of Imrazör, descending from a line of Númenóreans who settled in Gondor independently of Elendil and his sons.
It is unclear what became of the Princes of Belfalas, but the simplest explanation is that, when Galador established his seat at Dol Amroth (which only received its name at this point in history) the line simply continued under the new style of the Princes of Dol Amroth.
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- Updated 23 May 2018
- Updates planned: 2
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