Amroth of Lorien and the Princes of Dol Amroth I

There are three variations on the parentage of Amroth, died TA1981, last King of Lorien, after whom Dol Amroth in Gondor is named.

There are two variants of his parentage explicitly stated:
1 - he is the son of Celeborn and Galadriel;
2 - his father is Amdir.

The Tale of the Years however does not list Amroth as the child of Galadriel and Celeborn, and no mention is made of this in the Lord of the Rings, so it may be safe to assume that this version was quickly abandoned.

There is however a third, implicit, version of Amroth's parentage (or at least paternity). Amdir is specifically stated to have been the King of Lorien, and Amroth's father. Malgalad is also stated to have been the King of Lorien, but is not mentioned as Amroth's father.

These two, in different texts, are said to have answered the Summons of Gil-Gald and perished on the Dagorlad at the time of the War of the Last Alliance. As Malgagld is mentioned no-where else, and nothing about either story contradicts the other, they can be assumed to be two names for essentially the same person. Thus we can posit an Amdir-Malagald figure as a single alternative to the Galadriel/Celeborn version of Amroth's parentage.

Is there any way of determining which (if either) of these names can be coinsidered 'correct'? Amdir is listed in some places as the correct version and Malgalad a variant; but this is surely an error. Christopher Tolkien cannot say which name replaced which; but in my opinion Malgalad seems likely to have been the latest version.

Professor Tolkien states that the name 'Amroth', which means 'long climb' ('anda-rosta'), is a nickname which derives from the Prince's adoption of the habit of sleeping in flets or telain, the high platforms in trees characteristic of the Sylvan Elves of Mirkwood. Previously to this, his name was obviously something else.

If this is accurate (or believed to be accurate), it has an impact on the likely name of Amroth's father. To believe his father to be called 'Amdir' and the son called something other than 'Amroth', subsequently becoming 'Amroth' only after his father's death and his own attempts to court Nimrodel, stretches co-incidence too far.

The story of the talan, in a late philological note, is likely to relate to the change from 'Amdir' as Amroth's father, to 'Malgalad'. It is more likely that the sequence went 'Amroth son of Amdir' to 'Amroth, nickname of the alternately-named son of Malgalad', rather than 'Amroth son of Malgalad' to 'Amroth, nickname of the alternately-named son of Amdir'. Otherwise one would have to posit that the name 'Amroth' was coined both because of the talan and because of it's co-incidental similarity with Amdir, his father's name.

This is of course possible; it may be that 'Amroth' was considered a sutable nickname precisely because it resembled his father's name. But this is less probable, I feel, than the alternative scenario, that the aliterative/family pairing of Amdir-Amroth was changed to Malgalad-unknown, nicknamed Amroth, after the talan story and the plot device of the wooing of Nimrodel were concieved.

Thus it seems highly likely that the form 'Malgalad' for the King of Lorien killed at the Dagorlad was the latest version of the parentage of Amroth.

In the next exciting episode, notices of the Princes of Dol Amroth a generation before the events of the loss of Amroth and the marriage of Nimrodel's maid to the local aristocracy.