Minas Ithil and Minas Anor

A little Freaky but.......

Isildur and Anarion built the 2 cities in the south.

Isildur dwelt in

Minas ITHIL
ISILdur

Anarion dwelt in

Minas ANOR
ANARion

and after they were renamed,they were always at war
like the average TRUE FAMILY!

How is that freaky?

Yeah. It's just derived from the Quenya roots. The "isil" in Isildur is a contraction of Ithil. It even says that somewhere... was either in Appendix E of LOTR, or maybe I saw it at Ardalambion.

Exactly what I was going to answer, IP.

Tolkien wrote his books essentially as a linguistic exercise, a world to place his languages in. This kind of thing is not uncommon and not freaky either, it's the way Quenya and most languages work.

_ITHIL_ is Sindarin. _ISIL_ is Quenya. As defined in the ETYMOLOGIES, 'I' is used as an intensive prefix, and 'THIL', 'SIL' are variants. Ithil is Noldorin (which later became Sindarin) and Isil is Quenya.

Just a little thing but ain't Sindarin spelt with a 'C'.

CINDARIN

Just thinkin

When the two fortresses were named Anor and Ithil they never fought. It was only after Ithil was captured and renamed Minas Morgul (and Anor became Minas Tirith) that the cities became bitter enemies. (What average familiy loses a city and fights with the new owner for centuries? )

And no, Sindarin isn't spelled with a 'C'. <--- look

Minas Anor was the chief city of Anorien, the province of Anarion, and also the chief defense of the newly established realm of Gondor against the clans or tribes of Gwathuirim (the people from whom came the Dunlendings and Men of Bree, as well as the Folk of Haleth in Beleriand) in the Ered Nimrais.

Minas Ithil was the chief city of Ithilien, the province of Isildur, and also the chief defense against Mordor which, despite Sauron's death in the Downfall of Numenor, presented a threat to Gondor because of the evil creatures which still dwelt there.

Isildur and Anarion first built the city of Osgiliath on the river Anduin and from there expanded outward.

It would appear that Gondor was originally composed of five regions: Belfalas, Lebennin, Anorien, Ithilien, and Calenardhon. The majority of the people came from (apparently) Belfalas and Lebennin. When Isildur and Anarion arrived at Pelargir they seem to have set about establishing control over the lower Anduin. So they moved up to where they built Osgiliath, probably fortified Cair Andros, and then set about securing their borders.

At some point they took control over Calenardhon and built the fortresses of Aglarond (the Hornburg at Helm's Deep) and Angrenost (Isengard). These fortresses gave Gondor control over the Gap of Calenardhon (later the Gap of Rohan), effectively cutting off the Men of Dunharrow from their kin in Enedwaith and establishing control over the clans of Calenardhon.

It was probably because of the fortress at Aglarond that the King of the Mountains entered into a treaty with Isildur (which he and his people later broke, of course, so that they became the Dead Men of Dunharrow).

The word minas, "tower", appears to have been used of small fortresses which were established as outposts in border regions. Minas Tirith in the First Age, Finrod's fortress on Tol Sirion, secured the upper part of the Vale of Sirion against incursions from Angband.

Although minas is a Quenya word, the Sindar had their own word for a similar type of fortress: barad. Barad Eithel and Barad Nimras seem to have been fortresses of similar function, although Barad Nimras looked out to the sea and proved to be both strategically and tactically useless.

Of course, the most famous Barad was Barad-dur, which was not exactly a "tower". It covered a mountain top was essentially a fortified city. Annuminas is another famous "tower" which was far more than that. The custom seems to have been to establish a fortification (the tower itself, usually surrounded by one or more walls) and then to build a city around the fortification (perhaps with its own fortification).

An "ost" was a fortified or underground city. Since Tolkien only describes one "ost" in any detail (Osgiliath) and only one "minas" in any detail (Minas Anor/Tirith) it's hard to understand what the distinction was. Most likely, however, the Ost did not have a fortress at its heart, as the initial design allowed for extensive fortifications. Osgiliath, being built mostly on a bridge (when the city was founded) would have been extremely hard to assail and take, which is probably why Anarion was able to hold out against Sauron's forces in the War of the Last Alliance. Undoubtedly he was resupplied from Pelargir by ships sailing up the Anduin (sea-going vessels could find harborage at Osgiliath).

Ost only occurs in the First Age names for Nargothrond (Narog + Ost + Rond) and Belegost, both of which were underground cities, and Formenos (Formen + Os), Feanor's citadel and treasury in northern Valinor. The word was not applied to another city until the Eldar built Ost-en-Edhil in Eregion during the Second Age. The choice of name cannot have been poetic. "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" says that Rivendell was chosen to be an outpost of Eldarin power in Eriador because it was deemed more defensible than Eregion. My guess is that an Ost was probably surrounded by massive fortifications, or otherwise took advantage of terrain or archtiecture in ways that a Barad or Minas would not. The Ost was the heart of a realm's power, and the Barad/Minas was an outpost.

Angrenost was a tower surrounded by a massive ring fortification, but it was also located in a fairly isolated valley which was accessed by one route, following the Angren (Isen) river north to the fortress. Saruman was able to house at least 10,000 soldiers there, so it was a very large fortress. When Gondor ceded Calenardhon to the Eotheod, the garrison (and their families) from Aglarond was transferred to Angrenost, and the palantir of Calenardhon had been kept at Angrenost from the earliest days of the South-Kingdom. So I doubt that the fortifications at Aglarond were really an Ost.

Numenorean conventions at the end of the Second Age may also reflect an evolution in application of ancient words. Hence, Ost may have become used almost interchangeably with Minas and Barad, but I don't think so. Minas Tirith, at least at the end of the Third Age, was certainly a heavily fortified city. But it had become both Gondor's capitol and the last outpost of Gondorian power to challenge Mordor. So it's hard to say what the distinction between an Ost and a Minas were, but the Ost would seem to have been larger and more secure than the Minas, at least by design, if not in fact.