Name in The Silmarillion and its map
I searched the version of The Silmarillion that was published by Christopher Tolkien as a book for the keyword road and looked for labels of roads on the Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North that was published with it. There is no road, which is called the Old South Road or the South Road in the narrative and the road does not have a label on the map.
In The War of the Jewels only Christopher Tolkien uses "old south road" (to Nargothrond) once and "south road" in his commentary, but they do not appear in narrative written by J.R.R. Tolkien in The War of the Jewels. In the index of names in the published Simarillion, that was written by Christopher Tolkien the only entry for a road is the Dwarf-road and a label "Dwarf Road" is the only label for a road on the map that was published with the book. Akhôrahil (talk) 11:43, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
Name in Chilren of Húrin
I do not have access to the book The Children of Húrin, so I cannot analyze if those names are used there and in which context they are used and if this book contains a different map. Akhôrahil (talk) 11:43, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
- In Children of Húrin in chapter VI it is written; "There the land was drier, and the forest ceased suddenly on the brink of a ridge. Below it could be seen the ancient South Road, climbing up from the Crossings of Teiglin to pass along the western feet of the moorlands on its way to Nargothrond." - JR Snow (talk) 11:53, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
- The term South Road is indexed in the "List of Names" as "The ancient road from Tol Sirion to Nargothrond by the Crossings of Teiglin".
- The term "South Road" appears in a sentence in chapter VII: "There were rains out of season, and Orcs in greater numbers than before came down from the North and along the old South Road over Teiglin, troubling all the woods on the west borders of Doriath".
- The term "South Road appears in the entry for the Crossings of Teiglin: "Fords where the old South Road to Nargothrond crossed the Teiglin".
- The term Old South Road appears as a capitalized label on the map following the "Note on the map".
- The capitalized term Highway appears twice in Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin: "For we must come soon to the Highway that ran of old down from the Minas of King Finrod to Nargothrond" (spoken by Voronwë) and "In the deepening dusk they came to the Highway at the bottom of a tall wooded bank".
- Based on all of the above quotes, it seems like the road in question is referred to as the Highway, the South Road, and the Old South Road. I believe that the page name should be "Highway" since that appears to be the proper name of the road while the other two seem to just be generic names. In addition, calling the page "Highway", would distinguish this road page from the other similarly named road pages.Dour1234 (talk) 20:22, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
Name in Unfinished Tales
I searched for the name South Road and for the name Highway in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth and found that "Highway" is used twice with a capitalized H and twice without a capitalized H (i.e. "highway") in the chapter Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin. The term "old South Road" is used once in the phrase "the old South Road over Teiglin" in the chapter Narn I Hîn Húrin in the section Of Mîm the Dwarf. In his entry for Roads in the index of UT Christopher Tolkien seems to interpret that the "highway" is called the "old South Road". Christopher Tolkien did not include a separate entry for Old South Road or for Highway in his index for UT. The Old South Road page currently covers the Old South Road in Enedwaith, which only exists as a label on Christopher Tolkien's General Map of Middle-earth that was published with earlier editions of LOTR and is not mentioned in the narrative or appendices of LOTR. On the top of the Old South Road page (about the one in Enedwaith) is already a disambiguation notice with a link to the Old South Road (Beleriand) page. If a reader who is looking for the South Road in Beleriand enters the term South Road in the search box he will arrive at the South Road page for the road in Gondor. The South Road page (for the road in Gondor running from Minas Tirith in the direction of Pelargir) does not have a disambiguation notice. A disambiguation notice at the beginning of the South Road page (the one for the road in Gondor) with a link to the Old South Road (Beleriand) page could fix that. --Akhôrahil (talk) 10:43, 17 June 2024 (UTC)