The Knights of Dol Amroth take their name and their traditions from the city and the princes of Dol Amroth in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This page tells their story as Tolkien wrote it.
The City by the Sea
Dol Amroth is a city and castle of Gondor, set on a headland above the sea on the coast of Belfalas, in the south of the realm. It is the seat of the Princes of Dol Amroth, who rule the fiefdom of Belfalas and are among the greatest lords of Gondor. Its people are seafarers and warriors, and its knights are counted among the finest in the kingdom.
The Legend of Amroth
The city takes its name from Amroth, an Elven-king of Lórien in the Third Age. Amroth loved the Elf-maiden Nimrodel, and the two resolved to sail together into the West. Amroth waited for her at the old Elven haven near the mouths of the Morthond, but Nimrodel was lost on the journey south and never came. A great storm drove Amroth's ship out to sea. In despair, he leapt from the ship to swim back to the shore he had left, and he was never seen again.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Legolas tells part of this tale to the Company as they rest beside the stream of Nimrodel in Lórien. The fuller story appears in Unfinished Tales.
The Princes and Their Elvish Blood
According to Unfinished Tales, the line of the Princes of Dol Amroth began with Imrazôr the Númenórean, who wed Mithrellas, an Elf of Nimrodel's company. Their descendants carried a strain of Elvish blood, and the Princes were known for their nobility and their fair, Elf-like look.
Tolkien gives a glimpse of this in The Return of the King. When Legolas meets Prince Imrahil, he sees at once that Imrahil has Elvish kindred, and he greets him with respect. Imrahil answers that the lore of his land holds it to be so.
Prince Imrahil in the War of the Ring
In the time of the War of the Ring, the Prince of Dol Amroth was Imrahil. His sister Finduilas had been the wife of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, which made Imrahil the uncle of Boromir and Faramir.
The Ride to Minas Tirith
When Gondor called for aid against Mordor, companies from the southern fiefs came to Minas Tirith. Tolkien describes the arrival of Imrahil and his host as the last and proudest of them all. Imrahil rode beneath gilded banners bearing his token of the Ship and the Silver Swan, at the head of knights in full armor on grey horses, followed by some seven hundred men-at-arms, tall and grey-eyed.
The Rescue of Faramir
As Faramir's men fell back from the outer defenses, harried by the Enemy, Imrahil and his knights rode out with a sortie from the city to cover their retreat. Faramir was gravely wounded, and it was Imrahil who carried him back into the city.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
When the Rohirrim arrived and the great battle was joined, Imrahil led the knights of Dol Amroth out of the city against the besiegers. On the field, he came upon Éowyn lying among the fallen. Thinking her dead, he looked closer and found a faint sign of breath, and he had her carried into the city, where she was healed.
The March to the Black Gate
After the battle and the death of Denethor, Imrahil was one of the captains who joined in the last debate with Gandalf, Aragorn, and Éomer. He agreed to the bold plan to march on the Black Gate of Mordor and draw the Enemy's eye away from Frodo, and he rode with that small host to the very gates of Mordor.
After the War
Imrahil's daughter, Lothíriel, later wed Éomer, King of Rohan, joining the house of Dol Amroth with the royal house of the Rohirrim.
Guardians of the Coast
The southern coasts of Gondor faced a constant danger from the sea: the Corsairs of Umbar, whose fleets raided the shores and allied themselves with the Haradrim and with Mordor. In The Return of the King, the southern fiefs send fewer soldiers to Minas Tirith than had been hoped, because they must keep men at home to guard against the Corsairs.
Our guild takes up exactly this duty. As the Southern Guard, the Knights of Dol Amroth are the regiment that remains behind to defend the city, its castle, and the fiefdom of Belfalas while the Prince rides to war.
The Ship and the Silver Swan
Tolkien names the token of the Princes of Dol Amroth as the Ship and the Silver Swan. Our order bears it as a silver swan-ship on a field of blue: a ship whose prow rises into the neck and head of a swan, and whose sail is a swan's raised wing.
For many readers, the emblem calls to mind the swan-ships of the Elves in Tolkien's legends, and the old Elven haven on the coast of Belfalas from which Amroth meant to sail. Blue and silver have become the colors of our two Companies.
Sources
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, the chapter "Lothlórien".
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book Five, the chapters "Minas Tirith", "The Siege of Gondor", "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields", "The Houses of Healing", "The Last Debate", and "The Black Gate Opens", along with Appendix A.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Unfinished Tales, edited by Christopher Tolkien, Part Two, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", including "Amroth and Nimrodel".