The name Orfalch Echor dates back to the earliest phase of Tolkien's world in the Lost Tales, but is never directly explained, so a certain amount of deduction is needed to interpret it. There's a strong clue in the old name for the pass later called the Cirith Ninniach, which in the Lost Tales is called Glorfalc, interpreted 'Golden Cleft'. Because we known that glor- means 'gold', then falc is evidently 'cleft'. The prefix or- means 'high, above, on', so in this context the ravine of the Orfalch would be the 'high cleft'.
Echor refers to a surrounding or encircling defence (as in the Rammas Echor, the defensive wall that surrounded Gondor's Pelennor Fields. The same element is seen in Echoriath, the Encircling Mountains through which the cleft of the Orfalch ran. Thus the entire name can be read as the 'high cleft of the outer circle' or perhaps 'high cleft of the Encircling (Mountains)'.
|