An untranslated noun appearing in the phrase Narn e·Dant Gondolin ar Orthad en·Êl in Silmarillion drafts from the 1950s (MR/373). The entire phrase probably means “*Tale of the Fall of Gondolin and the Raising of the Star”, so that dant is probably “*fall [as a noun]” and is a derivative of the root √DA(N)T “fall down” (PE17/62; VT48/24). Strictly speaking, e·Dant is the form after it has undergone mixed mutation, but an initial d is not modified by mixed mutation, so the unmutated form would be dant as well.

Conceptual Development: This word appears several times in Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s. It was as an element of Dant-ruin(el), a draft name for the falls of Rauros, so probably meaning “*Fall of Ruinel” (TI/283, 316). It also appeared in drafts of Lord of the Rings appendices in some rejected words for “autumn”: Dant or Dantilais [the latter apparently meaning “*Fall-of-leaves”], both of which were revised to Dannas (PM/136).

The earliest precursor for this word seems to be G. dont “a fall, a bump, a drop” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/30), related to G. dod- “fall down, drop” and thus likely based on the early root ᴱ√ÐOTO from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/86).