A hill at the southern end of the Misty Mountains. Its initial element is dol(l) “head, hill” (PE17/36, RC/433) and its second element is the lenited form baran of the adjective paran “bare, naked; smooth, shaven” (PE17/86, RC/433), hence: “*Bare Hill”.

Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this name first appeared as N. Dolbaran (WR/72), a form that also appeared in The Etymologies where its second element was N. baran “brown” (Ety/BARÁN). This is likely the etymology Christopher Tolkien used when he translated Dol Baran as “Golden-brown Hill” in the index of The Unfinished Tales (UTI/Dol Baran).

This etymology is problematic, however, since the following adjective baran should be lenited to varan, as happened (for example) in S. Parth Galen “Green Sward”. In his “Unfinished Index” of The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien devised a new etymology for the word, with S. paran as the (lenited) second element (RC/433).