The twilight of dawn, the time when the last stars faded from the sky, was important to the Elves, who called it in Quenya tindómë, 'star twilight' or in Sindarin minuial ('first twilight'). In Mannish languages, and especially in the Shire, this time of day was known as morrowdim, which combines morrow (in this context meaning 'morning') and dim, a poetical reference to the dim light before the rising of the Sun. The corresponding term, for the twilight of evening, was 'Evendim' (undómë or aduial in Elvish), which was was also used as the name for a region northward of the Shire. There was, however, no equivalent region named 'Morrowdim'.
Notes
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The word morrow in this context carries its original meaning of 'morning', so morrowdim was the time of faint light preceding dawn. Morrow barely survives in modern English, except as part of the word 'tomorrow', which originally meant 'in the morning'.
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- Updated 3 October 2021
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