We have no account of Nimphelos' history after it was given to the Lord of Belegost. It may have been lost in the inundation at the end of the First Age, but given how it was said to have been greatly prized by the Dwarves, it is at least possible that it was carried away with them when they abandoned their city. Many of the Dwarves of Belegost made their way to Khazad-dûm at the beginning of the Second Age, and so Nimphelos may have ultimately found its way into the vaults of that mansion.

Our evidence for the Dwarf-clan who occupied Belegost during the First Age is slim. They appear to have been Broadbeams (though our sole source is ambiguous, and they may conceivably have been Firebeards). In the Grey Annals in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth, the Dwarves of Belegost are actually described as Longbeards, but this notion belongs to an earlier conception; in later versions of the history, the Longbeards dwelt at Khazad-dûm during this period, and cannot have been present at Belegost.

The derivation of the name Nimphelos is not explained, except that the initial part of the name derives from nimphe, an old term for 'pale'. The closing -los can be interpreted as 'snow', so the entire name perhaps means something similar to 'pale as snow'.