Amroth was a king of Lórien in the Third Age, long before the coming of the Fellowship. His house stood on the green hill at the heart of the woodland that bears his name, Cerin Amroth, where Haldir brought Frodo and where Aragorn and Arwen had once plighted their troth.1,2
He loved Nimrodel, an Elf-maiden of the woods. Legolas sang the Fellowship part of their story by the stream that is named for her: how she fled south and was lost in the mountains, and how Amroth waited for her at the haven by the sea, until a wind drove his ship out from the shore and he leapt into the waves to swim back to her, and was drowned.1
Unfinished Tales gives the fuller account and a date. When the Balrog woke in Moria in 1980 and fear came on Lórien, Amroth resolved to take ship into the West with Nimrodel. The two set out for Edhellond, the Elvish haven in the south of Gondor, and became separated on the way, and in 1981 Amroth was lost from his ship in the Bay of Belfalas.3,4
The coast where he was lost kept his name. The castle and town of Dol Amroth stood above it, and its princes, Imrahil among them, were held to have Elvish blood.3,5
Unfinished Tales also preserves a different account of his parentage, in which he was a son of Galadriel and Celeborn rather than of Amdír.3
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
- Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 6, “Lothlórien”
- Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, I (v), “Here follows a part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen”
- Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Two, IV, “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”
- Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
- Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 9, “The Last Debate”