Amroth
king of Lórien; the lover of Nimrodel, lost in the Bay of Belfalas
Lineage and Rule
Amroth, son of Amdír, was of the Sindar, and in the Second Age was King of Lórien, the golden land between the Anduin and the Misty Mountains, ruling there among the Silvan Elves of the wood. He loved the Elven-maid Nimrodel, after whom the stream was named that ran from the mountains into the Silverlode.
The Tale of Amroth and Nimrodel
The tale kept in the memories of Lórien tells that Amroth loved Nimrodel, but that she would not be parted from the woods; and when the shadow of that age pressed upon the land and the Elves of Lórien were about to leave, Nimrodel would not go with them. Amroth remained, seeking her in vain, and at last sailed upon the sea in hope of her. In the Bay of Belfalas he was lost in the waters, and the southern haven of Dol Amroth upon the shores of Gondor preserves his name; the song of Nimrodel, sung by Legolas in Lórien, keeps the memory of the elven-king’s going.
History and Chronicle
In the later Second Age his going left Lórien without a lord until the keeping of the wood passed to Celeborn and Galadriel. The chronology of the kings of Lórien is tangled between the accounts (the fell deeds of the age, the deaths of the northern kings); the differences are set out by Christopher Tolkien in the commentary to the tale.
Significance
Amroth is the last of the kings of the Golden Wood before the age of the Guardians — the king who tarried for love and was lost at sea, whose name and song outlast his realm and pass into the histories of both Elves and Men.