Did you know Brandywine river really exists even in our world? Actually, there is a number of rivers with that name in America.
Possibly the most famous one of them is the one in Chester County, Pennsylvania, as there was an important battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on 11th September 1777, the so called Battle of Brandywine Creek. It was the longest single day battle of the war, lasting for 11 hours.
Not sure how much Tolkien knew about it, or about the existence of such named rivers at all, but it’s interesting to see how his interpretation of the name (Brandywine) correlates with the presumed origin of names of some of those rivers. At least two of them are said to be named after Brandy, a kind of alcohol, though not for their colour, but for a bet about their size, with the alcohol being the prize for the winner. Tolkien claimed that Hobbits render its name from its brew resembling colour "heady ale". Well, even the Elvish interpretation "golden-brown river" exactly describes the colour of Brandy
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