radiance, splendour
Quenya
alcar
alkar
alcar
noun. glory, splendour, radiance, brilliance
alcar
noun. radiance
alcar i ataren
Alcar i Ataren
Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer into Quenya, composed sometime in the 1950s (VT43/7), first published in the “Words of Joy (Part One)” article in Vinyar Tengwar #43. The translation was abandoned half way through the second line. Tolkien did not provide an English translation of the prayer; following the editors of the “Words of Joy” article, I used a modern English translation of the prayer (VT43/38).
Further discussion can be found in the analysis of the individual phrases. My analysis largely follows that of the “Alcar i Ataren” section (VT43/36-38) of the “Words of Joy” article.
alcar mi tarmenel na erun
Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun
Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo prayer into Quenya, composed sometime in the 1960s (VT44/31), first published in the “Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun” article in Vinyar Tengwar #44. Tolkien only translated the first two lines of the prayer. Tolkien did not provide an English translation of the prayer; following the editor of the “Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun” article, I used a modern English (King James) translation of the prayer (VT43/31).
Tolkien made three translations of the lines; the version presented here is Arden Smith’s “reconstructed” version, which is version II with corrections from the incomplete version III. Note that Arden Smith was uncertain of the order of composition of the versions, suggesting that version I might have followed II and III, but his analysis (and mine) assumes that the versions were created in the order they appeared on the page (VT44/32).
Further discussion can be found in the analysis of the individual phrases. My analysis largely follows that of the “Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun” section (VT44/31-7).
alcar i ataren ar i yondon ar i airefëan
glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
The first line of Alcar i Ataren, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer. The first word is alcar “glory” followed by dative clauses: i Ataren “for the Father” (atar dative), ar i Yondon “and for the Son” (yondo dative), ar i Airefean “and for the Holy Spirit” (Airefëa dative).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> alcar i Atar-en ar i Yondo-n ar i Aire-fea-n = “✱glory [be] Father-to and the Son-to and the holy-spirit-to”
Conceptual Development: Before airefean, Tolkien first wrote and rejected faire aistan, the first word meaning “spirit” and the second a dative form of the adjective aista “holy”.
alcar mi tarmenel na erun
glory [be] to God in the highest
The first line of Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo prayer. The first word is alcar “glory”, followed by mi Tarmenel “in the highest”, more literally “✱in High-heaven”. The fourth na word is the imperative of the verb ná- “to be”. The last word Erun “to God” is the dative form of Eru “God”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> alcar mi Tar-menel na Eru-n = “✱glory in High-heaven be God-to”
Conceptual Development: In version I, Tolkien first wrote tarmenissen, apparently the locative plural of tarmen “?high place”, perhaps meaning “?in high places”. He revised this into an assimilated locative tarmenelde of Tarmenel.
In version II he first wrote the allative form Erunna “✱towards God” before changing to the dative form Erun “to God”, also used in version II.
In version III he only wrote the word alcar. For this reason, the phrase in this entry is derived from version II.
|  I  |II|III| |alcar| |{tarmenissen >>} tarmenelde|mi tarmenel|...| |na Erun|{Erunna >>} na Erun| |
alcar oroméva
the splendour of Oromë
alcar oromëo
the splendour of Oromë
vanda sina termaruva elenna·nóreo alcar enyalien
This oath shall stand in memory of the glory of the Land of the Star
First phrase @@@
alta
radiance
alta (2) noun "radiance" (VT42:32, PE17:50). Cf. variant ñalta.
alta
noun. radiance
fairë
radiance
fairë (3) noun "radiance" (PHAY)
nalta
radiance, glittering reflection
nalta ("ñ")noun "radiance, glittering reflection" (from jewels, glass or polished metals, or water) (PM:347)
alcar (so spelt in CO, VT43:37-38, and VT44:32/34; otherwise "alkar")noun "glory, radiance, brilliance, splendour" (WJ:369, CO, VT43:37-38, VT47:13, AKLA-R; the latter source also lists an alternative longer form alcarë, also occurring in VT44:7/10) Compare Alcarin, Atanalcar.