Early Quenya
alkarissen oilimain
in the last rays of light
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss alka “ray (of light), light of day; shining” oilima “last” Variations
- alkarisse oilimasse ✧ PE16/062
- alkarasse {oilimasse >> wanyarasse >>} panyarasse ✧ PE16/072
- {alkarasse >> alkaraisen >>} alkarissen oilimain ✧ PE16/074
- alkarissen {oilimaisen >>} oilimain ✧ PE16/077
alkarissen oilimain
*in the last rays of light
Element in
The twenty-first phrase (line 25) of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/221) and the fifteenth phrase (line 26) of the intermediate version of the Oilima Markirya poem (PE16/77). The first word is the locative plural of alkar “rays of light”, followed by a poetic plural form of the adjective oilima “last”, as indicated by the Glossary Commentary accompanying the sixth draft (PE16/75).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> alkar-i-ssen oilima-in = “✱ray-(plural)-in last-(plural)”
Conceptual Development: This phrase also appeared in the fourth, fifth and sixth drafts (OM1d-f: PE16/62, 72, 74). Tolkien first wrote the phrase in the fourth draft with both the noun and adjective in the locative, but without the final n: alkarisse oilimasse (OM1d: PE16/62). In the fifth draft he switched from the noun alkar to the adjective alkara, and changed the second word to the locative of the (adjective?) panyara of unclear meaning (OM1e: PE16/72). He settled on the final form of the phrase in the sixth draft (OM1f: PE16/74), and retained it for the final draft (MC/221).