n. going-down, esp. sunset, West. Q. Andúne, andū, Hadorian adûn. >> dûn, Henneth Annûn
Sindarin
annûn
noun. sunset, west; (lit.) going down
annûn
going-down
annûn
noun. west, sunset
Henneth Annûn
Henneth Annûn
topon. >> Annûn
henneth annûn
place name. Window of the Sunset
The falls where the men of Faramir camped, translated “Window of the Sunset” (LotR/674), a combination of henneth “window” and annûn “sunset” (RC/473).
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, Tolkien considered a large number of names before settling on N. Henneth Annûn (WR/164).
a hîr annûn gilthoniel
*oh Lady of the West, Star-kindler
The fourth phrase of Lúthien’s Song (LB/354). Three translations of this phrase are:
Patrick Wynne: “✱O Lord of the West, star-kindling” (NTTLS/11)
David Salo: “✱O Lady of the West, star-kindler” (GS/211)
Bertrand Bellet and Benjamin Babut: “✱O Lady of the West, Starkindler” (GTLC)
The first word is the vocative particle a “O”. The second word hîr is typically translated as masculine “lord”, but since in this case it is addressing Elbereth, I think (like Salo, Bellet and Babut) it is better to translate it as “lady”, even though elsewhere the Sindarin word for “lady” is given as hiril or heryn. The third word is annûn “west” and the last word is Gilthoniel “Star-kindler”, one of the names of Elbereth (Varda).
Patrick Wynne instead suggested (NTTLS/10) that the fact that the word gilthoniel is lower case might mean it is an adjectival form “star-kindling” applied to the Moon rather than Varda, and he is addressed as “Lord” (the Elves considered the Moon to be male). This does explain the masculine form Hîr, but I find it difficult to believe that Lúthien would address the Moon by one of Varda’s name, and follow Salo, Bellet and Babut in assuming the words are spoken to Elbereth.
Henneth Annûn
noun. window of sunset
henneth (“window”) + annûn (“west, sunset”)
daur a berhael, conin en annûn
Frodo and Sam, princes of the west
annûn
west
1) annûn; 2) Dúven (na Núven, o Ndúven). Christopher Tolkien tentatively read the illegible gloss as ”southern” (LR:376 s.v. NDŪ), but the etymology seems to demand the meaning ”west”: dú-ven with the same ending as in Forven ”North” and Harven ”South”. The ending means ”way”, so Dúven may be ”west” considered as a direction. WEST-ELF (Elf of Beleriand, including Noldor and Sindar) Dúnedhel (i Núnedhel), pl. Dúnedhil (i Ndúnedhil). (WJ:378, 386)
annûn
sunset
annûn (west), pl. ennŷn
annûn
west
annûn
sunset
(west), pl. ennŷn
dûn
noun. west
_n. _west. Q. nū-. >> annûn
conin
prince
(i chonin), occurring in the Cormallen Praise, is translated "princes" (Conin en Annûn = "princes of the west", Letters:308), but it is unclear what the singular would be. (David Salo suggests caun, though this word has two different meanings already; see
ernil
prince
1) ernil (no distinct pl. form), 2) †cund (i gund, o chund, construct cun), pl. cynd (i chynd) (VT45:24). 3) The plural form conin (i chonin), occurring in the Cormallen Praise, is translated "princes" (Conin en Annûn = "princes of the west", Letters:308), but it is unclear what the singular would be. (David Salo suggests caun, though this word has two different meanings already; see SHOUT, VALOUR)
caun
noun. prince, ruler
caun
prince
pl1. cónin {ō} n. prince, chief, head.
cund
noun. prince
dûn
noun. west
dûn
noun. west
ernil
noun. prince
ernil
noun. prince
A noun for “prince” appearing in phrases like Ernil i Pheriannath “Prince of the Halflings” (LotR/768) and Dor-en-Ernil “Land of the Prince” (UT/245). Its initial element is likely a reduced form of aran “king, noble person”; compare to ar(a)- “noble” of similar origin. If so, the a became e due to i-affection. The final -il is harder to explain, because normally -il is a feminine suffix. Perhaps it is a reduction of hîl “heir”, so that the literal meaning is “✱king’s heir, royal heir”.
Conceptual Development: N. ernil also appeared in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s (WR/287).
cund
prince
(i gund, o chund, construct cun), pl. cynd (i chynd) (VT45:24).
dúnedhel
west-elf
(i Núnedhel), pl. *Dúnedhil*** (i Ndúnedhil*). (WJ:378, 386)*
dúven
west
(na Núven, o Ndúven). Christopher Tolkien tentatively read the illegible gloss as ”southern” (LR:376 s.v. NDŪ), but the etymology seems to demand the meaning ”west”: dú-ven with the same ending as in Forven ”North” and Harven ”South”. The ending means ”way”, so Dúven may be ”west” considered as a direction.
ernil
prince
(no distinct pl. form)
The Sindarin word for “sunset”, more literally “going down”, also used to mean “West” (LotR/1116, 1123; PE17/64, 88, 121). It was based on the root √NDU “sink, go down” (PE17/64), derived from primitive ✶ṇdūnē like its Quenya counterpart Q. andúnë (Ety/NDŪ). The overlong vowel in the last syllable of annûn is unusual, and was due to the influence of related dûn “west” (LotR/1116 note #1). I believe annûn is most generally used for “sunset”, and when used for “West” it means “the West” as a location, as opposed to a direction which is dûn.
Conceptual Development: N. annûn first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s, already with the derivation given above but only glossed “west” (Ety/NDU).
There was a similar word {nún >>} ᴱN. nuin in Early Noldorin Wordlists and the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s, a noun form of the verb ᴱN. nuv- “to sink, set” (PE13/151, 161, 164). Tolkien first gave it as nún “sinking, going down” as a derivative of primitive ᴱ✶numne (PE13/151), but later gave it as nuin “sinking down, going down” from primitive ᴱ✶nubhin (PE13/164). In the second instance he specified it was both “n[oun] & inf[initive]”. In the first instance Tolkien said that “Nún is used = West”.
Another likely precursor was G. nûmin “the west, sinking” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/61) which in turn was probably based on the early root ᴱ√NUHU “bow, bend down; stoop, sink” as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (QL/68; LT1A/Númë).