antanen hatal sena

I cast a spear at him

anta-

give

anta- (1) vb. "give" (ANA1, MC:215, 221), pa.t. antanë (antanen "I gave", VT49:14) or †ánë, perfect ánië (PE17:147, cf. QL:31). According to VT49:14, Tolkien noted that anta- was sometimes often with an "ironic tone" to refer to missiles, so that antanen hatal sena "I gave him a spear (as a present)" was often used with the real sense of "I cast a spear at him". Usually the recipient of the thing given is mentioned in the dative or allative case (like sena in this example), but there is also a construction similar to English "present someone with something" in which the recipient is the object and the gift appears in the instrumental case: antanenyes parmanen, "I presented him with a book" (PE17:91). The verb occurs several times in FS: antalto"they gave"; strangely, no past tense marker seems to be present (see -lto for the ending); antar a pl. verb translated "they gave", though in LotR-style Quenya it would rather be the present tense "give" (pl.); antaróta "he gave it" (anta-ró-ta "gave-he-it"), another verb occurring in Fíriel's Song, once again with no past tense marker. Also antáva "will give", future tense of anta- "give"; read perhaps *antuva in LotR-style Quenya; similarly antaváro* "he will give" (LR:63) might later have appeared as antuvas (with the ending -s rather than "Qenya" -ro for "he"). Antalë imperative "give thou" (VT43:17), sc. anta "give" + the element le "thou", but this was a form Tolkien abandoned. Apparently ana** was at one point considered as another imperative "give", but Tolkien rewrote the text in question (VT44:13), and the normal patterns would suggest *á anta with an independent imperative particle.