ar-

prefix. day

ar-

prefix. etym. beside

ar-

prefix. without

ar

conjunction. and

ar fennuir

proper name. Day of the Fanturi, fourth day of the Valian week

The Noldorin name for the 4th day of the Valian 5-day week, a combination of the prefix ar- “day” and the plural of Fannor, the common title of Lórien and Mandos (Ety/LEP).

ar uiar

proper name. Day of Ulmo, second day of the Valian week

The Noldorin name for the 2nd day of the Valian 5-day week, a combination of the prefix ar- “day” and Uiar, the Noldorin name of Ulmo (Ety/LEP).

ar vanwe

proper name. Day of Manwe, first day of the Valian week

The Noldorin name for the 1st day of the Valian 5-day week, a combination of the prefix ar- “day” and the lenited form of Manwe (Ety/AR¹, LEP).

ar vedhwen

proper name. Day of the Spouses, third day of the Valian week

The Noldorin name for the 3rd day of the Valian 5-day week, a combination of the prefix ar- “day” and the lenited form of Bedhwen “Spouses”, a term referring to Aule and Yavanna (Ety/LEP).

lheben teil brann i annon ar neledh neledhi gar godrebh

five foot high the door and three may walk abreast

This phrase appeared on a preliminary sketch of Thrór’s Map from 1936. The final form of the map appeared in the first edition of The Hobbit without the phrase. Rhona Beare copied the phrase from a display of the sketch in the British Museum, and the phrase was first published in 1989 in Parma Eldalamberon #6 and Vinyar Tengwar #7 (PE6/38, VT7/7). The sketch itself appears in J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator edited by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull (TAI/92, illustration #85), and a rendition of the phrase appears in a footnote (TAI/150, note #6).

Hammond and Scull interpreted the phrase in the footnote mentioned above. An analysis of the phrase also appeared in an article by Didier Willis titled “Une phrase elfique dans « J. R. R. Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator »” (PED-TAI) and in David Salo’s A Gateway to Sindarin (GS/216-7). These three analyses are very close and form the basis for the version presented here.

Tolkien gave two translations of the phrase in the sketch. There is a Modern English translation “five foot high the door and three may walk abreast”, written in runes. There is also an Old English translation: “fif fota heah is se dura and þrie maeg samod þurghgangend”, in Modern English: “five foot high is the door and three may together through-go”.

The first part of the phrase is clear. The first word is lheben “five”, followed by the Noldorin plural form teil “feet” of tâl “foot”. The third word is brann, which is translated in The Etymologies as “lofty, noble, fine” (Ety/BARÁD) but here seems to mean “high”. The fourth word is the definite article i “the” and the fifth is annon “gate, door”. The sixth word ar is a Noldorin variant of later Sindarin a “and” (like its cognate ᴹQ. ar) followed by neledh “three”.

The remainder of the phrase is difficult to interpret. The eighth word is illegible. Rhona Beare thought it might be ?nelwhi or ?maohi (VT7/7). Hammond and Scull rendered it as neledhi, which they interpreted as a variant of neledh “three”, so that neledh neledhi means “three by three”. Willis and Salo suggested instead that neledhi means “to walk [in]” (PED-TAI, GS/217), the infinitive of an unattested verb ✱neledh- “to go in, enter” (GS/276). Willis further suggested that it was written over a rejected form neledie (also noted, but not interpreted, by Hammond and Scull), the Old Noldorin form of the word. Willis and Salo analyzed this verb as a combination of the prefix ✱ne- “in” (also seen in N. nestag- “stick in”) and a derivative of the root ᴹ√LED “go, fare, travel”. If the eighth word corresponds to English “walk [in]”, then this interpretation is quite plausible.

The ninth word gar seems to be a verb corresponding to English “may” in the sense “can, be able to”. Salo suggested that it is the Noldorin verb gar-, but this is translated “hold, have” in The Etymologies (Ety/GAR), which does not seem appropriate. Willis suggested that it is the (Early Noldorin?) verb ᴱN. gar “went” seen in the phrase ven Sirion gar meilien “towards (the river) Sirion went laughing”; Hammond and Scull also suggested it might be a verb meaning “go”. A third possibility is that it is a soft mutation of the verb car- “do, make” (Ety/KAR), perhaps lenited because it follows an infinitive form; the meaning of car- seems to me to be a bit closer in sense to “may”, but this is still just a guess.

The last word godrebh might correspond to English “abreast”, but Hammond, Scull, Willis and Salo all suggested that it means “together through”, matching the Old English “samod þurgh”. Willis and Salo both independently analyzed this word as the prefix go- “together” and a lenited prefixal form dre of trî “through”, with the final -bh (pronounced [v]) marking it as an adverb (PED-TAI, GS/217). The word godrebh was preceded by some deleted and unclear writing, rendered ?goldegoelend by Rhona Beare (VT7/7), perhaps two rejected forms ?golde >> goelend (?“together-go”), though Hammond and Scull transcribed the two rejected forms as golda >> goelend (TAI/150, note #6).

arthoren

place name. Fenced Realm

A Noldorin translation of Ilk. Garthurian “Fenced Realm, Hidden Realm” appearing in The Etymologies from the 1930s along with numerous variations (Ety/ƷAR|GARAT, THUR). It seems to be a combination of ardh “realm” and thoren “fenced”, as indicated by the variant forms Ardh-thoren or Ar(ð)thoren. A third variation, Arthurien is said to be a half translation or Noldorization of Ilk. Garthurian. A fourth variation, Ardholen seems to have a different meaning: “Hidden Realm” (Ety/GAT(H)).

athan

preposition. beyond

A word appearing in Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s in the name N. Bronwe athan Harthad “Endurance beyond Hope” (SD/62). According to Christopher Tolkien, the form athan is very unclear and uncertain (SD/70 note #6). It might instead be athar, which would be more compatible with the root √THAR “across, beyond” (PE17/14; Ety/THAR).

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. {athron “further, beyond” >>} adron “further, beyond, over, on other side” based on G. {athra “across, athwart” >>} adr(a) “lying athwart; situated on far side” (GL/17). This hints that later athan “beyond” may be based on N. ath- “across” (Ety/AT(AT)).

ar ifan

proper name. *Day of Yavanna

edinar

noun. anniversary day

oer

noun. sea

a

conjunction. and

ada

noun. father, daddy

adar

noun. father

adar

noun. father

aer

noun. sea

an-

prefix. with, by

aran

noun. king (used of a lord or king of a specified region)

aur

noun. day, sunlight, morning

calad

gerund noun. light

calad

noun. light

dae

adverb. very

gail

noun. bright light

gal-

prefix. light

galad

noun. light

glaur

noun. golden light (of the golden tree Laurelin)

glawar

noun. sunlight, radiance (of the golden tree Laurelin)

glor-

noun. golden light (of the golden tree Laurelin)

gloriel

adjective. golden

ha

pronoun. it

ha

pronoun. it

hana

pronoun. it

hana

pronoun. it

heltha-

verb. to strip

The form helta- in the Etymologies is a misreading according to VT/46:14

na

preposition. with, by (also used as a genitive sign)

na

preposition. to, towards, at

nethwelein

proper name. Younger Gods

A term for the three Valar Osse, Orome and Tulkas from the day-name Ar Nethwelein appearing in The Etymologies from the 1930s (Ety/LEP), a combination of neth “young” and the mutated plural form of Balan “god, Vala”.

oear

noun. sea

oear

noun. sea

oer

noun. sea

penninar

noun. last day of the year

taur

noun. king (only used of the legitimate kings of whole tribes)

In LotR/IV:IV, Frodo is called Daur, which might be the mutated form of this word

âr

noun. king (used of a lord or king of a specified region)

âr

noun. king