Illuin

blue

Illuin place-name, name of one of the Lamps of the Valar; apparently incorporating the element luin "blue" (Silm): hence *"all-blue"?

luinë

blue

luinë adj. "blue", pl. luini (PE17:66, VT48:23, 24, 28, Nam, RGEO:66). Common Eldarin luini- would also be the stem-form in Quenya (VT48:24). Compare luinincë. Apparently -luin in Illuin, the name of one of the Lamps of the Valar (q.v.), Helluin, name of the star Sirius, and Luinil, name of another blue-shining star (or planet). (SA; Luinil is tentatively identified with Neptune, MR:435). Cf. also menelluin "sky-blue", used as noun = "cornflower" (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator p. 193).

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• S. luin “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo tellumar nu luini “beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo nu luini tellumar “West beyond [the borders of] Varda’s under blue domes” ✧ RGEO/58
• Q. Helluin “?Ice or Sky Blue” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺQ. luicarnë “purple”
• Q. Luinil “*Blue Star” ✧ SA/luin
• Q. luinincë “bluish”
• ᴺQ. luinion “lapis lazuli, (lit.) blue-rock”
• ᴺQ. luinyellë “bluebell”
• Q. menelluin “cornflower (colour), *(lit.) sky-blue”
• Q. sanomë tarnë Olórin, Aracorno, Eomer, Imrahil, mi mísë, mi telepta yo morna, mi laiqua yo ninquë, mi luinë, ta Gimli mi lossëa “There stood Gandalf, Aragorn, Eomer and Imrahil in grey, in silver and black, in green and white, and in blue, and also Gimli in white” ✧ PE17/071

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ PE17/066; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• luini ✧ PE17/071
• luin ✧ SA/luin

lúnë

blue

lúnë (stem *lúni-, given the primitive form ¤lugni) adj. "blue" (LUG2, LT1:262; later sources rather give luinë, with pl. form luini_ in Namárië)_. According to VT45:29, lúnë in the Etymologies was changed by Tolkien from lúna.

ninwa

blue

ninwa adj. "blue" (LT1:262)

lúrëa

dark, overcast

lúrëa adj. "dark, overcast" (LT1:259)

helwa

(pale) blue

helwa adj. "(pale) blue" (3EL)

lúna

dark

lúna adj. *"dark" in Lúnaturco and Taras Lúna, Quenya names of Barad-dûr (Dark Tower). (PE17:22). In the Etymologies, lúnë "blue" was changed by Tolkien from lúna (VT45:29).

mori-

dark, black

mori- "dark, black" in a number of compounds (independent form morë, q.v.):Morimando "Dark Mando" = Mandos (MBAD, VT45:33), morimaitë "black-handed" (LotR3:VI ch. 6, VT49:42). Moriquendi "Dark Elves" (SA:mor, WJ:361, 373), Moringotto "Black Foe", Sindarin Morgoth, later name of Melkor. The oldest form is said to have been Moriñgotho (MR:194). In late material, Tolkien is seen to consider both Moringotto and Moricotto _("k") _as the Quenya form of the name Morgoth (VT49:24-25; Moricotto also appears in the ablative, Moricottollo). Morion "the dark one", a title of Morgoth (FS). Morifinwë "dark Finwë", masc. name; he was called Caranthir in Sindarin (short Quenya name Moryo). (PM:353) In the name Morinehtar, translated "Darkness-slayer", the initial element is defined would thus seem to signify "darkness" rather than "dark" as an adjective (see mórë). (PM:384, 385)

morna

dark, black

morna adj. "dark, black" (Letters:282, LT1:261; also used of black hair, PE17:154), or "gloomy, sombre" (MOR). Used as noun in the phrase mi…morna of someone clad "in…black" (PE17:71). In tumbalemorna (Letters:282), q.v. Pl. mornë in Markirya**(the first version of this poem had "green rocks", MC:215, changed to ondolisse mornë** "upon dark rocks" in the final version; see MC:220, note 8).

ulca

adjective. dark

dark, gloomy, sinister

lóna

dark

?lóna (4) adj. "dark" (DO3/DŌ). If this is to be the cognate of "Noldorin"/Sindarin dûr, as the context seems to indicate, lóna is likely a misreading for *lóra in Tolkien's manuscript.

nulla

dark, dusky, obscure

nulla adj. "dark, dusky, obscure" (NDUL), "secret" (DUL). See also VT45:11.

núla

dark, occult, mysterious

núla ("ñ")adj. "dark, occult, mysterious" (PE17:125)

hróva

dark, dark brown

hróva adj. "dark, dark brown", used to refer to hair (PE17:154)

morĭ

adjective. dark

PQ. dark

móri

dark

móri adj. "dark" (MC:221; this is "Qenya"; in Tolkien's later Quenya mórë, morë)

luin

adjective. blue

luin

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

luin

jhJ5 adjective. blue

Examples: Ered luin, Helluin, Luinil, Mindolluin

luin

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Aeluin “*Blue Lake” ✧ S/162
• S. caralluin “*red-blue”
• S. Draugluin “*Blue (Were)wolf”
• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• S. Hirluin
• S. Ithryn Luin “Blue Wizards” ✧ UT/390
• S. Mindolluin “Towering Blue-head” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺS. nelluin “bluebell”
• S. Sîr Luin ✧ VT48/23; VT48/28 (Sîr Luin)

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > Luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• Luin ✧ Let/448; VT48/23

lô

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

dûr

adjective. dark, sombre

dûr

dark

_ adj. _dark, gloomy, 'hellish'.

dúath

adjective. dark

_ adj. _dark, black shadow.

graw

dark

graw (swart), lenited raw, pl. groe. (VT45:16)

graw

dark

(swart), lenited ’raw, pl. groe. (VT45:16)

morn

dark

morn (black), pl. myrn, lenited vorn. Note: the latter word is also used as a noun ”darkness, night”. (Letters:386)

morn

dark

(black), pl. myrn, lenited vorn. Note: the latter word is also used as a noun ”darkness, night”. (Letters:386)

môr

dark

môr (black), lenited vôr, pl. mŷr (Letters:382), also

môr

dark

(black), lenited vôr, pl. m**ŷr* (Letters:382)*, also

luin

blue

luin (no distinct pl. form, as demonstrated by the name Ered Luin ”Blue Mountains”) (VT48:24)

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

nind

fragile

nind (thin, slender); no distinct pl. form

nind

fragile

(thin, slender); no distinct pl. form

doll

dark

doll (dusky, misty, obscure), lenited noll, pl. dyll. Note: In ”Noldorin”, this word appeared as dolt as well as doll, but the latter seems the best form in S.

doll

dark

(dusky, misty, obscure), lenited noll, pl. dyll. Note: In ”Noldorin”, this word appeared as dolt as well as doll, but the latter seems the best form in S.

dûr

dark

dûr (sombre), lenited dhûr, pl. duir

dûr

dark

(sombre), lenited dhûr, pl. duir

dúath

dark shadow

(i dhúath) (nightshade), pl. dúaith (i núaith);

guldur

dark sorcery

(i nguldur = i ñuldur), pl. gyldyr (in gyldyr = i ñgyldyr)

graurim

dark people

(VT45:16);

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ VT48/24; VT48/28

ulban

adjective. blue

búrz

adjective. dark

Element in

• Bs. burzum “darkness” ✧ PE17/011; PE17/012
• Bs. Lugbúrz “Dark Tower” ✧ PE17/012; PE17/079

Variations

• burz ✧ PE17/012

búrz

adjective. dark

lugni

adjective. blue

luini

adjective. blue

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Derivatives

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ PE17/136; VT48/27

Variations

• LUINI ✧ PE17/136 (LUINI); PE17/161
• luini- ✧ PE17/136 (luini-); VT48/27 (luini-)

luy

root. blue

The Elvish words for “blue” remained very similar throughout Tolkien’s life, but underwent a number of minor conceptual shifts. The word ᴱQ. lūne “blue, deep blue” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s in a collection of words along with ᴱQ. lūle “blue stone, sapphire”, but no root was given (QL/55). The word for “blue” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon was G. luim (GL/55). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the root for “blue” was ᴹ√LUG with derivatives ᴹQ. lúne and N. lhûn (Ety/LUG²).

Meanwhile, the root ᴹ√LUY appeared in The Etymologies with derivatives ᴹQ. luina and Dor. luin “pale” (EtyAC/LUY), probably connected to ᴱN. Draugluin “Werewolf Pale” from the Lays of Beleriand of the 1920s (LB/205). But in The Etymologies the root ᴹ√LUY was rejected, and Dor. luin “pale” was reassigned to ᴹ√LUG² and then revised in form to Dor. lūn (Ety/LUG²; EtyAC/LUG²).

In addition, there was already evidence of a conceptual shift in the Noldorin words for blue in the 1930s, with the name N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” being given as an alternative to N. Lhúnorodrim and N. Lhúndirien “Blue Towers” (Ety/LUG²), the latter appearing as N. Luindirien in contemporaneous Silmarillion narratives (LR/267). By the 1950s and 60s, the Sindarin and Quenya words for “blue” had firmly become S. luin (Let/448; S/54; UT/390) and Q. luinë (LotR/377; PE17/66, 71). The root √LUY “blue” appeared in notes from the late 1960s serving as the new basis for these “blue” words (VT48/23-24, 26).

All this made a mess for the river name S. Lhûn (LotR/1134) from The Lord of the Rings which was a remnant of Tolkien’s earlier ideas, and he struggled to find a new basis for that name as discussed by Patrick Wynne in his article on The Problem of Lhûn (VT48/26-29).

Derivatives

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• ᴺQ. luilë “sapphire, blue stone”
• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ᴺS. lui “blueness; livor, livid mark, *bruise”
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/23

dom

root. dark, dark, [ᴹ√] faint, dim

This root was the basis for the main Elvish words for “dusk, night”, which was established as Q. lómë in Quenya for most of Tolkien’s life. The earliest form of this root was ᴱ√LOMO in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, unglossed but with various derivatives having to do with “dusk” and “shadow” (QL/55). One notable derivative was ᴱQ. lóme “dusk, gloom, darkness”, which survived in Tolkien’s later writings as “night” and in the 1910s was the basis for ᴱQ. Hisilóme/G. Hithlum “Shadowy Twilights”. Another notable derivative was G. lómin “shady, shadowy, gloomy; gloom(iness)” (GL/45) used in the name G. Dor Lómin, which in the 1910s was translated as “Land of Shadow” (LT1/112).

The “shadow” meaning of this early root seems to have transferred to ᴹ√LUM from The Etymologies of the 1930s, which served as the new basis for N. Hithlum (Ety/LUM), as opposed contemporaneous N. Dor-lómen which was redefined as “Land of Echoes (< ᴹ√LAM via Ilkorin or in later writings, via North Sindarin). The “dusk” sense was transferred to a new root ᴹ√DOM “faint, dim”, which (along with ᴹ√DOƷ) was the basis for the pair words ᴹQ. lóme/N. dû “night” (Ety/DOMO).

These two words for “night” survived in Tolkien’s later writing in both Quenya and Sindarin (Let/308; SA/dú). In notes from the 1940s Tolkien clarified that it “has no evil connotations; it is a word of peace and beauty and has none of the associations of fear or groping that, say, ‘dark’ has for us” (SD/306). The Elves were quite comfortable being under the night sky, dating back to the time when the Elves lived under the stars before the rising of the Sun and the Moon. The root √DOM reappeared in etymologies for star-words from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/152). It appeared again in some very late notes from 1969 where it was glossed “dark” and served as the basis for words meaning “blind” as well as “night”, though this paragraph was rejected (PE22/153, note #50).

Derivatives

• ✶dōmē “night, twilight” ✧ PE17/152
  • Q. lómë “night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, [ᴹQ.] night-time, shades of night, gloom; [ᴱQ.] shadow, cloud” ✧ PE17/152; SA/dú
  • S. dû “night, dimness; dim, dark, night, dimness; [N.] night-fall, late evening; [S.] dim, dark” ✧ PE17/152; SA/dú
• ᴺQ. lomba “blind”
• Q. lomba “blind” ✧ PE22/153
• Q. lómë “night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness, [ᴹQ.] night-time, shades of night, gloom; [ᴱQ.] shadow, cloud” ✧ PE22/153
• ᴺS. dom “blind”
• S. dom “blind” ✧ PE22/153

mornā

adjective. dark

Derivations

• √MOR “black, dark, darkness” ✧ Let/382

Derivatives

• Q. morna “black, dark; black of hair, black, dark; black of hair; [ᴹQ.] sombre, gloomy” ✧ Let/382
• S. morn “black, dark; night” ✧ Let/382; WJ/362

du Reconstructed

root. dark

Derivatives

• ✶durnu “dark of hue”
  • ᴺQ. nurno “dark, deep (of hue)”
• Q. lúmë “darkness”
• Q. lúna “*dark”

lhûn

adjective. blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. lúne “blue, blue, [ᴱQ.] deep blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Derivations

• ᴹ✶lugni “blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²
  • ᴹ√LUG “*blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Element in

• N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Lhûn “Blue River”
• N. Lhúnorodrim “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Luindirien “Blue Towers” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Tor-dilluin

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶lugni > lhûn	[lugni] > [lugne] > [luŋne] > [lūne] > [lūn] > [l̥ūn]	✧ Ety/LUG²
ᴹ✶lugni > luin	[lugnī] > [lugni] > [luŋni] > [lūni] > [luin] > [l̥uin]	✧ Ety/LUG²

elw

adjective. (pale) blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. helwa “(pale) blue” ✧ Ety/ƷEL

Derivations

• On. elwa “(pale) blue” ✧ Ety/ƷEL
  • ᴹ√ƷEL “sky” ✧ Ety/ƷEL

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
On. elwa > elw	[elwa] > [elw] > [elu]	✧ Ety/ƷEL

elw

adjective. (pale) blue

glinn

noun. (pale) blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. ilin “pale blue” ✧ Ety/GLINDI

Derivations

• ᴹ√GLINDI “pale blue” ✧ Ety/GLINDI

Element in

• N. Eredlindon “Mountains of Lindon, (earlier) Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/GLINDI (Ered-lindon); LR/405

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√GLINDI > glind > glinn	[glindi] > [glinde] > [glind] > [glinn]	✧ Ety/GLINDI

Variations

• glinn ✧ Ety/GLINDI (glinn)
• lind ✧ LR/405

lhûn

adjective. (unknown meaning)

This word, which also appears on the map of Middle-earth in LotR, is glossed as "blue" in The Etymologies, but Tolkien later rejected this meaning (as luin was already used in that sense). He then proposed several explanations for it, including the possible adaptation of a Dwarvish name into Sindarin, but he apparently never reached a definitive solution.

doll

adjective. dark, dusky, obscure

dolt

adjective. dark, dusky, obscure

dûr

adjective. dark, sombre

dûr

adjective. dark

Cognates

• ᴹQ. lóna “dark” ✧ Ety/DOƷ

Derivations

• ᴹ√DOƷ “night” ✧ Ety/DOƷ

Element in

• N. Barad-dûr “Dark Tower”
• N. Dureledh “Dark-elf” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
• N. Durion “Dark-elf” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
• N. Durthang
• N. durgul “sorcery”
• N. Magladhûr “Black-sword”
• N. Ennyn Dûr “Gates of Mordor” ✧ WR/113 (Ennyn Dûr)

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√DOƷ/DÔ > dûr	[dōr] > [dūr]	✧ Ety/DOƷ

Variations

• Dûr ✧ WR/113