A defective verb in Quenya that meant “say”, “says” or “said”, the only remnant of the verbal function of the ancient root √KWE (WJ/392). This verb is “defective” in the sense that is does not have most verbal inflections:
> It has no tense forms and usually receives no pronominal affixes, being mostly used only before either a proper name (sg. or pl.) or a full independent pronoun, in the senses “say / says” or “said”. A quotation then follows, either direct, or less usually indirect after a “that”-conjunction (WJ/392).
Thus it resembles the English verb “quoth”, which is likewise a defective verb that is not inflected for tense: Eque Manwe = “Quoth Manwe”, which would then be followed by the thing that Manwe said. The difference is that English “quoth” sounds archaic and can only be used of past quotations, whereas Quenya eque is not archaic and can used of either past quotations or habitual quotations: things the speaker regularly says. The only inflections this verb can take are pronominal suffixes, which are attached directly to eque such as equen “said I” or eques “said he”, and such inflections are only used when reporting a dialogue (WJ/415).
epë prep. "before" ("in all relations but time", VT49:32), though the word was glossed "after" when first published (VT42:32; Bill Welden, the writer of the article in question, later presented this correction in VT44:38). The preposition can indeed express "after" when used of time, since the Eldar imagined future time (time that comes after the present) as being "before" them (VT49:12, 32); epë is in this respect a variant of apa, q.v. (Cf. VT49:22.) Compare epessë, q.v. Epë "before" may also be used in comparison (PE17:56, 57), apparently in much the same way as lá #2 (q.v.) (VT42:32)