fanya noun "(white) cloud" (translated "sky" in FS); pl. fanyar in Namárië(Nam, RGEO:67). ). Used "only of white clouds, sunlit or moonlit, or clouds gilded or silvered at the edges by light behind them", not "of storm clouds or cloud canopies shutting out the light" (PE17:174). Cf. lumbo, q.v. According to VT46:15, fanya was originally given as an adjective "white" in the Etymologies; the printed version in LR wrongly implies that fanya and fána both mean "cloud", whereas actually the first was at this stage meant to be an adjective "white" whereas fána is both noun "cloud" and adj. "white". However, Namárië and later emendations to the entry SPAN in Etym indicate that Tolkien would later think of fanya as a noun "cloud", perhaps giving it the same double meaning as fána: noun "cloud" as well as adjective "white". According to PE17:26, fanya was originally an adjectival form "white and shining" that was however often used as a noun "applied to various things, notably to white clouds lit by sun or moon". In Namárië, the word is used poetically with reference to the hands of Varda (she lifted her hands ve fanyar "like clouds").
Quenya
fanya
noun. (white) cloud, white and shining [thing], (white) cloud, white and shining [thing]; [ᴹQ.] sky; white
fanya
(white) cloud
fanyarë
noun. the skies (not heaven or firmament), the upper airs and clouds
A noun used in the 1960s version of the Markirya poem described as “the skies - not heaven or firmament - the upper airs and clouds” (MC/222-223). It is a (singular) abstract noun based on fanya “cloud” and hence refers to the portion of the sky where the clouds reside, as opposed to menel “the heavens” which is the dome of the sky and the realm of the stars.
Fanyamar
upper air
Fanyamar place-name referring to the "upper air" (SPAN), literally *"Cloudland"
fanyarë
the skies
fanyarë noun "the skies" (not heaven or firmament the upper airs and clouds). Note that despite its English gloss, fanyarë is a singular word and therefore takes a singular adjective/participle, as in fanyarë rúcina "ruined skies" in Markirya (see MC:220, note 8 for this translation)
Fanyamar
Fanyamar
In Quenya, fanya means "cloud" and mar means "home".
fána
white
fána, fánë (1) adj. "white" (Markirya - fánë as a sg. form in may be a misreading). Compare fanya.
malda
yellow, of golden colour
malda adj. "yellow, of golden colour" (PE17:51), variant of malina. An earlier source (the Etymologies, entry SMAL) has malda as the noun "gold" but LotR gives malta, q.v., and according to VT46:14 the form malta originally appeared in the Etymologies as well. Since Quenya sometimes uses adjectives as nouns (see for instance fanya), malda could still be regarded as a valid side-form of the noun malta "gold".
már
home, house, dwelling
már (mar-) (2) noun "home, house, dwelling" (also "house" in the sense of family as in Mardil, q.v.). See mar above for references. In Mar-nu-Falmar, Mardil, and as final element in Eldamar, Fanyamar, Valimar, Vinyamar..
fána
cloud
fána (2) noun "cloud" _(SPAN, VT46:15). _Cf. fana.
hellë
sky
hellë noun "sky" (3EL; a distinct word hellë "frost" was struck out, see KHEL.)
ilwë
sky, heavens
ilwë noun "sky, heavens" (LT1:255), "the middle air among the stars" (LT1:273). VT49:51, 53 also mentions an obscure prononominal element ilwë.
lumbo
cloud
lumbo noun "cloud" (pl. lumbor in Markirya), also glossed "gloom; dark, shade" (PE17:72, 168). In early "Qenya", lumbo was glossed "dark lowering cloud" (LT1:259)
malina
yellow
malina adj. "yellow" (SMAL, Letters:308), "yellow, of golden colour" (PE17:51). Malinalda *"Yellow-tree", a name of Laurelin (SA:mal-; evidently malina + alda), translated "Tree of Gold" in the Silmarillion index. Cf. also malinornë.
mélamar
home
mélamar noun "home", Exilic Quenya word of emotional sense: place of ones birth or the familiar places from which one has been separated (PE17:109). Mélamarimma noun "Our Home", an expression used by Exilic Noldor for Aman.
ninquë
white, chill, cold, palid
ninquë adj. "white, chill, cold, palid" (WJ:417, SA:nim, PE17:168, NIK-W - spelt "ninqe" in Etym and in LT1:266, MC:213, MC:220, GL:60), pl. ninqui in Markirya. Compounded in Ninquelótë noun "White-Flower" (SA:nim), = Sindarin Nimloth, the White Tree of Númenor; ninqueruvissë ("q") "white-horse-on" _(MC:216; this is "Qenya", read _ninqueroccossë or *ninquiroccossë in LotR-style Quenya). Normally ninquë would be expected to have the stem-form ninqui-, given the primitive form ¤ninkwi; Ninquelótë rather than *Ninquilótë must be seen as an analogical form.
tulca
yellow
tulca (3) ("k") adj. "yellow". Adopted and adapted from Valarin; the normal Quenya word for "yellow" is rather malina (WJ:399)
ungo
cloud, dark shadow
ungo noun "cloud, dark shadow" (UÑG)
fána
adjective. white, white; [ᴹQ.] cloud
@@@ as suggested by Helge Fauskanger, the form fánë “white” in the Markirya poem may be a slip or misreading
fánë
adjective. white
The usual word for “cloud” in Quenya, appearing within both the Namárië and Markirya poems (LotR/377; MC/223), in the latter as an element in Q. fanyarë “the skies” (MC/222). More specifically, it was a “white cloud” (PE17/26, 175). For dark or stormy clouds, lumbo is a more accurate word.
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. aulo “cloud” appeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, but Tolkien wrote ᴱQ. fanya in pencil next to it (PE16/142) and seems to have stuck with that form thereafter. In Fíriel’s Song of the 1930s, however, Tolkien translated ᴹQ. fanya as “sky” (LR/72), while in The Etymologies of the 1930s fanya was “white” and derived from the root ᴹ√SPAN of the same meaning (Ety/SPAN). In that document, ᴹQ. fána was “cloud” (Ety/SPAN), but in later writings Q. fána became “white” (MC/222) and Q. fanya “cloud” (LotR/377; MC/223).
Fanya was derived from the root ᴹ√SPAN “white” in the 1930s, and the root √SPAN did reappear briefly in a discussion from 1967 (PE17/184-185), but in later writings Tolkien usually derived fanya from √PHAN. Tolkien wrote several lengthy essays on this root, and in one them said:
> √PHAN-. The basic sense of this was “cover, screen, veil”, but it had a special development in the Eldarin tongues ... The derivative (properly adjectival in form) ✱phanyā became [in Sindarin] fain, used as an adjective meaning “dim, dimmed” (applied to dimmed or fading lights or to things seen in them) or “filmy, fine-woven etc.” ... the word for “cloud” was in Quenya supplied by the derivative fanya (cf. I, 394), which was no longer used as an adjective. But this was used only of white clouds, sunlit or moonlit, or of clouds reflecting sunlight as in the sunset or sunrise, or gilded and silvered at the edges by moon or sun behind them (PE17/174-175).