Quenya 

hroa

hröa

hroa (sometimes spelt "hröa")noun "body" (changed by Tolkien from hrondo, in turn changed from hrón). The word hroa comes from earlier ¤srawa(VT47:35). Pl. hroar is attested (MR:304, VT39:30). In MR:330, Tolkien notes that hroa is "roughly but not exactly equivalent to 'body' " (as opposed to "soul"). The Incarnates live by necessary union of hroa (body) and fëa (soul) (WJ:405). Hroafelmë "body-impulse" (impulses provided by the body, e.g. physical fear, hunger, thirst, sexual desire) (VT41:19 cf. 13)

hröa

noun. body, bodily form, flesh; physical matter

A word for “body” widely used in a variety of documents from 1958-59, derived from primitive ✶srawā based on the root √SRAW (MR/350). This word and derivation was mentioned again in notes from 1968 (VT47/35). In one place Tolkien used hroa metaphorically for the “the ‘flesh’ or physical matter of Arda” (MR/399), but as noted by Christopher Tolkien, Tolkien elsewhere used {orma >>} erma for “physical matter” (MR/406 note #2).

Conceptual Development: In early 1958 versions of the documents mentioned above, Tolkien used hrondo for “body”, a term he introduced in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 as a derivative of √SRON (PE17/183). But in the typescript version of Laws and Customs of the Eldar from 1958, he generally struck through hrondo and replaced it with hröa (MR/209, 217), which is the form he stuck with thereafter.

Cognates

  • S. rhaw “flesh, body” ✧ MR/350

Derivations

  • srawā “body” ✧ MR/350; VT41/14; VT47/35
    • SRAW “body, flesh” ✧ VT47/35

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
srawā > hröa[srawā] > [r̥awā] > [r̥oa]✧ MR/350
srawā > hroa[srawā] > [r̥awā] > [r̥oa]✧ VT41/14
srawa > hroa[srawa] > [r̥awā] > [r̥oa]✧ VT47/35

Variations

  • hroa ✧ MR/399; VT41/14; VT47/35
Quenya [MR/209; MR/216; MR/218; MR/219; MR/304; MR/308; MR/330; MR/350; MR/399; MR/470; MR/471; NM/014; NM/083; PMI/hröa; VT41/14; VT47/35; WJ/405] Group: Eldamo. Published by

hrón

flesh/substance of arda

hrón noun "flesh/substance of Arda", "matter" (PE17:183), also at one point used = hroa "body", q.v. Compare erma.

hrondo

corporeal form or body (especially of the elves)

hrondo noun "a corporeal form or body (especially of the Elves)" (PE17:183). Tolkien replaced this word by hroa, q.v.

coa

köa

coa ("köa")noun "house" (VT47:35, with etymology); coarya "his house" (WJ:369), allative coaryanna ("k") "to/at his house" (VT49:23, 35), quenderinwë coar ("koar") "Elvish bodies" (PE17:175). Notice how coa "house" is here used metaphorically = "body", as also in the compound coacalina "light of the house"(a metaphor for the soul [fëa] dwelling inside the body [hroa]) (MR:250)

spirit, shadow

noun "spirit, shadow" (PE17:86)

fëa

spirit

fëa noun "spirit" (pl. fëar attested, MR:363). The Incarnates are said to live by necessary union of hroa (body) and fëa (WJ:405). In Airëfëa noun "the Holy Spirit", Fëanáro masc. name "Spirit of Fire" (Quenya-Sindarin hybrid form: Fëanor), Fëanturi noun "Masters of Spirits", name of the two Valar Mandos and Lórien (SA:tur), fëafelmë noun "spirit-impulse" (impulses originating with the spirit, e.g. love, pity, anger, hate) (VT41:19 cf. 13, VT43:37). In one source it is said to mean specifically a "spirit indwelling a body", i.e. "soul" (PE17:124), which contradicts such uses as Airefëa or Fëanturi. Cf. fairë.

súlë

spirit, breath

súlë (þ) noun "spirit, breath", also name of tengwa #9; originally thúlë (þúlë), before the shift th > s that occurred shortly before the rebellion of the Noldor (Appendix E, THŪ). Its gloss, "blowing forth", was metaphorically used as "the emission of power (of will or desire) from a spirit" (PE17:124). If the element súlë appears in Súlimë and Súlimo (q.v.), the stem-form may seem to be súli-.

vilissë

spirit

vilissë noun "spirit" (GL:23)

þúlë

noun. spirit