īdō kathī batānī rōkhī-nam

lo! now all ways bent-are

The first draft of the 12th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/312). Although all of its word are similar to the final version, each has differences in grammar or spelling from the later versions of the text.

• The first word īdō is the same as in the final version, but is glossed “lo! now” instead of simply “now”.

• The adjective kathī “all” is the plural form of katha, not singular as it is in the final text, perhaps indicating a shift in the rules for adjective-noun agreement.

• The subject batānī “ways” is the normal plural form of batân, not inflected to the subjective case as it is in the final text.

• The final word rōkhī-nam “(are) bent” has the plural adjective rōkhī instead of later form lōkhī. It also use the suffix -nam “are”, likely the plural of the predicate suffix -n “is”. This probably serves the same function as the subjective inflection of the final version: to represent the “to be” verb “are”.

êphalak îdô yôzâyan

far away now (is) the Land of Gift

The 13th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). The first word êphalak “far away” is an adverb or emphatic adjective; see the entry for -ak for further discussion. The second word îdô “now” is an adverb. The last word Yôzâyan “Land of Gift” is one of the names for Númenor. There is no subjective noun or a verb, so this phrase is a fragment rather than a full sentence.

The typescript version (and all earlier versions) had īdōn “now (is)” instead of īdō “now”. See the entry for îdô for further discussion.

êphal êphalak îdô hi-akallabêth

far far away now (is) She-that-hath-fallen

The 14th (and final) phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (VT24/12). The first two words êphal “far” and êphalak “far away” are repeated adjectives (or adverbs), the second with the added suffix -ak. This suffix either means “away” or is some kind of emphatic marker; see the -ak entry for further discussion. The third word îdô “now” is an adverb. The last word Akallabêth “The Downfallen” is the Adûnaic name for Númenor after its destruction. It is prefixed with the pronoun hi “she”, turning the name into a small sentence “She that hath fallen”.

The typescript version (and all earlier versions) had īdōn “now (is)” instead of īdō “now” (SD/247, 312). See the entry for îdô for further discussion.

îdô katha batîna lôkhî

now all ways (are) bent

The 12th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (VT24/12). The first word is the adverb îdô “now” and the second is the adjective katha “all”. Curiously, the adjective katha is not pluralized to agree with the noun as is the case with adjectives elsewhere in the text, including the pluralized lôkhî at the end of this very sentence.

The subject batîna “roads” is the subjective plural form of the noun batân “road, path, way”. There is no verb, so the subjective form functions as the “to be” verb (SD/429). The final word lôkhî seems to be a pluralized adjective, perhaps #lôkhi.

The typescipt version has kātha instead of katha, but is otherwise identical to the manuscript except some minor differences in translation (SD/247).

îdô

adverb. now

A word translated “now” in the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). In the final manuscript version, this is the only form of the word, but in the final typescript version and in all earlier versions, it sometimes appears in the form îdôn.

Some authors have suggested this variation occurs when îdô appears before words beginning in a vowel or semi-vowel (AL/Adûnaic, NBA/12), but this seems unlikely to me. Carl Hostetter, Patrick Wynne and Andreas Moehn instead suggested (VSH/18, AAD/16, LGtAG, EotAL/DAW) that îdôn is a subjective inflection of the word îdô, being used as a noun. The key evidence supporting this second theory is that where the form îdon appears, its gloss is always “now (is)” rather than simply “now”. As discussed elsewhere (SD/429), the subjective inflection can function as the verb “to be”.

I tend to agree with this theory of Hostetter, Wynne and Moehn, but I think the actually development is somewhat more complex. In the first draft version of the Lament of Akallabêth, this form of the word appears twice as īdōn “lo! now is”. As noted by Mr. Moehn (LGtAG), this version of the Lament used a predicate suffix -n “is” in several places: burodan “heavy-is”, rōkhī-nam “bent-are”. It seems likely that draft form īdōn “lo! now is” is another variation of this earlier syntax.

The draft predicate suffix -n differed from the later subjective case in that it applied to the predicate of a clause instead of the subject. Compare these changes from the draft to final versions:

• agannūlo burudan “death-shade heavy-is” >> agannâlô burôda “death-shadow [is] heavy”

• batānī rōkhī-nam “ways bent-are” >> batîna lôkhî “ways (are) bent”

In both draft sentences, the subject is uninflected and the predicate has the predicate suffix -n/-nam. Conversely, in the later sentences the subject is inflected into the subjective case while the predicate is uninflected. This demonstrates the functional shift in the use of the predicate suffix -n in these drafts to the later use of the subjective inflection.

In both the second draft and final typescript versions of the Lament, the form îdôn was retained in all the sentences where it appeared in the first draft. This means that it could have been a remnant of this earlier syntax. The form îdôn could be reinterpreted as the sentence’s subject, but this is also problematic, since îdô is certainly neuter and its subjective form should be ✱îdôwa, not îdôn.

It is my belief that Tolkien eventually decided that the suffix -n could no longer be used in this context and removed it, switching to an uninflected îdô “now” everywhere in the text as is the case in the final manuscript version of the Lament. On the basis of this deduction, I also believe that the manuscript version was written after than the typescript version.