innas

noun. *will

innas

noun. will

caro den i innas lin

thy will be done

The fourth line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word caro is the imperative form of the verb car- “to do”. The third word is the definite article i “the”, followed by innas “will” and the possessive pronoun lin “your”, with the adjectival element following the noun as is usual in Sindarin.

The function of the word den in this phrase is unclear. Bill Welden suggested (VT44/25) that is a marker of the passive voice (“thy will be done” instead of “do thy will”), and is the lenited form of ten, either a 3rd-plural pronoun “they” (as in impersonal English phrases such as “they say ...”) or a neutral pronoun “it”. Since “they” appears as di (← ti) elsewhere in the prayer, I think the second possibility is more likely.

See the entry for the second line of this prayer for a discussion of the use of the definite article i before the possessed noun in this phrase.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> car-o den i innas lin = “✱do-(imperative) it the will yours”

innas

will

(noun) innas, pl. innais (VT44:23)

innas

will

pl. innais (VT44:23)

pen

cardinal. one

(indefinite pronoun) (= somebody, anybody) pen (WJ:376); lenited ben. According to one interpretation of the phrase caro den i innas lín from the Sindarin Lords Prayer (VT44:23), this could mean *”let one do your will”, with den (perhaps a lenited form of *ten) as the indefinite pronoun ”one”. However, others interpret den as the accusative form of the pronoun ”it”: ”Do it [, that is:] your will”.

pen

one

(WJ:376); lenited ben. According to one interpretation of the phrase caro den i innas lín from the Sindarin Lord’s Prayer (VT44:23), this could mean ✱”let one do your will”, with den (perhaps a lenited form of ✱ten) as the indefinite pronoun ”one”. However, others interpret den as the accusative form of the pronoun ”it”: ”Do it [, that is:] your will”.

min

fraction. one (first of a series)

min

cardinal. one, one, [G.] single

mîn

fraction. one (first of a series)

nidh-

verb. will, mean to, have a mind to

pen

pronoun. one, somebody, anybody

Usually enclitic and mutated as ben.2

eru

the one

isolated from

min

cardinal. one

1) (number ”one” as the first in a series) min, mîn (VT48:6), Note: homophones include the noun ”peak” and the adjective ”isolated, first, towering”. 2) (number) êr, whence the adjectival prefix er- (alone, lone); 3)

min

one

mîn (VT48:6), Note: homophones include the noun ”peak” and the adjective ”isolated, first, towering”.

thel

will

(vb.) ?thel- (intend, mean, purpose, resolve)

thel

will

(intend, mean, purpose, resolve)

êr

one

whence the adjectival prefix er- (alone, lone)