Early Quenya
kaire laiqa’ondoisen kirya
the white ship lay upon the rocks
Element in
Variations
- Kaire laiqa’ondoisen kirya; ✧ MC/221
- {ondoise laiqa kainer >>} kaire laiq’ ondoisen kirya ✧ PE16/062
- käire laikv’ öndöisen kirja ✧ PE16/072
- kaire laiq’ ondoisen kirya ✧ PE16/074
The seventeenth phrase (line 19 and the first part of line 20) of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/221). The first word is the present 3rd-singular feminine form of the verb kaya- “to lie” followed by the adjective laiqa “green”, not reflected in the English translation but modifying the following word “rocks”. The last two words are the locative plural of ondo “rock” followed by kirya “ship”. The English adjective “white” modifying “ship” does not appear in the Qenya phrase, and a more accurate translation would be “a ship lay upon the green rocks” (PE16/62).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> kai-re laiqa ondo-i-sen kirya = “✱lay-she green rock-(plural)-on ship”
Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in the fourth draft of this poem, where Tolkien first considered an alternate arrangement of the words ondoise laiqa kainer before settling on some close to the final phrase, albeit with an elided form of the adjective laiq’ without its final vowel (OM1d: PE16/62). The phrase remained the same thereafter, with Tolkien restoring the full form of laiqa’ only in the final draft of the poem.