len

root. *way, [ᴹ√] way, (?road)

A variant of √LED in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s that Tolkien considered to explain the derivation of S. lembas “waybread” (PE17/60). The root ᴹ√LEN “(?road), way” also appeared earlier in The Etymologies of the 1930s as the basis for N. lembas (EtyAC/LEN). Tolkien may have settled on this root when he revised the earlier root ᴹ√LED (Ety/LED) “go, fare, travel” >> √DEL “walk, go, proceed, travel” in the 1959-60 Quendi and Eldar essay (WJ/360), deciding that its inversion √LED was used mainly in Quenya (WJ/363).

A possible precursor to this root is ᴹ√LĒ “go, fare” in the Declension of Nouns (DN) from the early 1930s with derivative ᴹQ. lesto “journey” (PE21/12). This is turn is probably a later iteration of ᴱ√LEHE “come, be sent, approach” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, given as a variant of ᴱ√ELE (QL/52). It is probably the basis for contemporaneous G. len “come, arrived” and G. lentha- “come towards speaker, approach, draw near” (GL/53) and possibly ᴱQ. lehe- or ᴱQ. lehta- “ride” from the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s (PE15/76).

For a discussion of other parallel roots, see √LED and √DEL.

Derivatives

• Q. lenda “journey, journey, *travel, trip” ✧ PE17/060

Element in

• Os. lenn-mbass “way-bread” ✧ PE17/060

tul-

verb. come, is coming, has come, is here

Element in

• ✶le tulir “come ye!” ✧ PE22/140
• ✶lḗ tuli, tuli lḗ, āle tuli! “come (you)!, now you, come!” ✧ PE22/140; PE22/140; PE22/140
• ✶sē tuli, tuli sḗ, āse tuli! “let him come! etc.” ✧ PE22/140; PE22/140; PE22/140