Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Early Quenya

mandulómi anta móri ambalar

the East raised black shadows out of hell

The fifteenth phrase (lines 15-16) of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/221). The first word is a compound of mandu “hell” and the plural of lóme “shadows”. It is followed by the aorist form of the verb anta- “to give”, with the looser English translation “raised”. For some reason the adjective móri “black” (plural form of móre) appears after the verb, with the subject Ambalar “East” as the final word of the phrase.

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

> mandu-lóm-i anta mór-i Ambalar = “✱hell-shadow-(plural) give black-(plural) East”

Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in the fourth draft of this poem, using a singular form of the adjective móre “black” and an alternate (definite) word for “East”: n’Ambustar (OM1d: PE16/62). Tolkien switched to the final form of this phrase in the sixth draft (OM1f: PE16/74).

Element in

Elements

WordGloss
mandu“hell; abyss”
lóme“dusk, gloom, darkness; shadow, cloud”
anta-“to give”
móre“night, darkness; black, dark”
Ambalar“the East”

Variations

  • Mandulómi anta {móre >>} more n’Ambustar ✧ PE16/062
  • Manduloomi äntä moore n’Ambustaar ✧ PE16/072
  • Mandulómi anta {móre >>} móri {n·Ambustar >>} n·Ambalar ✧ PE16/074
Early Quenya [MC/221; PE16/062; PE16/072; PE16/074] Group: Eldamo. Published by