maría

feminine name. *Mary

A Quenyarization of the name of Mary, used in Tolkien’s Quenya translation of Catholic prayers: Aia María (VT43/26-8) and the Litany of Loreto (VT44/12).

María

mary

María fem. name "Mary" (Maria; Tolkien based the Quenyarized form on the Latin pronunciation) (VT43:28; Maria with no explicit long vowel in VT44:18)

aia maría

Aia María

Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer into Quenya, composed sometime in the 1950s (VT43/7), first published in the “Words of Joy (Part One)” article in Vinyar Tengwar #43. There are four versions of the prayer, labeled by Tolkien I-IV (VT43/26-8). These revisions were apparently in two phases: I-II and III-IV (VT43/5-6).

The version presented here is based on version IV (VT43/28) with a one minor change: the word for fruit is written yávë (as it is in version III) instead of yave (version IV), since this is the more common form of this word elsewhere in Tolkien’s writing. Tolkien did not provide an English translation of the prayer; following the editors of the “Words of Joy” article, I used the modern English translation of the prayer used by Catholics (VT43/35).

Further discussion of the textual history can be found in the analysis of the individual phrases. My analysis largely follows that of the “Aia María” section (VT43/26-36) of the “Words of Joy” article, though I also consulted Helge Fauskanger’s analysis of the prayer in his “Lord’s Prayer and Ave Maria” article.

aia maría quanta eruanno

Hail Mary, full of grace

The first line of Aia María, Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer. The first word Aia is a variant of aiya “hail”, followed by a Quenyarized form of “Mary”: María. The third word quanta is attested elsewhere with the meaning “full, filled” (PE17/68). The last word Eruanno is a compound of Eru “God” and anna “gift”, in the genitive, so that quanta Eruanno literally means “✱full of God’s gift”.

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

> Aia María quanta Eru-ann(a)-o = “✱Hail Mary full God-gift-of”

Conceptual Development: This phrase was quite similar in earlier versions of this prayer, but the earlier versions used erulissenen instead of Eruanno. This word is a compound of Eru “God” and lissë “grace”, in the instrumental, so that quanta erulissenen literally means “✱filled by God’s grace”.

|  I  |II|III|IV| |Aiya|Aia| |María| |quanta|erulissenen|quanta| |erulissenen|quanta|Eruanno|

airë maría eruo ontaril

Holy Mary, Mother of God

The fifth line of Aia María, Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer. The first word airë “holy” is either an adjective or a form of address applied to the second word, María: the Quenyarized form of “Mary”. The third word Eruo “of God” is the genitive form of Eru “God”. The last word ontaril “mother” seems to be a feminine form of ᴹQ. ontaro “begetter, parent” (as suggested by the Wynne, Smith and Hostetter, VT43/32). If so, Eruo ontaril more literally means “✱genetrix (female begetter) of God”.

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

> Airë María Eru-o ontaril = “✱holy Mary God-of genetrix”

Conceptual Development: In the second version of the prayer, Tolkien used {Aini >>} aina (II) for “holy” instead of aire (I, III-IV). In the first two versions of the prayer Tolkien used Eruamillë (I-II) for “Mother of God”, a compound of Eru “God” and amil(lë) “mother”.

|  I  | II |III|IV| |Aire|{Aini >>} Aina|Aire| |María| |Eruamille|Eruo| | |ontaril|