A word attested only as an element in lantalka “boundary post or mark” in notes on The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor from 1967-69 (VT42/8). Carl Hostetter suggested it and its Sindarin cognate S. tagol could be derived from primitive ✱✶tak(a)la based on the root √TAK “fix, make fast” (VT42/28).
Quenya
markirya
The Last Ark
talca
noun. post, mark
lanya-
bound, enclose, separate from, mark the limit of
lanya- (1) vb. "bound, enclose, separate from, mark the limit of" (VT42:8)
talca
post, mark
#talca ("k")noun "post, mark" isolated from lantalca "boundary post or mark" (VT42:28)
tehta
mark, sign
tehta noun "mark, sign" (TEK, VT39:17, Appendix E), especially diacritics denoting vowels in Fëanorian writing (pl. tehtar is attested); these diacritics are explicitly called ómatehtar "vowel-marks", q.v.
lanya-
verb. to bound, enclose, separate from, mark the limit of
mehtë
noun. mark, aim, object
nyas
noun. scratch, score, line, mark
ripta-
verb. to cut in strips, tear up; to stripe, mark in parallel lines; to flay, flog
sar-
verb. to mark (i.e. by incision), notch, score; (by later extension) †to write [on]
mancanómë
noun. market, market-place
marcirya
noun. ark
mancamen
noun. market, (lit.) trade-place
tanwa
sign, token
tanwa noun "sign, token" (Tolkien marked this word with a query, but it is not clearly rejected). Also tanna (#1). (PE17:186)
as
with
as prep. "with" (together with), also attested with a pronominal suffix: aselyë "with thee" (VT47:31, VT43:29). The conjunction ar "and" may also appear in assimilated form as before s; see ar #1.
as
with
o (2) prep. "with" (MC:216; this is "Qenya"; WJ:367 states that no independent preposition o was used in Quenya. Writers may rather use as.) See ó- below.
as
preposition. with
car-
with
#car- (2) prep. "with" (carelyë "with thee"), prepositional element (evidently an ephemeral form abandoned by Tolkien) (VT43:29)
hana
noun. post
lenu-
stretch
lenu- vb. "stretch" (LT2:341)
lé
with
lé (2) prep. "with" (PE17:95)
lé
preposition. with
The preposition lé “with” was mentioned in a (rejected) etymology of S. di “with” in Tolkien’s notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/94), from the phrase le nallon sí di’nguruthos (LotR/729), usually translated “here overwhelmed in dread of Death, I cry”. In this note, Tolkien eventually decided that S. (n)di actually meant “beneath”, and its Quenya equivalent was Q. nî.
Conceptual Development: Prepositional ᴹQ. le also appeared in the Lament of Atalante from the 1940s, in the phrase ᴹQ. Númeheruvi arda sakkante lenéme Ilúvatáren “the Lords of the West broke the world by [or with] leave of Ilúvatar” (SD/246, 310). Here “with” seems to be used in the instrumental sense “by means of”. The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. le “with (accompaniment)” under the early root ᴱ√LĒ (QL/52). Le was also mentioned in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon as the equivalent of G. li “with (of accompaniment only)”, but also used to mean “and” between nouns GL/54().
Neo-Quenya: I would retain ᴺQ. lé for purposes of Neo-Quenya as a rarely-used instrumental preposition meaning “with, by (means of)”, reconceived as a derivative of √LEÑ “✱way, method, manner” (PE17/74).
narwë
sign, token
[narwë (and short nar, unless this is an incomplete form) noun "sign, token"] (VT45:37)
nauta
bound, obliged
nauta adj. "bound, obliged" (NUT)
taina
sign
#taina (2) noun "sign", isolated from Tainacolli *"Sign-bearer" MR:385
tanna
sign, token
tanna (1) noun "sign, token" (MR:385, PE17:186), also tanwa (PE17:186)
tengwa
noun. sign
sign, indicator, letter
ó
with, accompanying
maxa-
verb. to cook
maxar
noun. cook
rimpë
noun. scratch
A Quenya poem that appears in The Monsters and the Critics (MC/221-2). It is a late revision of an earlier poem, Oilima Markirya “The Last Ark”, written prior to 1931. Over three decades later, Tolkien wrote the later version, after the linguistic concepts of his languages had developed considerably. There are two Late Quenya drafts of the poem, but both are very similar, as noted by Christopher Tolkien (MC/222).
The Late Quenya version of the poem had no title, but in the literature it is usually referred to as the Markirya poem, since the word ᴱQ. oilima “last” is unlikely to be valid in later Quenya, but Markirya could be (“home-ship?”). The Quenya words in the text presented here are from the second Late Quenya draft of the poem on MC/221-2, with the revisions noted by Christopher Tolkien (MC/222). In the first line, I editorially changed the words men >> man and fáne >> fána for consistency with the rest of the poem.
As noted by Christopher Tolkien (MC/223), while the Elvish text was almost completely revised from the Early Qenya poem, its meaning was nearly identical to the version from three decades earlier. The English glosses here are from the translation of the Early Qenya version of the poem on MC/214, with the modifications in lines 33-34 as indicated by Christopher Tolkien in note #8, MC/220 (“green rocks” >> “dark rocks”, “red skies” >> “ruined skies”).
The text is divided into phrases for each line of the poem, except for lines 29-30 (elenillor pella talta-taltala) which are combined to make a more complete phrase. Other modifications and textual history are discussed in the entries for individual phrases.
I consulted Helge Fauskanger’s article on the poem (AL/Markirya) when working on my own analysis, and agree with him on essentially all points.
Conceptual Development: See the discussion in the entry for ᴱQ. Oilima Markirya for the conceptual development of the earlier versions of the poem.