Neldië

trinity

Neldië noun "Trinity" (VT44:17)

neldië

proper name. *Trinity

A Quenya name for the Holy Trinity in Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). It is a combination of neldë “three” and the abstract-noun suffix -ië.

neldë

cardinal. three

neldë cardinal "three" (SA:neldor, NÉL-ED, VT47:11, VT48:6). Eleni neldë "three stars", archaic elenion neldë = *"of stars three". Genitive "of 3 stars" = elenion neldë (for archaic elenion neldëo) (VT49:45; see 54 regarding neldion as the gen. pl.) Cf. also nelya, neldëa, Neldië.

neldë

cardinal. three, three; [ᴱQ.] four

a aina neldië eru er órava (o)messë

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us

The ninth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by aina Neldië = “holy Trinity”. The fourth word Eru is Tolkien’s usual Quenya name for God. The fifth word is er “one”, emphasizing the one-ness of the Trinity. The phrase órava (o)messe “have mercy on us” was abbreviated o.o. in the original, but presumably was the same as in earlier lines of the prayer; see the entry for the first line for discussion.

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

> a Aina Neldië Eru Er órava (o)me-sse = “✱o Holy Trinity, God one have-mercy us-on”

Conceptual Development: Tolkien first wrote an adjectival form Erea before changing it to Er as a way of emphasizing the one-ness of the Trinity (VT44/17).

aina

holy

aina (2) adj "holy" (AYAN), derived from Ainu. Adopted and adapted from Valarin. According to VT43:32, the word is "obsolete, except in Ainur", apparently suggesting that airë or airëa (q.v.) was the normal term for "holy" in later Quenya. However, Tolkien repeatedly used aina in his translation of the Litany of Loreto: Aina Fairë "Holy Spirit", Aina Neldië "Holy Trinity", Aina Maria "Holy Mary", Aina Wendë "Holy Virgin". He also used Aina Eruontari for "holy Mother" in his rendering of the Sub Tuum Praesidium(WJ:399, FS, SA, VT43:32, VT44:5, 12, 17-18)

aira

holy

aira (2) adj. "holy"; see airë #1

airë

holy

airë (1) adj. "holy", #Airefëa "the Holy Spirit" (VT43:37, dative airefëan on the previous page), airetári or Airë Tári "holy queen" (a title of Varda, PM:363), genitive aire-tário "holy-queen's" (Nam, RGEO:67). However, according to PM:363, airë is the noun "sanctity", while aira is the adjective "holy". VT43:14 refers to an etymological note of "Sept.-Oct. 1957" where airë is said to be a noun "sanctity, holiness", and the adjective "holy" is given as airëa. However, the verb #airita- "hallow" seems to be formed from an adjective airë, airi- "holy". Evidently airë can function as both adjective ("holy") and noun ("holiness"); if so airë as adj. could represent a primitive adjective gaisi, whereas airë as noun may descend from gaisē. The former but not the latter would have the stem airi- (as observed in the derived verb #airita-), and compounds like airetári (rather than *airitári) would seem to contain properly the noun "holiness".

airëa

holy

airëa adj. "holy"; see airë.

aista

holy

aista (1) adj. "holy" (VT43:37)

olë

cardinal. three

olë (2) cardinal "three" (LT1:258; in LotR-style Quenya Tolkien replaced this "Qenya" form with neldë)