The twelfth phrase of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/220). Its first word is the genitive form of silmerána “gleaming moon” followed by the aorist 3rd-plural masculine form of the verb tini- “to shine, gleam”. The subject of this phrase is actually ondolin “rocks” appearing in the previous phrase, with the genitive silmeráno giving the context in which the rocks shine. A more literal translation would be “✱of the gleaming moon they shine”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> silme-rán-o tin-don = “✱gleaming-moon-of shine-they”
Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in the fourth draft of this poem as no silmerána tindon, with no “under” serving the same role as the genitive (OM1d: PE16/62), hence “✱under the gleaming moon they shine”. Tolkien switched to the final form of the phrase in the sixth draft (OM1f: PE16/74).
A word glossed as either “silver moon” (MC/220) or “the gleaming moon” (PE16/75) appearing in the ᴱQ. Oilima Markirya poem from around 1930s and its earlier drafts, apparently a combination of ᴱQ. Rána “moon” with some (adjectival?) element ᴱQ. silme.