Early Quenya
silmeráno tindon
shining in the silver moon
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss silmerána “gleaming moon, silver moon” tini- “to gleam, shine as a star” Variations
- Silmeráno tindon ✧ MC/220
- {ranainen >> ránasi >> silmerána >>} no silmerána tindon ✧ PE16/062
- no silmeraana tindon ✧ PE16/072
- {no} silmeráno tindon ✧ PE16/074
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).