Primitive elvish

spalak Reconstructed

root. cleave, hew

The root {ᴱ√FḶQḶ >>} ᴱ√FḶKḶ “cleave, hew” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. falqa “cleft, pass, ravine” and ᴱQ. falqan “large sword” (QL/38). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it had derivatives like G. falchon “great two-handed sword, twibill” but also G. flig- “hew” and G. flinc “chip” (GL/33, 35). The Gnomish Lexicon also had G. falc “cleft, ravine”, which was an element in G. Glorfalc “Golden Cleft” from the earliest Lost Tales (LT2/150). In much later versions of The Silmarillion a similar ravine was named S. Orfalch Echor (S/239). If the element S. falch has the same meaning in this later name, it hints that ᴱ√FḶKḶ survived in some form, perhaps as ✱√SPALAK or ✱√PHALAK.

Derivatives

  • S. falch “*cleft, ravine, [ᴱN.] cleft, ravine”
  • ᴺS. falchon “great two-handed sword, twibill”