tambë

copper

tambë (2) noun "copper" (LT1:250; this is "Qenya"; see urus for a later word for "copper")

tambë

so

tambë prep. (1) "so" or "as" (referring to something remote; contrast sívë). Sívë...tambë "as...so" (VT43:17).

tambë

preposition. *as, so

tampë

copper

tampë noun "copper" (LT1:268; in LotR-style Quenya tampë is [also?] the past tense of tap- "stop, block")

cemendë tambe erumandë

on Earth as [it is] in Heaven

The fifth line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word cemendë “on Earth” is an assimilated locative form of cemen “earth”. The word tambë likely corresponds to “as”, while Erumandë “in Heaven” is an assimilated locative form of Eruman “Heaven”. The English words “it is” are not represented in the Quenya phrase.

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

> cemen-dë tambe Eruman-dë = “✱earth-on as [it is] Heaven-in”

Conceptual Development: In earlier versions of this phrase (I-V), Tolkien used menel for “Heaven”. Elsewhere, Tolkien said that menel referred to the dome of the sky or “the firmament”, and therefore was not proper for “Heaven” (MR/387, PE17/152), which is probably why he changed the word to Eruman in version VI of the prayer.

Tolkien experimented with various ways of comparing Earth to Heaven: ier ... ar tér (I), ier ... tier (IIa), ya(n) ... ar san (IIb) and san ... ya (III-IV), each probably meaning something like “as ... so ...”, as suggested by Wynne, Smith and Hostetter (VT43/16-7). In versions V and VI Tolkien switched to a single word “as”: sívë (V) and tambë (VI).

The English words “it is” are only expressed in version III-IV, with the Quenya verb na, appearing at the end of the phrase as is typical of declarative statements.

| |  I  |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| |{yé >> ye >>}|ier|ya(n)|san| | |menelle|menelze|menelde|cemende| |ar tér|tier|ar san|ya|sívë|tambe| |{kemenze >>}|cemenze|cemende|menelde|Erumande| | |na| |

tambë

noun. bronze, copper

tambë engë i et...

as it was [in] the [beginning]...

The second line of Alcar i Ataren, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer. The first word is tambë “as”, also seen in the Átaremma prayer. The second word is enge “[it] was”, the past tense of ëa- “to be, to exist”. This is followed by i “the” and an incomplete word beginning with et (“out?”). At this point Tolkien stopped work on the prayer.

urus

noun. copper

A noun for “copper” in notes from the late 1960s based on the root √(u)rus (VT41/10).

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. tambe “copper, bronze” under the early root ᴱ√TAMA “beat; smelt, forge” in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/88).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would retain ᴺQ. tambë with the meaning of “bronze”, but would use the later word urus for “copper”.

sívë

as

sívë (1) prep. "as", apparently ve of similar meaning with the prefix sí- "this, here, now"; sívë therefore makes a comparison with something close, whereas tambë (q.v.) refers to something remote. Sívë...tambë "as...so" (VT43:17). Elided sív' in VT43:12, since the next word begins in the vowel e-.

ter

so

ter (2), also tér, prep. (?) ephemeral word for "so" (see ier), abandoned by Tolkien in favour of tambë (VT43:17)

tier

path

tier is, besides the pl. form of tië "path" above, an ephemeral word for "so", abandoned by Tolkien in favour of tambë (VT43:17)

ier

preposition. *as

sívë

preposition. *as

yan

adverb/conjunction. *as

@@@ possibly modal adverb

-vë

as, like

-vë, (3) apparently an ending used to derive adverbs from adjectives (see andavë under anda and oiavë under oia). May be related to the preposition ve "as, like".

ier

as

ier prep. "as" (VT43:16, probably rejected in favour of sívë, q.v.). In an abandoned version of the Quenya Lord's Prayer, Tolkien used ier...ter for "as...so" (VT43:17).

londa

path

[londa noun "path"], changed by Tolkien to londë noun "road (in sea)" (VT45:28)

san

so

san (2) adv. ephemeral word for "so" (ya(n)...san "as...so"; san na "thus be" = let it be so, "amen"); this form was apparently quickly abandoned by Tolkien (VT43:16, 24, VT49.18)

ta

so, like that, also

ta (2) adv. "so, like that, also", e.g. ta mára "so good" (VT49:12)

tië

path, course, line, direction, way

tië noun "path, course, line, direction, way" (TE3, VT47:11); pl. tier in Namárië(Nam, RGEO:67); tielyanna "upon your path" (UT:22 cf. 51; tie-lya-nna "path-your-upon")

urus

copper

urus (urust-) noun "copper" (VT41:10)

ve

as, like

ve (1) prep. "as, like" (Nam, RGEO:66, Markirya, MC:213, 214, VT27:20, 27, VT49:22); in Narqelion ve may mean either "in" or "as". Ve fírimor quetir *"as mortals say" (VT49:10), ve senwa (or senya) "as usual" (VT49:10). Followed by genitive, ve apparently expresses "after the manner of": ve quenderinwë coaron ("k") "after the manner of bodies of Elven-kind" (PE17:174). Tolkien variously derived Quenya ve from older wē, bē or vai(VT49:10, 32, PE17:189)

ya

as

ya (2) or yan, prep. "as" (VT43:16, probably abandoned in favour of sívë)

ye

as

[ye (3), also yé, prep. "as" (VT43:16, struck out; in the text in question Tolkien finally settled on sívë, q.v.)]