wilwa
vague, fluttering to and fro
wilwa Archaic
adjective. fluttering to and fro
wilwarin wilwa
vague as a butterfly
The seventh line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is wilwarin “butterfly” modified by the adjective wilwa “fluttering to and fro”, which is more loosely translated as “vague” in the poem itself. The English preposition “as” is not reflected in the Quenya text, and may be an artifact of the Early Qenya version of the poem.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> wilwarin wilwa = “✱butterfly fluttering”
vilva
adjective. fluttering to and fro
An adjective appearing as wilwa “fluttering to and fro” in the glossary to the Markirya poem from the 1960s (MC/223). In the poem itself, it was loosely translated “vague as”, in the phrase wilwarin wilwa “vague as a butterfly” (MC/222).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use the form vilva “fluttering to and fro” in keeping with the general principle that *w* was pronounced and spelt *v* in modern Quenya; see the entry for [w] for discussion.
valcanë
vague
valcanë ("k") adj. "vague" (MC:213; this is "Qenya")
wilwa adj. "vague, fluttering to and fro" (_Markirya). _A similar word in the Etymologies was struck out: [wilwa > vilwa] "air, lower air" (distinct from the 'upper' air of the stars, or the 'outer') (WIL) According to VT46:21, Tolkien considered wilda > vilda as a replacement form, but rejected it.