wilwarin (wilwarind-, as in pl. wilwarindi) noun "butterfly" (Markirya, WIL, LT1:273); Wilwarin name of a constellation, tentatively identified as Cassiopeia (Silm). "Qenya" adjective wilwarindeën "like butterflies" (MC:216); see wilwarindëa for Quenya form. "Qenya" similative form wilwarindon "as a butterfly" (MC:213, 220); Tolkien later abandoned the ending -ndon (PE17:58)
Quenya
wilwarin
proper name. Butterfly
wilwarin
butterfly
wilwarin
noun. butterfly
wilwarindëa
like a wilwarin or butterfly
wilwarindëa adj. "like a wilwarin or butterfly", pl. wilwarindië (PE16:96)
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”
wilwarindëa
adjective. like a butterfly
vilvarin
noun. butterfly
A word for “butterfly” appearing as wilwarin in the Markirya poem of the 1960s based on the adjective wilwa “fluttering to and fro” (MC/222, 223). It has a stem form of wilwarind- as implied by the adjective wilwarindëa “like a butterfly” from the version of the Nieninquë poem from the 1960s (PE16/96). The appearance of an initial w- in this word is somewhat unusual: see the entry on the sound [w] for further discussion. Its modern Quenya pronunciation would be vilwarin or vilvarin. Tolkien himself occasionally used vilvarin instead (PE16/72; MR/166).
Conceptual Development: The word ᴱQ. wilwarin (wilwarind-) “butterfly” appeared all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√GWILI (QL/104). That document also had an adjective form ᴱQ. wilwarinda, descriptive of the sycamore tree (QL/57). This word appeared in the versions of the Oilima Markirya poem written around 1930, and the adjective wilwarindea appeared in the version of the Nieninqe poem from this period. ᴹQ. wilwarin “butterfly” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√WIL “fly” with a plural form wilwarindi (Ety/WIL). Thus this word was quite stable in Tolkien’s mind, and usually appeared with an initial w.
wilwarin
Wilwarin
-ndon
similative
-ndon, case-ending for "similative": wilwarindon "like a butterfly" (see wilwarin), laurendon "like gold" _(PE17:58) In the post-LotR period Tolkien decided to abandon this ending, apparently because it was to similar to the agental suffix -ndo (PE17:58)_, and it does not appear in the Plotz decension.
vilvarindëa
adjective. like a butterfly
Name of a constellation (S/48) which is simply the word wilwarin “butterfly” used as a name (MC/223). It is unusual in that it begins with the letter [w], which in Quenya usually became [v], indicating it is probably of ancient origin. In one place (MR/166), Tolkien wrote this name as Vilvarin before changing it to Wilwarin. See the entry for vilvarin for further discussion.