I
peryandor tirir Telcontar. Séyane sa nés nóla enwina
nolmesse,
ve nés i tiessen verce ardaron. 'Man Artanáro né?'
maquente
Cali; mal Telcontar úme maquete, ar
séyanes
vanwa
sanwessen. Tumna óma nurrune tyelca:
Lante Artanáro
translation by Petri Tikka
Ingaran Eldaron
Artanáro.
Nandari lirir nainala seo:
Métim' ardarya vanya, latin né
Imbe i Oronti ar Eare.
Hyandorya anda, ehterya maica,
Sílala carmarya haiya cenna;
Menelo eleni únótime
Nalle ner telpina turmaryasse.
Mal andave yá erye oante,
Masse maris úquen ista quete;
An lantan' élerya mornie mir
Morinoresse ya lómi caitar.
THE FALL OF GIL-GALAD
(LotR:181)
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Gil-Galad was an
Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the Mountains and the Sea.
His sword was long, his lance was keen,
His shining helm afar was seen;
The countless stars of heaven's field
Were mirrored in his silver shield.
But long ago he rode away,
And where he dwelleth none can say;
For into darkness fell his star
In Mordor where the shadows are.
NOTES
The
title: *_lante_ “fall’ < _Noldolante_’the Fall of the Noldor’ (X:117). _Artanáro_
(XII:350). This is the Quenya name of Gil-Galad. Often if two nouns are in
apposition, the second obtains a genitive meaning, cf. _Indis i-Ciryamo_ ‘the Mariner's Wife’ (UT:8) and _Coron
Oiolaire_ ‘Mound of Eversummer’ (XI:401). Quenya titles do not necessarily
need, even if it is needed in English, cf. _Quenta Silmarillion_ ‘The History
of the Silmarils’.
Line
1: _ingaran_ ‘high-king’ (XII:340). Because I needed ten syllables
per line, I used this longer form. Gil-Galad was the high-king of the Eldar
before his fall, so this may be even better than simply _aran_ ‘king’
(XI:369). _eldaron_ ‘of the Eldar’. I used this in favour of _eldaiva_
‘Elves’’ (XI:407). _–va_ was used in adjectival formations (XI:368,e.g.
_Eruva_ ‘divine’ [VT44:18]), as is the English ‘-en’. This would have
been better, if I could have added a preterite copula. _Eldaiva_ by itself would
probably imply that he is still the king, which is not the case here. The
absence of the copula was frequent in Quenya (VT43:30), though it is not
directly attested for the past tense. There is no direct attestation of a
preterite copula in the published corpus. There is one indirect (VT40:13), but
it wouldn’t fit into the metre. The word order is reversed here, but it
doesen’t change the meaning.
Line
2: *_nandari_ ‘harpers’ < _nandaro_ (V:377). Nouns ending in the
agentive endings _-r_, _-ro_ (XI:371) and _-re_ (V:379) seem to be pulralized as
_-ri_, cf. ‘_ontaro_ begetter, parent (f. _ontare_); pl. _ontari_ parents’
(V:379) and _Istari_ ‘those who know’ (L:202).
*_lirir_ pl. ‘sing’ < _lir-_ ‘to chant’ (V: 369) and _lirin_
‘I sing’ (V:359), cf. _Eleni silir.._ (VI:324). *_nainala_ part.
‘lamenting’ < _naina_ ‘to lament’ (V:375) + _-la_ (MC:223), cf. _rúmala_
part. ‘moving’ (MC:215, 222) < _rúma_ ‘move’ (MC:223). Here the
paticiple describes the action of the verb, cf. _lassi lantar laurie_ ‘leaves
fall golden’ (R:66). *_seo_ ‘of him’ < *_s(e)_ ‘he’ < _ós(e)_
(VT43:29). The syntax of this line is normal.
Line
3: _métim’_ (MC:222) < _métima_ ‘ultimate, final’. *_ardarya_
‘his realm’ < _arda_ ‘realm’ (V:360) + _-rya_ ‘his’ (R:67).
_vanya_ ‘fair’ (V:72). _latin_
‘open, free, cleared (of land)’ (V:368). *_né_ ’was’ (VT40:13). The
copula is usually placed after the adjective, cf. _Sí vanwa ná_ ‘Now lost
is’ (LR:368). This line is formed differently from the original, though the
meaning is hopefully not too far removed: ‘Final his realm was fair, free’.
[…]
Line
4: _imbe_ ‘between’ (R:67). _i_ ‘the’ (V:361). *_oronti_
‘Mountains’ < _Lúnoronti_ ‘Blue Mountains’ (V:370). _ar_ ‘and’
(V:349). _eare_ ‘the open sea’ (IX:305). I chose _eare_ instead of the
normal _Ear_ (L:386) because of the metre, although it is not perfect. I
couldn’t find anything better. I hope it can be pronounced with a long
‘e’!
Line
5: *_hyandorya_ ‘his sword’ < _hyando_ ‘sword’ (V:389). _anda_
‘long’ (V:348). *_ehterya_ ‘his spear’ < _ehte_ ‘spear’ (V:355).
I couldn’t find a word for ‘lance’ in the published corpus, but
‘spear’ is probably a synonym. _maika_ ‘sharp, penetrating, going deep
in’ (XI:337). I used this in favour of _laika_ ’keen’ (II:337,
V:367), because it would colide with _laica_ ‘green’ (L:283).
Line
6: *_sílala_ ‘shining (white)’ < _sisílala_ freq. ‘shining
(white)’. *_carmarya_’his helm’ < *_carma_ ’helm’ <
_Karma-kundo_ ‘Helm-guardian’ (XII:260). _haiya_ ‘far’ (IX:247).
*_cenna_ ‘seen’ < _ken-_ ’see, behold’ (MC:222) + _-na_ passivve
paticiple/adjectival ending (cf. _namna_ ’statute’ (X:258) <
*_nam-_’to judge’ (VT41:13). There is probably no passive tense in Quenya,
but it is formed as in English with passive participle + the copula (in Quenya
often absent), cf. _yéva nótina_ 'is counted' (V:72).
Line
7: *_Menelo_ ‘of Heaven’ <
_Menel_ ‘heavens’ (MC:222). _eleni_ ‘stars’ (VI:324).
_únótime_ pl. ‘countless’ (R:66, VT39:14). _Menel_ contains in itself
_men_ ‘region, place’ (V:372), which accounts for ‘field’ well enough.
Line
8: *_nalle_ pass.
part. ‘shone by reflection’ < ÑAL ‘shine by reflection’ + _-ne_
plural passive particle marker. In light of the publish corpus there is
no reason to suppose that direct descendant of ÑAL > _nal-_ didn’t
exist. *_ner_ pl. ‘was’ <
*_né_ ’was’ (VT40:13), based on pl. _nar_ ‘are’ (An
Introduction to Elvish, p. 5). _telpina_ ‘of silver’ (V:366). *_turmaryasse_
‘in his shield’ < _turma_ ‘shield’ (V:395).
Line
9: _mal_ conj.
‘but’ (VT43:23). _andave_ adverb
‘long’ (L:308). _yá_ ‘ago’ (V:399). *_erye_ emphatic 3. person sg.
pronoun, based on the relations between _-lya_ (UT:22) and
_elye_ ‘event thou’ (R:67). _oante_ ‘went away (to another place)’
(XI:366). There is a verb related
to riding in QL _nornoro-_ ’run on, run smoothly and hum’ (LT1:263), but mature Quenya doesen’t seem to have verbs ending in
_o-_.
Line
10: *_masse_ interrogative ‘where’
< _ma_ Eldarin interrogative element (XII:357) + _-sse_
’in’ (R:66). It is
uncertain wheter in Quenya question words can be used indirectly as in Finnish
and English. *_maris_ ‘he dwelleth’ < _mar-_ ‘abide,
be settled or fixed’ (UT:317) + _-s_ 3. person sg. pronominal
ending (XI:415). *_úquen_ < _ú_ ‘not-, un-, in-‘ (VT39:14) + _-quen_
(XI:361), cf. _ilquen_ ’everybody’ (XI:372). _ista-_ ‘know, can’
(VT41:6). _quete_ ‘speak’.
Line
11: _an_ ‘for’ (R:66). *_lantan’_ ‘fell’ < ‘_lantane_
‘fell’ < _lanta_ ‘fall’ (V:354), cf. _lantaner_ pl. ‘fell’
(IX:246). *_élerya_ ‘his star’ < _él_ ‘star’ (XI:362). _mornie_
(R:67) ‘darkness’. _mir_ ‘into’ (V:373). Although mir is probably a
preposition, the word order is quite free in Quenya poetry, cf. _tellumar nu
luini_ (R:66) *‘domes under blue’. BTW, this word order is so strange that
it can not be said like this even in Finnish: *‘kupoleiden alla sinisten’:
the adjecctive and the noun have to be next to each other to understand that the
adjective describes just that noun.
Line 12: *_Morinoresse_ ‘in Mordor’ < _mori-_ (L:283) + _nóre_ ‘land’ (XI:413), cf. _Ondonóre_ *‘Stone-land’ (VT42:17) and _Endorenna_ ‘to Middle-earth’ (LR:936) from _Endóre_ (LR:1089). _ya_ ‘in/at which’ (VT43:34). *_lómi_ ‘shadows’ < _mandulómi_ *’hell-shadows’ (MC:221). _caitar_ pl. ‘lie’ < _caita_ ‘lie’ (R:67). I used _caita_ to avoid having two vowels next to each other.
Querinte áyasse, an i óma Pessailondo né.