Hi again. There are several names for several sky layers in Quenya, and now I am interested in their exact order, especially since I read that Aiwenor is the lowest of three.
So, those words which i know are: Aiwenor, Vilwa, Fanyare, Telume, Nurmenel, Tarmenel, Elenarda and Ilmen. Could we structure them? I'll start: As far as I understood, Elenarda and Ilmen are the same, but what about the others?
What is their exact order from bottom to top? Where is the difference between Vilwa and Aiwenor? Do all words describe a different part of sky, or are Tarmenel and Nurmenel maybe just umbrella terms, and Aiwenor is a part of Nurmenel? And what are the other two parts over Aiwenor?
Maybe Fanyare describes the middle region (Stratosphere, Mesosphere and Thermosphere) and Telume describes the higher region (Exosphere), and then Menel, Elenarda and Ilmen as the layer of stars?
I'll be grateful for every answer which can structure the heaven of Arda.
PS. Anyway, these layer of stars lets the whole business sound pretty Aristotelian/Ptolemaic. I think that the sky structure also changed during the fall of Númenor. Arda did not just become a planet instead of a discworld, but also the Universe's structure changed from Ptolemy to Newton and maybe even Hubble. Anyway, just a theory.