The Atmosphere layers' structure (Quenya)

Tom Bombadil #288

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.

Elaran #289

It may be rather impossible to find consistency between these terms when you consider the fact that some of them come from different stages in the external history of the Legendarium. One should also consider Tolkien's updates to the forms and meanings of these words, like wilwa > wilma > vilya & tarmenel "high heaven" > "the [?Christian] heaven".

but also the Universe's structure changed from Ptolemy to Newton and maybe even Hubble.

This is how I think the Changing of the World as well.

Tom Bombadil #497

Ok, I did a bit research, and as far as I know the sky is structured like this:

There are two domes of stars/constellations. One of them is called Nurmenel and it is over Valinor. The second one has two names: Ilmen and Tarmenel. It is probably the main star-layer over Arda.

There are three atmosphere layers, respectively four. Ilmen is the second, respectively the third. The first one is called Vista and it consists of two sublayers. The lower one is Aiwenor/Aiwenóre. The birds are there. The higher sublayer of Vista is called Fanyamar. Nomen est omen here too.

The layer over Fanyamar/Vista is Ilmen/Tarmenel, as I sayed before.

The last (third/fourth) layer is called Vaiya, maybe also Vaia (?). Vaiya is the transition layer between Ekkaia and the region of air. Therefore vaiya is full of a gas, which is a bit fluid. The Ilurambar are behind Vaiya and Avacúma is behind Ilurambar.

Otherwise I do not understand where Ekkaia is. It is probably either a part of Vaiya, or it is not regarded as an atmosphere layer. It is still weird for I thought that Ekkaia is the outermost part of the discworld Arda, and not a circular atmosphere layer. And what about the Ilurambar? A flying wall? Did the Valar build Arda without gravity?

Furthermore I do still not know what Fanyare, Telume, Telluma and Vilwa are. Telluma is described as the dome over Valinor, so I guess that Telluma and Nurmenel are synonyms, at least in matters of astronomy, but the other three are still a mystery. Does one of you know what they are?