îdô katha batîna lôkhî

now all ways (are) bent

The 12th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (VT24/12). The first word is the adverb îdô “now” and the second is the adjective katha “all”. Curiously, the adjective katha is not pluralized to agree with the noun as is the case with adjectives elsewhere in the text, including the pluralized lôkhî at the end of this very sentence.

The subject batîna “roads” is the subjective plural form of the noun batân “road, path, way”. There is no verb, so the subjective form functions as the “to be” verb (SD/429). The final word lôkhî seems to be a pluralized adjective, perhaps #lôkho.

The typescipt version has kātha instead of katha, but is otherwise identical to the manuscript except some minor differences in translation (SD/247).

Cognates

• ᴹQ. ilya sí maller raikar “now all roads (are) bent” ✧ SD/247

Element in

• Ad. Lament of Akallabêth

Variations

• īdō kātha batīna lōkhī ✧ SD/247
• īdō katha batīna lōkhī ✧ VT24/12