adar

noun. father

The Sindarin word for “father”, derived from the root √AT(AR) (PM/324; VT44/21-22; VT48/19).

Conceptual Development: N. adar “father” also appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√ATA of the same meaning (Ety/ATA). In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, however, G. †ador “father” was marked as archaic, and it seems {athon >>} G. nathon was the ordinary word for ”father” (GL/17, 59).

adar

noun. father

ae adar nín

Ae Adar Nín

Tolkien’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Sindarin, composed sometime in the 1950s, first published in the “Ae Adar Nín” article in Vinyar Tengwar #44 (VT44/21). According to Bill Welden, it is written on the back of the postcard used to write version V (the second-to-last version) of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the same prayer. Tolkien omitted the last two lines of the prayer from the Sindarin translation.

Tolkien did not provide an explicit translation, so the English text is from the common English translation of this prayer among Catholics. English words with no Sindarin counterpart are in brackets. Further discussion can be found in the analysis of the individual phrases. My analysis largely follows that of Bill Welden’s “Ae Adar Nín” article (VT44/21-30), though I also consulted David Salo’s analysis of the prayer (GS/231-3).

iarwain ben-adar

masculine name. Oldest and Fatherless

Fuller title of Tom Bombadil, loosely translated “oldest and fatherless” (LotR/265). This first word is the name Iarwain, and the second is a combination of the lenited form of the prefix pen “without” and the noun adar “father” (PE17/34).

ae adar nín i vi menel

our Father who [art] in Heaven

The first line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word Ae is probably a variation of the vocative a “O”. The second word is adar “father”, modified by the possessive pronoun nín “my”, with the adjectival element following the noun as is usual in Sindarin. The fourth word is i “who” followed by vi the lenited form of mi “in” and menel “heaven”. There is no Sindarin word for “to be” in this phrase, as there is in English (“art”).

Both Bill Welden and David Salo point out (VT44/22, GS/231) that Tolkien’s use of the 1st-person-singular possessive pronoun nín “my” in this first phrase (where the original prayer had “our”) is somewhat peculiar, since elsewhere in the prayer he used mín for the 1st-person-plural possessive “our”. Bill Welden suggested that Tolkien may have use the 1st-singular here to connote greater intimacy (VT44/22).

As pointed out by Bill Welden (VT44/23-4), Tolkien did not use Q. menel for the Christian Heaven in the final Quenya version of the prayer, replacing it with the name Q. Eruman. Elsewhere, S. menel properly referred only to “the heavens” (holding the stars) and its application to the Christian Heaven would not be appropriate (MR/387). Perhaps Tolkien would have replace S. Menel with a Sindarinized form ✱Eruvan of the Quenya name, if he had made the same change in the Sindarin prayer.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> ae Adar nín i vi Menel = “✱O Father mine who [art] in Heaven”

Ben-adar

'father-less' soft mut

'father-less' soft mut. of Pen-adar >> Pen-adar

Pen-adar

'Fatherless'

(Ben-adar) prop. n. 'Fatherless', a title of Tom Bombadil.

penadar

adjective. 'fatherless'

adj. 'fatherless'. >> pen-

adar

father

adar (pl. edair);

adar

father

(pl. edair);

ada

father

(pl. edai)

adanadar

father of men

normally pl. Edenedair "Fathers of Men", the early Edain.

a

o

;  O Elbereth Gilthoniel A Elbereth Gilthoniel. The alternative form ae may be used when the next word begins in a: Ae Adar nín, O my Father (VT44:23). By another theory, ae represents a + the definite article i (✱a i Adar nín "o the Father of mine").

pen

less

S pen (lenited ben) (without, lacking) (WJ:375) The phrase ben-adar ”without father, fatherless” is treated as an adjective and lenited following a noun (Iarwain ben-adar, Iarwain the Fatherless or Iarwain without father). Not to be confused with the pronoun pen ”one, somebody, anybody”.

pen

less

(lenited ben) (without, lacking) (WJ:375) The phrase ben-adar ”without father, fatherless” is treated as an adjective and lenited following a noun (Iarwain ben-adar, Iarwain the Fatherless or Iarwain without father).  Not to be confused with the pronoun pen ”one, somebody, anybody”.

a

interjection. o

interj. o. A Elbereth Gilthoniel 'O Elbereth Who lit the Stars'.

atheg

noun. "litte father"

atheg

noun. thumb (Elvish play-name used by and taught to children)