The first line of Alcar i Ataren, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer. The first word is alcar “glory” followed by dative clauses: i Ataren “for the Father” (atar dative), ar i Yondon “and for the Son” (yondo dative), ar i Airefean “and for the Holy Spirit” (Airefëa dative).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> alcar i Atar-en ar i Yondo-n ar i Aire-fea-n = “✱glory [be] Father-to and the Son-to and the holy-spirit-to”
Conceptual Development: Before airefean, Tolkien first wrote and rejected faire aistan, the first word meaning “spirit” and the second a dative form of the adjective aista “holy”.
Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer into Quenya, composed sometime in the 1950s (VT43/7), first published in the “Words of Joy (Part One)” article in Vinyar Tengwar #43. The translation was abandoned half way through the second line. Tolkien did not provide an English translation of the prayer; following the editors of the “Words of Joy” article, I used a modern English translation of the prayer (VT43/38).
Further discussion can be found in the analysis of the individual phrases. My analysis largely follows that of the “Alcar i Ataren” section (VT43/36-38) of the “Words of Joy” article.