Quenya
alcar i ataren ar i yondon ar i airefëan
glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss alcar “glory, splendour, radiance, brilliance” i “the” atar “father” ar “and, and; [ᴱQ., ᴹQ.] but” i “the” yondo “son, boy, son, boy; [ᴱQ.] male descendant, (great) grandson” i “the” Airefëa “Holy Spirit” Variations
- Alcar i ataren ar i yondon ar i {faire aistan >>} airefean ✧ VT43/36
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”.