brann

adjective. lofty, noble, fine; high

brann

adjective. lofty, noble, fine

brann

adjective. high (in size)

brand

adjective. lofty, noble, fine

brand

adjective. high (in size)

lheben teil brann i annon ar neledh neledhi gar godrebh

five foot high the door and three may walk abreast

This phrase appeared on a preliminary sketch of Thrór’s Map from 1936. The final form of the map appeared in the first edition of The Hobbit without the phrase. Rhona Beare copied the phrase from a display of the sketch in the British Museum, and the phrase was first published in 1989 in Parma Eldalamberon #6 and Vinyar Tengwar #7 (PE6/38, VT7/7). The sketch itself appears in J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator edited by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull (TAI/92, illustration #85), and a rendition of the phrase appears in a footnote (TAI/150, note #6).

Hammond and Scull interpreted the phrase in the footnote mentioned above. An analysis of the phrase also appeared in an article by Didier Willis titled “Une phrase elfique dans « J. R. R. Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator »” (PED-TAI) and in David Salo’s A Gateway to Sindarin (GS/216-7). These three analyses are very close and form the basis for the version presented here.

Tolkien gave two translations of the phrase in the sketch. There is a Modern English translation “five foot high the door and three may walk abreast”, written in runes. There is also an Old English translation: “fif fota heah is se dura and þrie maeg samod þurghgangend”, in Modern English: “five foot high is the door and three may together through-go”.

The first part of the phrase is clear. The first word is lheben “five”, followed by the Noldorin plural form teil “feet” of tâl “foot”. The third word is brann, which is translated in The Etymologies as “lofty, noble, fine” (Ety/BARÁD) but here seems to mean “high”. The fourth word is the definite article i “the” and the fifth is annon “gate, door”. The sixth word ar is a Noldorin variant of later Sindarin a “and” (like its cognate ᴹQ. ar) followed by neledh “three”.

The remainder of the phrase is difficult to interpret. The eighth word is illegible. Rhona Beare thought it might be ?nelwhi or ?maohi (VT7/7). Hammond and Scull rendered it as neledhi, which they interpreted as a variant of neledh “three”, so that neledh neledhi means “three by three”. Willis and Salo suggested instead that neledhi means “to walk [in]” (PED-TAI, GS/217), the infinitive of an unattested verb ✱neledh- “to go in, enter” (GS/276). Willis further suggested that it was written over a rejected form neledie (also noted, but not interpreted, by Hammond and Scull), the Old Noldorin form of the word. Willis and Salo analyzed this verb as a combination of the prefix ✱ne- “in” (also seen in N. nestag- “stick in”) and a derivative of the root ᴹ√LED “go, fare, travel”. If the eighth word corresponds to English “walk [in]”, then this interpretation is quite plausible.

The ninth word gar seems to be a verb corresponding to English “may” in the sense “can, be able to”. Salo suggested that it is the Noldorin verb gar-, but this is translated “hold, have” in The Etymologies (Ety/GAR), which does not seem appropriate. Willis suggested that it is the (Early Noldorin?) verb ᴱN. gar “went” seen in the phrase ven Sirion gar meilien “towards (the river) Sirion went laughing”; Hammond and Scull also suggested it might be a verb meaning “go”. A third possibility is that it is a soft mutation of the verb car- “do, make” (Ety/KAR), perhaps lenited because it follows an infinitive form; the meaning of car- seems to me to be a bit closer in sense to “may”, but this is still just a guess.

The last word godrebh might correspond to English “abreast”, but Hammond, Scull, Willis and Salo all suggested that it means “together through”, matching the Old English “samod þurgh”. Willis and Salo both independently analyzed this word as the prefix go- “together” and a lenited prefixal form dre of trî “through”, with the final -bh (pronounced [v]) marking it as an adverb (PED-TAI, GS/217). The word godrebh was preceded by some deleted and unclear writing, rendered ?goldegoelend by Rhona Beare (VT7/7), perhaps two rejected forms ?golde >> goelend (?“together-go”), though Hammond and Scull transcribed the two rejected forms as golda >> goelend (TAI/150, note #6).

brann

towering

_ adj. _towering, tall and massive. >> brand

brann

adjective. towering, tall and massive, towering, tall and massive, [N.] high; lofty, noble, fine

brand

towering; tall and massive

1 _ adj. _towering; tall and massive. >> brann

brand

adjective. towering; tall and massive, towering, tall and massive, [N.] high; lofty, noble, fine

brand

lofty

(high, noble, fine), lenited vrand, pl. braind

na

be

: The verb ”to be” is poorly attested. Apparently the root is na-. The imperative is attested as no, and nad (used = ”thing”) may be seen as an original gerund *”a being”. It seems that the copula ”is, are” (and ”was, were”?) can be omitted altogether, as in the ”Noldorin” sentence lheben teil brann i annon ”five feet high [is] the door” (AI:92), in Sindarin perhaps *leben tail brand i annon.

na

be

. The imperative is attested as no, and nad (used = ”thing”) may be seen as an original gerund ✱”a being”. It seems that the copula ”is, are” (and ”was, were”?) can be omitted altogether, as in the ”Noldorin” sentence lheben teil brann i annon ”five feet high [is] the door” (AI:92), in Sindarin perhaps ✱leben tail brand i annon.

balch

adjective. fierce

_ adj. _fierce, ferocious. In S. gwal < bal which coalesced in form with BAL 'have power'.

bar

noun. dwelling, home

bar

noun. inhabited land

na-

verb. to be

no

verb. be!

raud

lofty

adj. lofty. Q. rāta. >> arod, taer

taer

lofty

adj. lofty. Q. tāra.

taer

adjective. lofty, lofty, *high

arth

lofty

1) arth (noble, exalted), pl. erth, 2) brand (high, noble, fine), lenited vrand, pl. braind, 3) orchall (superior, eminent), pl. erchail (for archaic örchail), 4) taur (also tor-, tar- in compounds) (high, sublime, noble; vast, masterful, mighty, overwhelming, huge, awful), lenited daur, pl. toer. Note: homophones mean ”king (of a people)” and also ”great wood, forest”.

arth

lofty

(noble, exalted), pl. erth

braig

fierce

braig (wild), lenited vraig. No distinct pl. form. (VT45:34)

braig

fierce

(wild), lenited vraig. No distinct pl. form. (VT45:34)

bâr

dwelling

bâr (house, home, family; land, earth) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). Also -bar, -mar at the end of compounds

bâr

dwelling

(house, home, family; land, earth) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). Also -bar, -mar at the end of compounds

dôr

dwelling place

(i nôr, construct dor) (land, region), pl. dŷr (i ndŷr) (WJ:413).

gobel

enclosed dwelling

(i ’obel) (walled house or village, ”town”), pl. gebil (i ngebil = i ñebil). Archaic pl. göbil.

grôd

underground dwelling

(i ’rôd, construct grod) (cave, delving, excavation), pl. grŷd (in grŷd) (WJ:414)

mîn

towering

mîn (lenited vîn; no distinct pl. form) (isolated, first). Note: homophones include the noun ”peak” and the numeral ”one”.

mîn

towering

(lenited vîn; no distinct pl. form) (isolated, first). Note: homophones include the noun ”peak” and the numeral ”one”.

orchall

lofty

(superior, eminent), pl. erchail (for archaic örchail)

rhûd

dwelling underground

(construct rhud, with article ?i thrûd or ?i rûd – *the lenition product of rh- is uncertain) (artificial cave, rockhewn hall, mine), pl. rhuid (?idh ruid) (PM:365)*.

taur

lofty

(also tor-, tar- in compounds) (high, sublime, noble; vast, masterful, mighty, overwhelming, huge, awful), lenited daur, pl. toer. Note: homophones mean ”king (of a people)” and also ”great wood, forest”.

ea

verb. be

be

farnë

dwelling

#farnë (2) noun "dwelling", in orofarnë (as translated in Letters:224, but in other notes of Tolkiens the word was interpreted "any growing thing or plant", PE17:83)

marda

dwelling

marda noun "dwelling" (PE17:107)

tára

lofty

tára (1) adj. "lofty". (SA:tar, LT1:264, TĀ/TA3 (AYAK, TÁWAR), VT45:6), "tall, high" (WJ:417). Compare antara. Adverb táro in an early "Qenya" text (VT27:20, 26). The adj. tára is not to be confused with the continuative form of the verb #tar- "stand".