Illuin

blue

Illuin place-name, name of one of the Lamps of the Valar; apparently incorporating the element luin "blue" (Silm): hence *"all-blue"?

luinë

blue

luinë adj. "blue", pl. luini (PE17:66, VT48:23, 24, 28, Nam, RGEO:66). Common Eldarin luini- would also be the stem-form in Quenya (VT48:24). Compare luinincë. Apparently -luin in Illuin, the name of one of the Lamps of the Valar (q.v.), Helluin, name of the star Sirius, and Luinil, name of another blue-shining star (or planet). (SA; Luinil is tentatively identified with Neptune, MR:435). Cf. also menelluin "sky-blue", used as noun = "cornflower" (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator p. 193).

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• S. luin “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo tellumar nu luini “beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo nu luini tellumar “West beyond [the borders of] Varda’s under blue domes” ✧ RGEO/58
• Q. Helluin “?Ice or Sky Blue” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺQ. luicarnë “purple”
• Q. Luinil “*Blue Star” ✧ SA/luin
• Q. luinincë “bluish”
• ᴺQ. luinion “lapis lazuli, (lit.) blue-rock”
• ᴺQ. luinyellë “bluebell”
• Q. menelluin “cornflower (colour), *(lit.) sky-blue”
• Q. sanomë tarnë Olórin, Aracorno, Eomer, Imrahil, mi mísë, mi telepta yo morna, mi laiqua yo ninquë, mi luinë, ta Gimli mi lossëa “There stood Gandalf, Aragorn, Eomer and Imrahil in grey, in silver and black, in green and white, and in blue, and also Gimli in white” ✧ PE17/071

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ PE17/066; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• luini ✧ PE17/071
• luin ✧ SA/luin

lúnë

blue

lúnë (stem *lúni-, given the primitive form ¤lugni) adj. "blue" (LUG2, LT1:262; later sources rather give luinë, with pl. form luini_ in Namárië)_. According to VT45:29, lúnë in the Etymologies was changed by Tolkien from lúna.

ninwa

blue

ninwa adj. "blue" (LT1:262)

helwa

(pale) blue

helwa adj. "(pale) blue" (3EL)

ilin

pale blue

ilin adj. "pale blue" (GLINDI)

luina

pale

[luina] adj. "pale" (VT45:30)

vinya

pale blue

vinya (2) < windya adj. "pale blue" (WIN/WIND)(It is uncertain whether Tolkien rejected this word or not; in any case, vinya is only attested with the meaning "young, new" in his later Quenya.)

windya

pale blue

windya > vinya adj. "pale blue" (WIN/WIND)(It is uncertain whether Tolkien rejected this word or not; in any case, vinya means "new" in his later versions of Quenya.)

windë

pale blue

[windë > vindë adj. "pale blue" (VT45:16)]

isca

pale

isca ("k") adj."pale" (LT1:256)

nívë

pale

nívë adj."pale" (MC:213; this is "Qenya" Tolkien's later Quenya has néca)

néca

pale, vague, faint, dim to see

néca ("k") adj "pale, vague, faint, dim to see", pl. nécë ("k") in Markirya

marya

pale, fallow, fawn

marya adj. "pale, fallow, fawn" (MAD)

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

elu

noun. Elu

prop. n.

elu

masculine name. Elu

The Sindarin form of Q. Elwë, the original name of Thingol (S/56). This Sindarin name is derived from the Quenya, because in Sindarin short final vowels vanished and then [[s|final [w] usually became [u]]]: Elwe > Elw > Elu (PE17/189). This Sindarin name appeared as an element in the names of many of his descendants.

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, the leader of the third tribe of Elves was named Sol. Ellu (LT1/155), though at this early stage the character was distinct from the contemporanerous character that would develop into Thingol (G. Tinwelint). The name changed to (Telerin?) Elu with one l in very early Silmarillion drafts (SM/13, 85), and was given the Qenya cognate of ᴱQ. Elwe.

In the Annals of Beleriand from the 1930s, ᴹQ. Elwe was identified as the brother of Thingol (SM/264) and so remained in Silmarillion drafts of that period (LR/217). In The Etymologies, Tolkien specifically indicated that the Noldorin form of his name Elw (= Elu) was not used (Ety/WEG), probably because in this conception Elwe remained in Valinor. It was not until Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s that the name Elwe was assigned to Thingol, at which point his brother was renamed to Q. Olwë (MR/82). At this stage, the Sindarin form of his name Elu was also introduced (MR/86).

Cognates

• Q. Elwë ✧ LBI/Elu; MRI/Elwë; PE17/189; PMI/Thingol; SI/Elu; SI/Elwë; UTI/Elu; MR/217; PM/369; VT41/08; WJI/Elwë

Element in

• S. Eluchíl “Thingol’s Heir, (lit.) Heir of Elu” ✧ PM/369
• S. Elulin
• S. Eluréd “Heir of Elu (Thingol)” ✧ PM/369
• S. Elurín “Remembrance of Elu” ✧ PM/369
• S. Eluwaith
• S. Sigil Elu-naeth “Necklace of the Woe of Thingol” ✧ WJ/258

Elements

Word	Gloss
êl	“star”
-u	“a person or being”

elu

noun. Elwe

_prop. n. _Q. Elwe.

luin

adjective. blue

luin

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

luin

jhJ5 adjective. blue

Examples: Ered luin, Helluin, Luinil, Mindolluin

luin

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Aeluin “*Blue Lake” ✧ S/162
• S. caralluin “*red-blue”
• S. Draugluin “*Blue (Were)wolf”
• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• S. Hirluin
• S. Ithryn Luin “Blue Wizards” ✧ UT/390
• S. Mindolluin “Towering Blue-head” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺS. nelluin “bluebell”
• S. Sîr Luin ✧ VT48/23; VT48/28 (Sîr Luin)

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > Luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• Luin ✧ Let/448; VT48/23

lô

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

nimp

adjective. pale

adj. pale, pallid. nimp << nim (PE17:168). >> niphred

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

elu

pale blue

1) elu (analogical pl. ely). Archaic elw (pl. ilw?) 2) gwind (lenited wind; no distinct pl. form)

elu

pale blue

1) elu (analogical pl. ely). Archaic elw (pl. ilw?). 2) gwind (lenited wind; no distinct pl. form).

elu

pale blue

(analogical pl. ely). Archaic elw (pl. ilw?).

gael

pale

(glittering), lenited ’ael; no distinct pl. form.

luin

blue

luin (no distinct pl. form, as demonstrated by the name Ered Luin ”Blue Mountains”) (VT48:24)

malu

pale

(lenited valu; analogical pl. mely; lenited valu) (fallow). Cited in archaic form malw (LR:386 s.v. SMAL).

gwind

pale blue

(lenited ’wind; no distinct pl. form).

maidh

pale

1) maidh (lenited vaidh; no distinct pl. form) (fallow, fawn), 2) nimp (nim-) (white); no distinct pl. form, 3) thind (grey); no distinct pl. form; 4) gael (glittering), lenited ael; no distinct pl. form. 5) *malu (lenited valu; analogical pl. mely; lenited valu) (fallow). Cited in archaic form malw (LR:386 s.v. SMAL).

maidh

pale

(lenited vaidh; no distinct pl. form) (fallow, fawn)

nimp

pale

(nim-) (white); no distinct pl. form

thind

pale

(grey); no distinct pl. form

mith

pale grey

(lenited vith; no distinct pl. form). David Salo would read mîth with a long vowel. Note: a homophone means ”white fog, wet mist”.

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ VT48/24; VT48/28

ulban

adjective. blue

lygn

adjective. pale

Primitive form given as lugni "blue", sc. the stem LUG1 (LR:370, not defined) with an ending -ni not otherwise attested, though -i is an ending found on many primitive colour-adjectives. The ending _-i _causes umlaut u > y; compare yrc as the plural of urc "Orc". That a short original final -i is capable of causing such an umlaut at the Common Eldarin stage is somewhat surprising, since Primitive Quendian lugni should have become *lugne at this stage, and final e would hardly cause umlaut. Perhaps we are to understand that the change of final i to Common Eldarin e happened relatively late, after the Eldar had crossed the Hihtaeglir and parted with the Nandor?

luy

root. blue

The Elvish words for “blue” remained very similar throughout Tolkien’s life, but underwent a number of minor conceptual shifts. The word ᴱQ. lūne “blue, deep blue” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s in a collection of words along with ᴱQ. lūle “blue stone, sapphire”, but no root was given (QL/55). The word for “blue” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon was G. luim (GL/55). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the root for “blue” was ᴹ√LUG with derivatives ᴹQ. lúne and N. lhûn (Ety/LUG²).

Meanwhile, the root ᴹ√LUY appeared in The Etymologies with derivatives ᴹQ. luina and Dor. luin “pale” (EtyAC/LUY), probably connected to ᴱN. Draugluin “Werewolf Pale” from the Lays of Beleriand of the 1920s (LB/205). But in The Etymologies the root ᴹ√LUY was rejected, and Dor. luin “pale” was reassigned to ᴹ√LUG² and then revised in form to Dor. lūn (Ety/LUG²; EtyAC/LUG²).

In addition, there was already evidence of a conceptual shift in the Noldorin words for blue in the 1930s, with the name N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” being given as an alternative to N. Lhúnorodrim and N. Lhúndirien “Blue Towers” (Ety/LUG²), the latter appearing as N. Luindirien in contemporaneous Silmarillion narratives (LR/267). By the 1950s and 60s, the Sindarin and Quenya words for “blue” had firmly become S. luin (Let/448; S/54; UT/390) and Q. luinë (LotR/377; PE17/66, 71). The root √LUY “blue” appeared in notes from the late 1960s serving as the new basis for these “blue” words (VT48/23-24, 26).

All this made a mess for the river name S. Lhûn (LotR/1134) from The Lord of the Rings which was a remnant of Tolkien’s earlier ideas, and he struggled to find a new basis for that name as discussed by Patrick Wynne in his article on The Problem of Lhûn (VT48/26-29).

Derivatives

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• ᴺQ. luilë “sapphire, blue stone”
• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ᴺS. lui “blueness; livor, livid mark, *bruise”
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/23

lugni

adjective. blue

luini

adjective. blue

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Derivatives

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ PE17/136; VT48/27

Variations

• LUINI ✧ PE17/136 (LUINI); PE17/161
• luini- ✧ PE17/136 (luini-); VT48/27 (luini-)

elw

adjective. (pale) blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. helwa “(pale) blue” ✧ Ety/ƷEL

Derivations

• On. elwa “(pale) blue” ✧ Ety/ƷEL
  • ᴹ√ƷEL “sky” ✧ Ety/ƷEL

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
On. elwa > elw	[elwa] > [elw] > [elu]	✧ Ety/ƷEL

elw

adjective. (pale) blue

gael

adjective. pale, glimmering

lhûn

adjective. blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. lúne “blue, blue, [ᴱQ.] deep blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Derivations

• ᴹ✶lugni “blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²
  • ᴹ√LUG “*blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Element in

• N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Lhûn “Blue River”
• N. Lhúnorodrim “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Luindirien “Blue Towers” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Tor-dilluin

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶lugni > lhûn	[lugni] > [lugne] > [luŋne] > [lūne] > [lūn] > [l̥ūn]	✧ Ety/LUG²
ᴹ✶lugni > luin	[lugnī] > [lugni] > [luŋni] > [lūni] > [luin] > [l̥uin]	✧ Ety/LUG²

gwind

noun. pale blue

Changes

• gwinn → gwinn “blue-grey, pale blue or grey” ✧ EtyAC/WIN

Cognates

• ᴹQ. vinya “pale blue” ✧ Ety/WIN
• ᴹQ. vinde “pale blue” ✧ Ety/WIN; EtyAC/GWINDI; EtyAC/WIN

Derivations

• ᴹ✶windı̯ā “pale blue” ✧ Ety/WIN; Ety/WIN; EtyAC/WIN
  • ᴹ√WIN(I)D “pale blue” ✧ Ety/WIN; EtyAC/WIN
• ᴹ√WIN(I)D “pale blue” ✧ EtyAC/GWINDI

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶windi > gwind > gwinn	[windi] > [winde] > [gwinde] > [gwind] > [gwinn]	✧ Ety/WIN
ᴹ√GWINDI > bind > binn	[gwindi] > [gwinde] > [binde] > [bind] > [binn]	✧ EtyAC/GWINDI
ᴹ✶windi > gwind > gwinn	[windi] > [winde] > [gwinde] > [gwind] > [gwinn]	✧ EtyAC/WIN

Variations

• gwinn ✧ Ety/WIN (gwinn); EtyAC/WIN (gwinn)
• binn ✧ EtyAC/GWINDI (binn)

lhûn

adjective. (unknown meaning)

This word, which also appears on the map of Middle-earth in LotR, is glossed as "blue" in The Etymologies, but Tolkien later rejected this meaning (as luin was already used in that sense). He then proposed several explanations for it, including the possible adaptation of a Dwarvish name into Sindarin, but he apparently never reached a definitive solution.

glinn

noun. (pale) blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. ilin “pale blue” ✧ Ety/GLINDI

Derivations

• ᴹ√GLINDI “pale blue” ✧ Ety/GLINDI

Element in

• N. Eredlindon “Mountains of Lindon, (earlier) Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/GLINDI (Ered-lindon); LR/405

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√GLINDI > glind > glinn	[glindi] > [glinde] > [glind] > [glinn]	✧ Ety/GLINDI

Variations

• glinn ✧ Ety/GLINDI (glinn)
• lind ✧ LR/405

nimp

adjective. pale

Cognates

• ᴹQ. ninqe “white” ✧ Ety/NIK-W

Derivations

• ᴹ√NIK(W) “*snow; white” ✧ Ety/NIK-W

Element in

• N. Ered Nimras “White Mountains”
• N. Ered Nimrath “White Mountains”
• N. Ephel Nimrais
• N. Nimbrethil
• N. Nimloth “Pale Blossom”
• N. nimmid(a)- “to whiten” ✧ Ety/NIK-W
• N. Nimdil “White Horn”
• N. nínim “snowdrop”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√NIK-W > nimp	[niŋkwi] > [niŋkwe] > [nimpe] > [nimpʰe] > [nimɸe] > [nimfe] > [nimf] > [nimp] > [nimp]	✧ Ety/NIK-W

meidh

adjective. pale, fallow, fawn

nim-

adjective. pale, white

nimp

adjective. pale, white

maidh

adjective. pale, fallow, fawn