ilúvë

allness, the all

ilúvë noun "allness, the all". In Ilúvatar "All-father". _(SA; WJ:402, MR:471, IL) _In MR:355, ilúvë seems to be equated with Heaven. Cf. SD:401: Ilúvë Ilu "Heaven, the universe, all that is (with and without the Earth)".

ilúvë

noun. the whole, the all, allness, the whole, the all, allness; [ᴹQ.] universe, world; Heaven

A term for everything in existence, an elaboration on (or variant of) Q. ilu. It was the initial element of Q. Ilúvatar “All-father” (MR/39). In the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, Tolkien said ilúvë “allness, the all” was an equivalent of Q. Eä “All Creation” (WJ/402). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, it seems to be the equivalent of ᴹQ. ilu “universe” (Ety/IL).

Conceptual Development: In note from the 1940s Tolkien used Ilúve for “heaven” (MR/355), and in the earliest draft of Elendil’s Oath he used Iluve for “world” (SD/56), the latter eventually revised to Q. Ambar (LotR/967). These both seem to have been transient ideas.

Neo-Eldarin: Compared to Q. ilu, I feel that ilúvë is the totality of everything in the universe as originating from Eru, as opposed to ilu which is the entire universe itself. I think that, technically speaking, ilúvë does not include Eru, whereas ilu does. In the sense that it includes all things created by Eru, ilúvë resembles Q. Eä, but it also includes the Ainur and other spirits not within the material realm, and so in that respect is distinct from Ëa. These fine-grained interpretations are mostly speculation on my part.

Cognates

• ᴺS. ilu “universe, the whole, cosmos”

Element in

• Q. Ilúvatar “Father of All” ✧ MR/039; SA/ilúvë; WJ/402
• ᴺQ. ilúvëa “universal”

Elements

Word	Gloss
ilu	“everything, all, the whole, everything, all, the whole; [ᴹQ.] universe, world; [ᴱQ.] ether”
-vë	“abstract noun, adverb”

Variations

• ilúve ✧ MR/039; WJ/402

eruman

place name. Heaven

The Quenya name for Heaven in the final draft of Átaremma, Tolkien’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT43/12), attested only in the assimilated locative form Erumande. Its initial element is Eru “God” and its final element is probably related to the root √MAN “good, blessed, unmarred” also seen in the names Aman and Manwë, as suggested by Patrick Wynne, Arden Smith and Carl Hostetter (VT43/16).

Conceptual Development: In earlier versions of Tolkien’s legendarium, the name ᴱQ/ᴹQ. Eruman was used for the wasteland north of Valinor (LT1/91, Ety/ERE), but in the materials used for the published version of The Silmarillion, that name was changed to Q. Araman (MR/123). This freed Tolkien to use the name Eruman for “Heaven”, as suggested by Patrick Wynne, Arden Smith and Carl Hostetter (VT43/16-17).

In earlier versions of the Átaremma prayer, Tolkien used menel for “Heaven”, but it was rejected and elsewhere Tolkien said that menel referred only to “the heavens, firmament” where the stars reside (MR/387, PE17/152). In writings from the 1940s, Tolkien used ᴹQ. ilúve for “Heaven” (MR/355, SD/401), but later ilúvë meant “the whole, the all”, and was equated to Eä “the Universe” (WJ/402, Ety/IL).

Element in

• Q. cemendë tambe Erumandë “on Earth as [it is] in Heaven” ✧ VT43/16

Elements

Word	Gloss
Eru	“The One, God”
MAN	“good (morally), blessed, holy, unmarred, free from evil, good (morally), blessed, holy, unmarred, free from evil; [ᴹ√] holy spirit”

menel

heaven

(i venel), pl. menil (i menil)